Build a Marketing Machine to Produce Growth and Profit

brian bennett new headshot

Brian Bennett

STIR | President
Aug 8

Many great business operators have hit a wall when it comes to marketing. They can’t fully buy-in to the expense and subjectivity of it all, particularly when the old tried and true sales orientation has always born fruit. They’ve invested in a web site and some other marketing tools that have cost money but don’t seem to make them money. While they know that in theory marketing works – they often feel it works “for other businesses.”

That’s a very dangerous mindset today. The world – the marketplace has hit a tipping point. Dominated by digital, the way business is done has forever changed. Taking too much time to adapt the way they market their products and brands could be a fatal to their enterprise.  Just as fatal as assuming they don’t need to invest in automation or machine learning in their production facilities.

build a marketing machine functioning breakdown

You can design and build a marketing machine that produces traffic, leads, conversions, sales… profit.

The rise of digital

Look around. Machines are taking the place of humans. You see it in industry everywhere. The momentum is advancing. It is also true in marketing—in fact, the transition in the marketing industry is further along than most. The 1:1 data-driven marketing paradigm that was predicted 30 years ago is here. Through AI, automation, mobile interaction and a host of marcom technologies, people have grown to prefer the heightened level of customization and responsiveness that only digital marketing provides. They prefer to research and shop this way, oftentimes intentionally avoiding personal contact with sales representatives!

This includes your customers and consumers. If you are not catering to these preferences, your enterprise is not scalable for growth and is in grave danger of being eclipsed by the ones that do. Likely opportunities for growth have already passed by without you knowing. Today 57 percent of buying decisions are made prior to reaching out to a salesperson.

Get into the digital marketing game

Metrics-oriented business operators are far more inclined to invest in the predictable performance of a machine. A machine increases power and efficiency. It’s a tool designed to perform a job. When oriented toward profitability, it is easily justified and financed.

10 Step Process To Build a Marketing Machine

Marketing today is no longer “subjective” and can be viewed and operated much like a machine. Designed for a purpose, built to scale, programmed for performance, measured and monitored.  Fine-tuned. It produces a certain and predictable profit.

This machine, like all others, requires the functioning components, a plan for its utilization, trained operators and the raw materials and consumables required to produce its products.

The magic of the machine

You can grow your company by building a marketing machine that produces traffic, leads, conversions, sales… profit. The terrific news is that the technology and expertise required for success are affordable to most forward-looking organizations.  That means your organization can do it. It also means that your competitors can do it, and no doubt will. So a business-building marketing machine needs to be part of your company’s essential capability.  Its core infrastructure. It must be written into your strategic and operational plan. This has implications for other ongoing systems, such as sales.

Many companies have some marketing capability, but not the refined infrastructure, systems and analytics necessary to produce predictable, profitable growth. They don’t have a marketing machine. This includes many large organizations and surprisingly sophisticated organizations.

As with any other technical pursuit, you will need expert guidance on the specification and operation of the machine.  And you will likely want ongoing support and maintenance from experts who can train your team while orienting the machine toward profit.

The first step toward reaching a goal is to assess where you are and what needs to be done to get you where you want to go.

Download the Marketing Machine Guide

Take the Survey

To help you assess where your company is, STIR offers the following online survey. Fill it out and we will return the results to you with no obligation. Upon request we will provide an interpretation of those results that will help you manage or develop your marketing team. Click here to take the survey.

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