Commercial Integrator February 2021 - 23

shaping the audience's perspective while
lead generation is focused on capturing
their information. Marketing can be in
charge of both of these efforts.
If the marketing team has done well creating
engagement, then the demand generation
will be there. Case studies, video
interviews, thought leadership articles, and
other content the marketing team creates
will educate potential customers on what
your firm can offer.
Lead generation is the next logical step.
For more in-depth information you can ask
for some amount of contact information.
The content should justify the information
you're asking for.
An infographic made from a survey
to your audience may be enough to ask
for a name and email address, while an
educational webinar can be enough to ask
for further points of data like company, title,
phone number, address, and potentially
even budget ranges.
" What do you do with those leads? " asks
offer training for your clients, and more.
" Oftentimes integrators hold back from
asking for that level of support. We're more
than happy to give it. It's mutually beneficial, "
said Sansivero.
Alignment
" Some organizations separate sales and
marketing to the point where it's almost
an us versus them mentality, " said Sansivero.
" You don't want sales and marketing
fighting.
" Sales is out in the field getting the
feedback marketing needs to identify the
language that resonates with your customer
base. Marketing is doing great things with
outreach, engagement, visibility and exposure
that can help enable sales. Alignment
between sales and marketing is imperative, "
she said.
Integrators should identify the information
that should be shared between marketing
and sales. That doesn't mean marketing
is on the phone with every customer visit.
It means consistency in sharing goals, road
maps and customer feedback.
Marketing can serve as an extension of
your sales team in warming up prospective
clients. According to Content Marketing
Institute, demand generation is focused on
commercialintegrator.com
Sansivero. " Usually you pass them on to
a salesperson. Sometimes you hear back
from sales. Sometimes you don't. If you
have CRM you can follow the success of
that campaign to the end. Most of the time,
though, we hand off the leads and hope
sales does what they're supposed to do
with them.
" How do you know if your lead generation
activities are fruitful? You want to
use your budget where you find the most
success. So it's really important to get feedback
from sales. That becomes an imperative
part of building your marketing strategy
over time. You need to know what's worked
and what hasn't, " she says.
Assessment
How do you measure how successful your
marketing campaign is? What is your return
on investment on a tradeshow, or your
social media strategy?
" Sometimes marketing activities
shouldn't be aligned with revenue generation
or even lead generation. Sometimes
your marketing campaigns have a different
goal, and you need to identify in advance
what those goals are, " said Sansivero.
" If you're building a campaign around
brand recognition your measurements
should not be revenue-based, your measurements
should be around engagement, "
she said.
" Identify goals for your campaigns,
identify the appropriate metrics to measure
those goals, and then be able to present
them in understandable and usable ways so
you can identify success, " said Sansivero.
For example, the virtual trade shows of
the past year have been a completely new
marketing strategy for many companies.
You won't find direct revenue from advertising
at one of these tradeshows.
Instead, the measurements are based in
the reach of the presenting organization,
the value of its audience, and how well you
wish to engage with that audience during
the virtual show hours.
It may be a year later that an audience
member requires an integrator and comes
calling on your firm. They may not even
remember that they heard about you at that
virtual tradeshow.
You may never be able to prove the line
from that virtual tradeshow engagement
to direct dollars. It doesn't mean that the
engagement from different projects isn't
valuable to the firm long-term.
It's the same thought process behind
name-brand companies spending millions
to advertise during the Super Bowl.
You can't draw a direct line from a single
viewer to a single purchase, but the goal
is to keep the brand top of mind so when
potential customers are thirsty or craving a
snack they go with the brand whose commercial
made them laugh during halftime.
Sustained growth over time is the proof
that it's working.
The ultimate goal of marketing efforts for
integrators is recognition and awareness.
You want to provide touchpoints so current
and prospective customers recognize
your brand and are aware of what you can
provide for them. That means you need to
remind them.
A solid marketing strategy will do just
that. CI
To view this and
other sessions
from Total Tech
Summit Virtual 2020, visit:
totaltechsummit.com
FEBRUARY 2021 Commercial Integrator 23
http://www.totaltechsummit.com http://www.commercialintegrator.com
Commercial Integrator February 2021

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