Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Well a 5x growth is pretty modest by modern standards - however even this rate of multiplication will take some serious team building. Nancy Slessenger* is an excellent advisor on issues of who to employ - believe me, just because they have a CV and experience does not mean they're good at their job. All it means is that they hung on in there, and possibly hated every minute of it. (*https://vinehouse.co.uk)

So for a start were I to handle this - I would require of you to establish an unparalleled and excellent customer relations service. I recently dealt with Vodafone who are frankly deplorable. Their idea of communications is to slam the door in your face. Their idea of empathy is to laugh at you. Bearing this in mind, you have a serious chance to grab a slice of their market share. Just as long as you have genuinely good after-sales service. Just as long as your engineers do their job and don't turn up with hangovers in the morning, don't spend their days drinking coffee and chatting up the secretaries.

For a large Telecoms company, the above is no small issue.

I'd need to know your USP (or divine it for you). From there, and with the cooperation of your sales/aftersales/support services I'd sort out some decent copy for your website. Three good landing pages per campaign and a serious Facebook page and Twitter to back these up along with email autoresponders/newsletters. Primary channels Google Adwords/Display and Facebook advertising (when the new algorithm is rolled out in your nation). Not cheap, but nowhere near $1m yet. In the region of $30-50k.

All given a lot of co-operation from you guys. That, sir, is essential. Otherwise it's game over and you gets your money back.

Now: this is the hard bit for you and the easy bit for me. That is to identify the character of your best customer in each of the niches you service. They'll be generally the same, there will be slight differences. Facebook and the Google Display network are fantastic for determining preferences and characteristics. Knowing what they are means you can feed them, you can advertise to them through a keyword analysis of their preferences. Work out from there where your strongest sales are coming from in each case. For example a friend of mine knows where his best customers come from down to their postcode. They generate 4-10x the revenue that any other area does. You can do this for each of your services (market niches).

Knowing who these people are, what they like and dislike is the key to getting seriously good quality customers. You can engage with new prospects through Facebook, Twitter and other channels knowing their likes and dislikes, knowing how they speak. You can then use this information to roll out over other media - direct mail, TV/Radio etc. etc. etc. to maximize their effect.

This is not conventional marketing. That probably means that the likes of Mr. Bloomer will tell you it's all rubbish. Well, fair enough. Let's just see what the ROIs are like, shall we?

And forget the bland statements like "with the marketing plan and then develop the name to support and communicate your benefit-oriented positioning". Marketing is all about finding out where the seam of gold is, it's not about territorial geography that knows nothing about the geology. In short, there's little point in having a plan if you don't know who you're selling to (yet). That sort of planning comes later.

Because all this costs well under $12000/month. It is an information gathering exercise, that is to say, finding out where these guys are and what they like. Tuning your entire operation to the people who like what you do best. Once you've gotten all that in place, then is the time to wheel in the big marketing professionals with long lists of letters behind them. Because that's when they'll be talking to the right people. There are countless examples of companies advertising to people who'll never buy, or advertising to the wrong niche or demographic.

A small investment goes a long way for a company of your size and nature.

Knowing who you deal with best, who is bringing you the most profit is the time to scale outwards. By that time you'll have your gumball machine in order where you know precisely how much is being earned for each marketing dollar you spend. You will also be able to plan your growth with some accuracy, allowing each department to expand to meet the needs of your company. There won't be any rush and there won't be panics (unless there's an economic meltdown or the US banks default on their obligations again). You will be able to plan a steady increase in your marketing and advertising so that you have a steady stream of new and repeat customers. Keeping your best customers will guarantee your profits. This is extended "80-20" or Six-sigma thinking in the wild.

I will repeat: this is not conventional marketing.

It does not suit the kind of people who want to sell to everybody. If you want that, fair enough but expect to waste a good deal of money. If that's how you're marketing now, your entire operation would change direction within a year or so to become a great deal more effective. It also means forgetting the ego-boosting world-leader status. Be satisfied with a modest market share - but with a copper bottomed customer base who are as loyal as they come.