Has Your Company Reached the Marketing Apprentice Level?

Has Your Company Reached the Marketing Apprentice Level?

If you subscribe to the basic keys to success that apply to any marketing competency level and your company has achieved marketing novice competency, you are ready to design a marketing strategy that will support your long-term goals through tactics and objectives that evolve during the next 3 to 5 year time horizon.

Develop Personas Based on Target Market Attributes

A marketing apprentice tailors a Brand UVP [Unique Value Proposition] for each persona that has significant staying power to merit the company’s attention. This strategy will earn higher margins than competitors who lead with price. Each persona is identified by its attributes along with marcom and channel accessibility. Consumer persona traits include demographic [age, gender, ...], psychographic [interests, aspirations, ...], behavioral [what motivates them, buying triggers, loyalty], user status [potential, first-time, regular, usage rate]. B2B persona traits include firmographic [industry, location, size], behavioral [potential, first-time, usage rate], buying process [sealed bids, negotiations, ...] and attitudinal [how they make buying decisions].

Marketing Strategy Should Fit Apprentice Competency

1. Most categories have a geographic or industrial Market Leader in customer loyalty, distribution, image, UVP, profitability and budget. For example, the US can emulate sustainable energy leader, Sweden, who derives 54% of its energy from renewables. Architectural firms can follow ZGF Architects who is recognized for its standard of excellence. A marketing apprentice can thrive by emulating the leader’s best-in-class practices on a guerilla marketing budget while developing a sustainable competitive advantage.
   

Market Makers create an umbrella under which an apprentice can profitably deliver on their Brand UVP. For example, Salesforce.com is a market maker for marketing systems integrators. Varco Pruden is a market maker for construction companies who erect steel buildings for businesses. An apprentice continuously searches for new market makers with whom to partner.

An apprentice implements the right Targeting Strategy i.e. concentrated [one marketing mix for one segment], undifferentiated [one marketing mix for multiple segments] or differentiated [unique marketing mix for each segment].

Marketing Apprentice Tactics

A marketing apprentice is always innovating customer facing programs, campaigns and processes along with products and services. They invest in automation tools to drive process consistency and employee efficiency.

A marketing apprentice makes it easy and fun to do business with their company. CEM [Customer Experience Management] earns repeat business, referrals and new ideas.

An apprentice implements a content marketing strategy that is tailored for contacts in each stage of the marketing funnel [suspect, prospect, lead] along with content that helps to retain and develop customers. Success stories, case studies and application notes are powerful weapons.

The Primary KPI for a marketing apprentice is related to the number of sales ready leads delivered to the sales team that are converted to sales opportunities in the sales funnel.