Ebook on Marketing

How To Re-organise Your Marketing To Grow Your Business
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CERTIFIED PRACTISING MARKETER
A special Report
Khaleeluddin Shaik

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Copyright Notice
How to Reorganize Your Marketing to Grow Your Business
By Khaleeluddin Shaik
Copyright © 2015. All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise—without written permission from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief
quotations in a review.
Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as possible, but no
warranty of fitness is implied. The information is provided on an as-is basis. The authors and the
publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss
or dam- ages arising from the information contained in this book.

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Khaleeluddin Shaik
Certified Marketing Manager,
EMBA( Marketing), MBA( Marketing),
AMAMI( AUS),MAM( UK) AMA-Intl. Member
Member- Academy of Marketing Science
Twitter: @khaleel997
Linkedin: ae.linkein.com/in/khaleeluddin
Email: khaleel997@gmail.com

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CONTENTS
Copyright Notice 2
About the Author 3
Introduction 6
The Solutions From All Problems for Any Business By Reorganizing the Marketing 15
Understand the Role of Marketing 15
New and Efficient Structure and Creative Team 17
Perform A Marketing Audit 18
Eliminate Unnecessary Resources, Policies and Processes 19
Create an Advisory Board 21
Consistently Study the Recent Development in Technology 22
Internal Communication System: Bridge Gaps Between Each Department 24
Compare With Past and Present Strategies 26
Social Media: The Most Powerful and Effective Way to Engage Your Customer 26
Marketing Plan: Inbound and Outbound 29
Inbound and Outbound Marketing 29
Marketing Performance System 30
The Importance of Hiring Professionals Or Outsourcing Your Marketing Activities 34
The Art of the Follow-Up 35
Employee Feedback Funnel 36
Database Management System 38
Innovation System 39
Google Analytics 41
Integrate Marketing Department, Sales Department and Customer department 42
Active Customer Relationship Management 44
Digital Business Strategy 46
Active Market Information System 47
Conclusion 50

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Introduction
Regardless of industry, marketing plays a significant role in all businesses. Marketing is a crucial
factor, and can spell the difference between its success or failure. Proper planning and execution
is necessary for effective marketing. Although everyone knows that they should be doing it,
most don’t know why or how. In fact, a recent survey by a top bank reported that marketing
and attracting customers is the major concern for 44% of businesses.
The term “marketing” is loosely used, but what does it mean exactly? Historically, marketing
simply referred to a set of tactics designed to create awareness of a product to the target
market. Today, marketing has become more complex. It is no longer enough to create an
awareness of the product, believing that it will automatically entice customers and eventually
lead them to make a purchase.
Modern marketing entails the following:
•• Creating a product or service that customers need
•• Pricing strategy
•• Allowing the product to be found by the customer
•• Ensuring that the product is easily available
•• Engaging with the customer
•• Creating an awareness about the product and promoting it in such a way that will
communicate to customers that it is a better choice than what is already in the market
The evolution of marketing was also a response to a shift in buying behavior: customers used
to make a purchase solely based on a product’s features but today they place high importance
on personal value over anything else.
Businesses need to communicate that they understand their customers, and have exactly what
they are looking for. Being relevant will be the key to generating interest in the customer.
Businesses that do not invest time in understanding what the customer needs will not be
noticed by their customers. We are now in a consumer era that has resulted in an over-supply
and tight competition in most industries. Given this situation, businesses need a new approach
to market themselves effectively. In a nutshell, marketing today encompasses the entire journey
of the customer, starting with the first impression of the product up to after the purchase has
been made. Marketing is focused on the relationship with the customer because it is no longer
about winning them, but developing those relationships even further.
While many factors have contributed to the evolution of marketing, the most influential factor
is technology. The presence and growth of technology worldwide has changed the way people
communicate, obtain information, do business, and make purchases. These changes have
provided more opportunities for companies to be more profitable and enjoy dominance once
they have adapted by embracing technology. Even in a market of tough competition and over-
supply, businesses no longer have to spend more in order to make an impact. Customers today
are smarter, able to filter messages in order to find what they need. Businesses need to operate
“Good marketing
makes the company
look smart. Great
marketing makes the
customer feel smart.”
Joe Chernov

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with smart marketing in mind rather than focusing on interruptive marketing. Smart marketing
will provide better results even with a limited budget.
Businesses need to realize that in order to be profitable; they need to maximize the value of
each customer. They need to set themselves apart from the competition by providing a value
to the customer. This value is what spells the difference between a product that is considered
affordable and expensive. Consumers don’t mind shelling out more money for a product if they
believe that it has more value to them. The price they are willing to pay is a representation of
the benefits they believe they can enjoy from this product.
In order to understand the perceived value from the customer’s perspective, businesses need
to think about the product as an investment from many angles. A product that is considered a
good investment is one that improves how the customer sees themselves as well as how other
people see them, satisfy their emotional needs as well as their physical needs.
Let’s look at a handbag for example. There is a difference between a $15 handbag and a $100
handbag of the same size and style. In reality there is hardly any difference between the 2
products because they serve the same purpose. But the customer is thinking of things that lie
beyond the product itself: it is the brand’s personality and image, which gives the $100 more
value to the customer. If they feel that a $100 handbag would satisfy their needs better than a
$15 handbag despite a major price difference, they wouldn’t mind paying for it.
Maximizing Technology
As mentioned earlier, technology changed the marketing landscape significantly. Businesses need
to learn how to maximize technology to engage their customers and eventually be successful.
Customers today are internet-savvy and make purchasing decisions based on relationships and
emotions. They have also adjusted their buying behaviors because they expect:
•• To find information on a brand through opinions of other people, rather than trust the
brand itself To instantly have access to product reviews and pricing comparison
•• That brands can provide them with what they need, as a solution to a problem that
the customer is experiencing
To ensure that marketing is successful, it needs to work closely in coordination with top
management as well as other departments. If top management isn’t convinced of the importance
of executing marketing strategies, the rest of the companies won’t embrace the ideas either.
This is because marketing is not limited to a department that merely creates social media
tactics. It is part of a larger, more systematic process that also deals with learning about what
products to make, how to price them, and understanding how to make the customer keep
buying from you.
Marketing strategy also needs to consider other factors. For example, there may be situations
where the company may need an additional round of funding from investors. The marketing
department would be required to market their strategy to investors, in the process convince
them that they are doing what is necessary to get the brand the leverage it requires.
Recruitment is another example to support the case that marketing works within a system.
In order to attract top talents, a company must be able to create value propositions that best
market the company. Marketing, whether to customers, potential employees, or investors,
needs to understand both needs and wants of all these stakeholders in order to develop a
valuable proposition for each of them.
Below is a list of marketing challenges that businesses usually face, and the solutions for each:
“Our jobs as marketers
are to understand how
the customer wants to
buy and help them do
so.”
Bryan Eisenberg

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Low response rate from marketing activities.
Marketing activities today are still designed for the purpose of bringing customers to your
website. Thankfully, technology has made it more affordable and companies no longer need to
have massive marketing budgets to accomplish this goal.
A low response rate from marketing activities means that businesses need to step back and
reevaluate their strategies to integrate the steps below:
Reach out to customers in order to build awareness of your brand. Utilize social media,
websites, microsites, and forums as well as offline channels to improve traffic. The success of
the reaching out stage is measured by unique visitors, bounce rate, and the number of times a
brand is searched online.
Interact with the customer so that once they find your website or find you through
social media, they are encouraged to take action. They may find your website by reading
a blog post, a comment online, or learning more about your products and services.
There are various tools online that can help companies determine the success of each channel.
These may be the number of times a customer added a product to their basket, signed up for
a newsletter, or registered as a member. The statistics are important because they reveal how
much a customer values a brand emotionally.
Because interacting is also about participation, businesses should also analyze the incidence of
customer reviews, or shared content about them on social media networks.
The success of the interaction stage is measured by the number of leads generated, the
conversion per lead, and the number of page views per visit. More on social media is discussed
below.
Conversion is the most important step in this framework. It is defined as the rate at
which a viewer to your site has actually converted to a sale. The conversion rate may differ
depending on the business.
The success of conversion is further measured by the sales generated, the percentage of
conversion per sale, and the average order value.
Lastly, long-term engagements follow after conversion. Engagement is accomplished by
building customer relationships over a period of time through various interactions using social
media, email, direct interactions, and paid media. The primary goal of engagements is to boost
the customer lifetime value. Tools to measure the success of engagement include repeat sales,
lead generation, and shared content online.
The success of long-term engagement is measured by the amount of active visitors, the
percentage of customer conversion, and the number of brand mentions online.
Low conversion from social media activities.
Brand reputation is heavily influenced by what customers say about a brand online. Social media
has become an important platform where customers review brands and therefore businesses
need to work on improving customer engagement through social media. If there is no execution
strategy for social media, efforts will just be futile. Brands can’t simply post a number of tweets
per day, numbers and goals should be implemented.
All content can be compiled in easy to use calendars, such as Google Docs. Set up a weekly
calendar and share it with your team, so that everyone is on the same page for the week’s
goals. For the following week, social media strategies can be adjusted as needed. This will also
“Instead of using
technology to automate
processes, think about
using technology
to enhance human
interaction.”
Tony Zambito

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provide a forum for team members to provide feedback on what should be posted, where,
and how. You can also use social media platforms such as TweetDeck, Buffer, and Hootsuite to
schedule content postings, monitor feeds, and access analytics.
To improve conversion from social media activities, businesses should:
Utilize each social media channel as a separate entity. Certain content can be posted on
all channels, such as general news about the company. However, content should be tailored
depending on the audience that tends to visit particular channels.
LinkedIn audiences are business-minded and more relevant posts here would be about the
business alone. On the other hand, Instagram followers seek out engaging, fun visual content
about the brand. Twitter followers look for brief news clips as well as engaging content from
brand websites. If brands don’t segregate messages according to the demographic of each
channel, it would be pointless for customers to follow them online because all messages would
be monotonous.
Do more than what is expected when it comes to customer service. A customer may
mention you online through a comment on your Facebook post, and if they never receive a
response, trust is lost immediately. The absence of any communication or response will result
in a lost lead, causing them to seek out your competitors instead. But if you take the time to
deliver a timely clear yet thoughtful response, this pleases your customer and will give you
authority.
Whether feedback online is positive or negative, it is important for brands to respond. Here
are some tips that should be integrated onto your social media plan for responses:
•• Feedback should never, in any case, be ignored or deleted.
•• Assign a responder for each channel that you have presence on.
•• Develop a library of troubleshooting tips that may include common complaints, bugs,
or questions asked by customers. Each of these should have a common response so that
messages are similar regardless of channel. If a customer voices out an issue that requires
confidential information or further investigation from your end, let them know that they
can contact your support hotline so that you can send them private messages and update
them.
•• Be creative and don’t be afraid to add a personal touch to your social media posts.
You can even use free giveaways and add a sense of humor to your posts; your customers
would appreciate it more than monotonous posts about the company.
Track the success of social media marketing strategies. While this can be tedious, a few
hours per month is more than enough. And you don’t have to do it alone: utilize the services of
software to bring the data to you. Look into Google Analytics, Hootsuite, Infogr.am, Mention,
Buzzsumo, and Tint as one of the many other social media promotion websites that can help
you efficiently track social media success in a short amount of time. The information you’ll find
here can surprise you, and should help you repurpose your social media strategy in the future
if needed. For example, if you find that the response rates on Instagram are much better than
Facebook, you can invest more time in producing thoughtful posts there instead. The results
delivered in tracking should be discussed with the whole team so you can effectively plan for
the future. Customer support may have significant feedback for social media since they deal
with guests directly. Sales may also have input on how to better pitch new offerings on various
channels since they sell the product to the customer.
“Social media is about
the people. Not about
your business. Provide
for the people and the
people will provide for
you.”
Matt Goulart

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Sales are declining.
When sales are declining, this may be a clue that the need for a certain product is also declining.
Small businesses don’t necessarily need to always offer something new to the market, but
change up the marketing strategies for the products that are already being offered. Changing
the way a product is offered may result in renewed interest.
Innovate. Declining sales could indicate that the product or service itself is a problem. If this
happens, it is recommended to analyze what the competitors are doing and how they are
faring. If there is nothing wrong with the product, it may be time for businesses to innovate
how they conduct business. This is a time to examine the business and ask if you are meeting
consumer’s needs. Innovation does not have to mean churning out new products but rather
finding how you can create value for existing products.
Lowering prices can help you stay competitive if you are experiencing pressure
financially. Sometimes, this is the only way to attract new customers to your brand. This
means less profit but if you find that lowering prices is effective in attracting customers it will
be worth it. Pricing is an important aspect in the success of a product’s sales, and if businesses
can’t compete there would be no other way to make money. Remember that the right price is
something that the customer is willing to pay.
Believe in your product even though sales are declining. This is especially true if you are
in a niche industry. Just because less people are buying your product doesn’t mean that there is
no need. You can increase sales simply by finding a new place to sell it. This can also mean that
you are targeting the wrong consumer. It would be helpful to obtain feedback from customers
about the product, then look for other ways the product can still satisfy their needs.
Remarketing is a useful strategy for declining sales. Oftentimes, remarketing costs much
less than creating a new product but the benefit here primarily is that it is less risky. Reviving
how a product is marketed takes less time and can even lower costs in the future. If this is what
you have chosen to do, focus on what makes the product unique especially if you have already
established yourself in the market. You may want to try creating a new sales strategy, and even
target a different market entirely. Provide valuable information to the customer on how the
product can meet their needs, and back up your claims by providing stellar customer service.
Remarketing a product can also mean developing new uses, features, or its overall quality to
stimulate interest.
Conduct customer research to find out what other alternatives they are considering.
Online survey tools such as SurveyMonkey may be helpful in reaching out to your customer to
ask them about what is important to them, and what alternatives they may already be using. It
may provide valuable insights as to how you can improve your product, pricing, or marketing
strategy.
Bundling products together can give customers better value. This strategy is practiced
by many industries; including fashion, food, and retail. The perfect example of this is the
McDonald’s Happy Meal. Customers have an affinity for buying packages that when, if
combined, are significantly cheaper than buying the products individually. But to be successful
in bundling, companies must already offer each item individually.
As long as the combination is right, bundling can result in increased sales volume, better margins,
better exposure to new customers, and an opportunity for cross-industry marketing
Increased competition
Find out as much as possible about your competitors, as well as their customers. Learn about
who they are, what products they offer, what customers see as their strengths and weaknesses,
and if they have had a surge in sales recently. Closer investigation of the competitor can also

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bring you valuable input on the customers they are targeting, the products they are developing,
and information on their financial resources.
Once you have gathered input on your competitors, make management and owners privy
to this information. It should tell you if there are certain customer needs that haven’t been
addressed. It can also tell you if the market is saturated with suppliers, an indication that you
may need to focus on less competitive markets.
All the information you’ve drawn about competitors should be compiled in a list. Categorize
them in three categories: what you can do better, what they are doing worse, and what you
are both doing the same.
If you find that competitors are doing something better than you, it is time for you to respond
by making changes. These can be anywhere from simply improving your overall product,
adjusting prices, improving customer service, improving literature, and changing the website.
The goal here is to innovate instead of imitate, and in the end come out with a product of better
value to the customer.
Understanding what they are doing worse than you is an avenue for you to exploit. It could
be in the competitors’ product range, distribution channels, marketing strategies, or sales
training programs. You can focus on renewing strategies in these areas to exploit competitors’
weaknesses. But finding out their weaknesses doesn’t mean that you should be complacent
about your weaknesses, because your strengths can still benefit from improvement.
Lastly, understand what they are doing the same as you. If neither of you are doing anything
extraordinary it could mean that both of you need to make changes. Similarly, they may already
be working on their next improvement so you should be doing the same thing too.
Technological advancements
Businesses of all sizes can greatly benefit from utilizing new technology for marketing
their products. People now spend more time on laptops, tablets, and mobile phones. The
challenge for the modern-day marketer is to connect with the customer through all of these
devices. Campaigns should be able to work with more than just social media, such as through
e-commerce channels, and engage through display advertising. Here are some of the most
important technological advancements that marketers cannot afford to ignore today:
Search engine optimization is a cost-effective and important way to attract customers
to your website. Many studies have time and again proven that 2/3 of the time, customers
won’t look beyond the first 10 results of a search engine’s results. Almost none of them explore
past the first 30 results. Statistic also tells us that more than half of e-commerce transactions
are a result come from search engine listings, and this places emphasis on the importance of
easily being found online. Utilizing search engine optimization is a way for marketers to ensure
that customers easily find the website.
Video on demand websites, particularly YouTube, has changed the marketing
landscape. People go on the web to seek out entertainment channels, and this posed a large
opportunity for marketers because it allowed them to post advertisements with low distribution
costs and sharing capabilities. Brands have been working to produce a viral hit which have the
ability to turn regular customers into brand ambassadors, as they share the video with their own
network. On demand video sites have also provided an important opportunity for advertisers
to post targeted and measurable ads placed at the beginning of a video or in attached texts and
banners.
The mobile advertising industry continues to grow, as people today grow more
attached to their smart phones. It is also attributed to the proliferation of affordable tablets.
The growth of mobile advertising also paved the way for an important marketing opportunity:
mobile payments, which create an opportunity for instant purchases.

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The Solutions From
All Problems for
Any Business By
Reorganizing the
Marketing

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Understand the Role of
Marketing
Marketing is the sum of all processes aimed at directing the flow of goods from the brand to the
consumer. Through marketing, consumers can find what they need by exchanging products.
But an exchange can only happen if there are two parties involved, each of which has something
to offer.
It is the role of the marketing team to introduce the product to the customer. If the business
remains unknown, customers will never find the product and there will never be any sales.
Marketing strategies are crucial to letting your customers know that you exist.
Marketing teams are also responsible for driving sales once the market is already aware of the
product. Once there is awareness, marketing teams need to tap into this by finding out how to
let the awareness and profitability grow even further. Eventually, successful marketing will lead
to word of mouth referrals and sales will steadily increase.
The brand’s reputation also rests on the marketing department. It is through efficient and
consistent marketing tactics that build brand recognition as well as product recall. Once the
public has high expectations of a company, they can begin to enjoy a solid reputation which
they must keep up. Reputation is maintained through various activities such as post-sales
communication, events, and community programs among others. It also goes without saying
that the quality of the product or service must be maintained or regularly improved.

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Sales department. Sales and marketing departments should also work closely together to
improve business growth. Marketing teams can provide a funnel of leads to the sales team when
they run quality ad campaigns or by encouraging visitors to register in the brand website. The
marketing team also supports the sales team by preparing presentations with value propositions
that they can use when pitching to the customer. They also create the promotional materials
that sales teams give to customers.
Human Resources department. Employees can make or break marketing plans. Working
with the human resources department is crucial for the marketing team especially in service-
orientedindustrieswhereemployeesoftencomeintoclosecontactwithcurrentandprospective
customers. It is no wonder why some companies go to great lengths to pirate employees who
they know will be a right fit for their team. If the human resources team hires someone who
isn’t a good fit, this could result in costly consequences for the brand. Additionally, employees
should be compensated properly. If employees are paid little, brands can expect little in return.
The age-old adage says, “if you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys”.
Finance Department. It is the responsibility of the marketing department to grow the
business, and of course profitability. In order to reach this goal, a marketing budget is required.
The finance department is focused on the brand’s bottom line which boils down to net profit.
While it is common for finance and marketing personnel to argue about why certain expenses
are necessary, close coordination between the two are crucial to meeting company targets.
Research and Development Department. Marketing needs to work with research and
development teams to determine how to better improve their offerings. Marketing teams can
provide them with information on customer preferences so that they can make the necessary
adjustments. They also discuss how they can innovate on existing products, prepare payment
options, and discuss pricing strategy.
“The business
enterprise has two -
and only two - basic
functions: marketing
and innovation
Peter Drucker

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New, Efficient Structure and
Creative Team
Now that you are ready to make some changes in place, you will see why a new marketing
structure will make all the difference. Creating a stable marketing department comprised of
creative, professional, and skilled marketing personnel can spell the difference between success
and failure.
It is important to invest in experienced marketers because to master the process one should
have been able to apply it to many different business situations. The more a marketer has
applied it to various situations, the more skilled they are at problem solving. They can come
up with strategic and practical solutions to issues such as rebranding, identifying marketing
opportunities, or even creating a professional-looking brochure.
Additionally, only experienced marketers have the required skill set to succeed. This skill set
is made up of strategy, research, and communications. Although it may be difficult to find a
professional marketer who is an expert at all these levels, they may be specialized in one or two
and other members of the team can compensate for other areas.
Professional marketers can also provide a strategic approach to marketing tactics. They can
come up with a comprehensive strategy, such as the proper Facebook ad placing, that a small
business owner can easily make mistakes in. They are capable of developing roadmaps that will
convey a clear message and with a concrete step of plans designed to reach the goal.
Efficient Structure And Creative Team
2
CEO / Business Owner
HR Department
Finance Department
Operations Department
Sales Department
Marketing
Department
CEO / Busines
Owner
Marketing
Department
HR
Department
1. Creative
2. Professional/ Talented
3. Experience in Same Profession
( I suggest not to mix Sales and Marketing Dept.)
Marketing is a very important function of any business so don't take
any chance.
Align Together To Select The Best Talent In Industry
Important Points To Consider While Selecting The Candidates:

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Perform A Marketing Audit
If you want to grow, it is necessary to conduct a marketing audit to evaluate the current efforts
and learn from mistakes. It should be able to answer question such as:
Further investigation for a marketing audit should also take into consideration the internal and
external nature of a business. There may be underlying external factors that were previously
unknown, resulting in a major shift in profitability that a new marketing strategy can address.
A marketing audit can redefine a company’s mission, and change how a brand approaches the
bottom line.
An external analysis should look at these factors: economy, technology, politics, legal, social
and cultural concerns, the competition, and the market. Customer analysis should provide
information on who the customers are, their demographics, what criteria they use in making
a purchase, and how they define competitiveness. A marketing audit should also look at
distribution channels, its movements, success rate of various channels, and identifying other
physical methods of distribution.
The competitor analysis allows a brand to analyze current and potential competitors, their
goals, and the strategies they are implementing. It also looks at their strengths and weaknesses,
profitability, market share, and customer perception.
The purpose of conducting a marketing audit is to basically determine if it is helping the
company achieve its objectives, and to know what to adjust in the new marketing strategy.
Marketing audits should be conducted regularly and not seen as a corrective action when the
business is failing.
here would we be if we
continued to use the existing
strategies?
W
hat strategies did we use to
get there
W
ow are we
performing
in terms of
profitability,
market share,
and customer
perception?
H

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Eliminate Unnecessary
Resources, Policies and
Processes
“Return on investment” is the most important phrase that should be at the top of marketer’s
minds. It is the basic metric that will determine how successful a marketing activity is, whether
it is inbound or outbound marketing. Companies have limited resources when it comes to
spending thereby placing added pressure on the marketers to justify their activities.
While most marketing activities continue to grow in the online segment, marketers can rely
on various KPI’s such as click through’s and conversion rate. It is important to identify which
distribution channels are outperforming others. Evaluating return on investment also gives a
clear picture of which marketing channel needs to be eliminated because it is too expensive and
yields little to no results. Measurements are necessary to ensure that campaigns are a worthy
investment.
Here are additional tips on maximizing your marketing budget to improve ROI:
•• If you find that something works, stick to it and develop it even further. It is
common to see marketers easily get rid of old campaigns because they’re simply bored with
Outbound Channels Inbound Channels
TV commercials
Newspaper Ads
Magazine Ads
Radio Ads
Outdoor Ads
Tradeshows
Social Media Advertising
Banner and Display Ads
Telemarketing
Sponsorships
Email Marketing
Direct Mail
Direct Mail
Blogging
SEO & PPC
Supporting Events
Public Relations
Community Building
Public Speaking
Viral Marketing
Video Content
Content Creation
Newsletter
Forum+ discussion sites
Social Networking sites
High Cost, Low Engagement Low Cost, High Engagement
Eliminate
The Marketing
Channels

17
them. New ads and campaigns shouldn’t be created if current ones are already effective.
Brands should run their ads for as long as customers react to them.
•• Don’t go overboard with presentation. A common mistake among marketers and
entrepreneurs is to go overboard with marketing collateral as soon as they have a little
more money to spend. This can be a result of feeling pressure from other companies who
have more to spend, but keep in mind that the tone of your material should be dictated by
your own market and product rather than what other companies are spending. Creating
fancy literature to market your product can even do more harm than good, leading your
customers to ask if you really understand them or not.
•• Be resourceful in seeking out alternative channels for lead generation. Try
other methods such as press releases, banner ads, and social media tactics you haven’t tried
before.
•• Maximize the mileage of current content. You may have used photos and text
for a promotions before that you can reuse again. Reusing content can significantly reduce
marketing costs, and sprucing them up won’t take a lot of time.

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Create an Advisory Board
A company needs to think about what the brand is supposed to represent as a whole. A brand
should have its own personality, and to come up with this a marketing advisory with members
of all departments should be created to provide valuable insight into the marketing strategy.
It is crucial to have the feedback of all departments because the same message needs to be
communicated in the company’s mission and vision, each marketing activity, every interaction
with a potential or current customer, investors, and potential employees.
Each person within the company should be able to live the brand’s personality from their very
core. If a brand stands for innovation, each member should undergo the proper training and
have a reward system in place every time they display excellent innovation in their behavior
and work. Innovation should be evident in every person, from senior management all the way
down to the van drivers.
Brands also need to consider that their identity is tied to their own partners because they
should not allow suppliers to engage in cost-cutting measures that would damage the brand.
Partners must also respect how they represent the brand in the way they do business. Having
the same goals clearly communicated to everyone will provide a basis for determining not just
daily and weekly metrics for each department but to set standards for behavior as well.
A good advisory board can provide the following benefits:
•• Analysis. Each person in the organization has their own set of day-to-day tasks.
Sometimes they think they have all aspects covered, but an advisory board is skilled
enough to point out important matters that may have been overlooked.
•• Unbiased brainstorming. An advisory board can bring in fresh perspectives because
they come from all departments. A representative from the customer service department
ADVISORY BOARD
Marketing Head/manager
Hr Manager Director
Business Head CEO

19
for example may be able to point out something that the sales department can do better.
•• Provide correction. An advisory board can identify issues that were missed and
quickly provide a strategic solution for each of them. They have the ability to critically
question all tactics used.
•• Be the devil’s advocate. Members should be chosen for their honesty and
ability to be unbiased. This way they can play devil’s advocate, finding loopholes in things
that may have seemed like the perfect solution initially. It is then the task of the marketing
department to defend themselves, ensuring that these issues are not real.

20
Consistently Study the Recent
Development in Technology
Technology will continue to change the face of marketing. To stay relevant, marketers must
embrace the many new advancements that can help them with their goals. Here is a list of
marketing software that can help marketers meet objectives:
•• CRM Software. Surprisingly, many marketers still rely on Outlook and Excel
spreadsheets for marketing distribution. While they work, they take up much more
time as compared to using CRM technology. CRM, also known as customer relationship
management, helps the marketing department save time byautomating tasks. It can also be
used to follow up on marketing initiatives. A CRM system will also provide you with instant
information on customer profiles and easily send them customized messages. These are the
basic functions of a CRM product, but there are more complex versions in the market to
suit different marketing needs.
•• Social media management software is a must-have for any business
who wants to grow this segment significantly. Apart from saving time, socialmedia
management software allows brands to monitor mentions, trackcompetition, measure the
success of various channels in generating leads aswell asmonitoring the popularity of posts.
•• Having a business app for your business is a great way to improve visibility
and engage with the customer. It is completely different from merely havinga website
Technology Advancement
CRM Software
Business Applications
Marketing Software
Email Marketing Software
Ofﬁce Management Software
Accounting
Software updates
HR Payroll Software
HR
Operation
Department
Marketing
Business
Owner/CEO
Social Media
Management Software

21
because having an app allows for faster conversion, instant connectionwith customers, and
an opportunity to build relationships with them. Apps also increase exposure, generate
repeat business, and help enhancesocial networking strategies.
•• Marketing software is very useful for integrating to other programs and saving
time. Various programs in the market can help marketers easily transition to the use of
CRM and help with lead generation. These are especially useful for small businesses with
limited resources because one staff member can execute various complex marketing tasks
and engage with customers, something that would normally take a lot of time.
•• Emails remain to be the most cost-efficient way to connect with customers
today. The use of email marketing software allows marketers to send messages to thousands
of customers in just a few minutes. Brands can even maximize their emails by using programs
which allow them to send personalized messages to customers using segmented user and
customer database information. Through email, brands can spread information easily
and give their customers a simple way to share the message if the content is good and has
piqued their interest.
•• Companies can move forward by going paperless and opting to use
office management software. These kinds of programs make it much easier to find
important documents through the use of a central document repository. They also offer
more secure options and protect data that is input, which is much more cost-efficient. It
also ensures that all processes used are consistent and allows brands to easily integrate with
other programs such as inventory management, finance, accounting, and operations.
•• Accounting is a very important aspect of any business that can take a lot of
time and energy out of employees. Instead of having everything done manually, opting
to use accounting software allows businesses to focus on other aspects of the work while
leaving tasks such as profit & loss reports, trading, and balance sheet work to an efficient,
automated system. Small businesses can easily purchase accounting programs off the shelf,
which will cost significantly less than the salary of a professional accountant. Large businesses
can choose to customize programs specifically for their needs.
•• Human resources payroll software can provide support to the human
resources department by reducing errors, performing analysis, and improving
overall productivity. There are many kinds of human resources payroll software that
can be implemented with different features and functions. Human resources can then
focus their time on doing tasks that cannot be automated, such as investing more time on
screening applicants and supporting the team.

22
Internal Communication
System: Bridge Gaps Between
Each Department
Brands today have the advantage of working with systems that easily allow one department
to update their progress in an easy to read format, which is shared with department heads.
This kind of system promotes a culture of transparency, accountability, and ownership among
employees of all levels as well as department heads.
The use of cloud-based software is one of the most efficient ways to create such internal systems.
Cloud-based software allows brands to enjoy the same benefits of automation and sharing of
information without the need for physical infrastructure. Cloud based services can also be
accessed anywhere one has an internet connection, making it easy for top-level management to
remain in the loop of what their teams are doing even while he’s on the road.
Having a system of regular reporting in place will make it much easier for management to
check achievements on a weekly basis, while identifying opportunities for growth and quickly
correcting any mistakes made along the way. Sharing the information with each department
allows the free flow of ideas, feedback, and communication within the team.
Internal Communication System ( Chart)
Management
Team
Marketing
Department
Sales
Department
Customer care
Department
Research &
Development
Department
Operations
Department
Project
Department
HR
Department
Every Dept. Shall Consistently Update about their Dept. to
other Depts. as shown in the ﬁgure.

23
Compare With Past and
Present Strategies
It is always important to look ahead and ensure that your marketing strategies for the coming
year are precisely what your business needs. However, the only way to ensure that you are on
the right track is by looking backwards in the form of a marketing audit. Marketing audits that
are correctly performed allows brands to discover problems and changes that need to be done
within the marketing plan. It also gives companies an opportunity to reflect on their goals, and
why they are doing these things in the first place. Marketing audits are crucial for maximizing
revenue and increasing ROI and therefore should be carried out on a regular basis.
Marketing Analysis
Digital Marketing
Strategies
Marketing Plan
Vendors Analysis
Marketing Team
Evaluation
Marketing Performance
System Results
Medial Plan
ROMI
Marketing
Strategies
Past & Present
Marketing
Analysis

24
Social Media: The Most
Powerful and Effective Way to
Engage Your Customer
Some time ago, social media was considered a novelty. Today however, there is no question
about the importance of social media regardless of what industry you are in. Utilizing social
media correctly can be the ultimate game-changer for any marketer and ultimately, the business
owner. While each brand has a different approach, success is found by those who have a more
strategic approach rather than those who use it in an informal or more ad-hoc manner. Ad-hoc
users tend to be more skeptical about the benefits of social media but those that truly believe
in its benefits have a carefully thought out strategy. Studies also show that businesses who
integrate social media strategy as part of a corporate approach are more likely to enjoy better
revenue and growth.
Online presence and engagement is where the true value of social media lies. We are living
in an age where people value transparency and an emotional connection, and social media is
providing the perfect platform to achieve this. The statistics below prove just how valuable
social media is for consumers and businesses alike:
•• Instagram has exceeded 300 million users in 2014, growing 50% in the span of just
one year
•• 50% of devices on company networks will be mobile in 2015
•• Social media is the top Internet activity that Americans spend their time on
•• Social media marketing budgets are expected to grow 200% over the next 5 years
•• The top 3 social networks used by digital marketers are LinkedIn, Twitter, and
Facebook
•• 85% of digital marketers rely on social media to grow brand exposure
Therefore it has become crucial for brands to go online, investing in people and software to
help them stay relevant through social media.
Content Marketing. Effective content marketing is all about providing valuable content to
the customer. Good content creates the core of communication between a brand and the
customer. It can come in different forms: infographics, video, photos, text, or a blog post. Even
a simple tweet is already considered content and should therefore be carefully planned. The
goal of using content in social media is always to engage the target audience with an end goal of
driving the consumer to trust the brand, eventually driving a purchase.
Quality content is important because on social media platforms, brands compete with content
posted by a consumer’s friends and family. If brand content is not meaningful, it will result
in been seen as undesirable and will suffer the consequences of losing followers. Similarly, if
customers are bombarded with dizzying and irrelevant content, this can cause them to be
frustrated. Content should always be relevant, valuable, and be easy to digest.

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Content Syndication. Content syndication allows brands to make their information available
on multiple social media channels. Brands should maximize this by distributing content effectively
in many outlets simultaneously, saving time and effort. It has become increasingly important but
easy to curate content on these channels and allows them to be easily found online.
Content may be syndicated in several sites including: social networks (Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn, Instagram), social content (YouTube, Flickr), controlled channels (blogs), social ads,
and external sites (article sites, social bookmarking sites, online news sites)
Direct Mail. Traditionally, brochures, catalogs, and mails were the only form of direct marketing.
But with the rise of social media, marketers can now add their own personal touch to all
their direct marketing campaigns. It will also provide more valuable feedback than conventional
direct marketing channels. However, marketers should keep in mind that people don’t join
social media networks for the purpose of finding marketing messages. They want to be in
touch with friends, family, and stay up to date with brands that they believe in. To be successful
in direct marketing through social media, marketers should know what their customers are
looking for in order to know what kind of relevant content to post.
Email Marketing. Email remains to be one of the most important marketing communication
tools. Marketers can obtain valuable information on their prospective customers using web
forms, third-party lists, and other channels but emails can support communication strategies so
that they can deliver tailored information based on customer preferences in different stages of
the buying process. Emails are also important for relevant communication, particularly when
used with behavioral stimulus. It can also provide the opportunity to relevant content when the
buyer is already engaged.
Event Marketing. Social media is an excellent tool for helping marketers achieve good
participation in their events. Whether you are organizing a concert fundraiser aimed at attracting
thousands of participants or a small networking event, social media can help you achieve your
goals. The next step is execution with the proper social media outlets: using Facebook to create
events and listing down all relevant information, followed by tweeting a shortened URL to the
event link, sharing photos of the venue on Instagram, and many more.
Website Development. The brand website is the core of good content and communication
with the customer. The website should be able to create better engagement, be authoritative
with information, and include practical content that doesn’t mention the product otherwise it
would be a hard-sell. Effective website based content marketing nurtures a relationship between
the brand and the customer, resulting in lead conversion and making brand ambassadors out of
your customers. From the customer’s point of view, their user experience with the website
should be seamless yet meaningful. Their right to choose should be honored at all times.
Content should be presented using different formats in order to cater to different preferences.

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Marketing Plan: Inbound and
Outbound
Having a marketing plan is crucial in helping a company maintain its vision. In fact, part of
marketing is also to define exactly what the company vision and mission is. It also entails defining
and implementing policies that will enable the team to realize its vision and mission.
A marketing plan provides the company with a conscious approach to accomplish its goals.
It affects the way the whole business is run, and affects all departments therefore everyone
should have input in creating a good marketing plan. A marketing plan should contain:
This information will help you build a well-rounded vision and mission as you reorganize your
business marketing strategy. It will also put everyone on the same page and allow you to move
forward with clear goals in mind.
escription of business, products, and services
ole of products in the market
ustomer and competition profiles
ow to measure marketing success
arketing tactics to be used (inbound and outbound)
D
R
C
H
M

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Inbound and Outbound
Marketing
Inbound marketing helps customers find your brand, sometimes even before they begin
searching. The goal of inbound marketing is turning that early awareness into a preference,
leading to conversion and ultimately revenue.
Inbound marketing relies heavily on content to engage with potential customers. It is a given
that to be successful with inbound marketing, brands must use only high-quality content across
all channels. Content should not be promotional, but rather educational and even inspiration.
This way, the client feels emotionally tied to the brand as it gives them value through the
information provided. When you give content to customers that help them overcome
challenges, you become important to them. Marketing analysts say that 90% of customers
find customized content very useful, further emphasizing how important good content is to
customers across the board. Some of the popular tactics used in inbound marketing include
search engine optimization (SEO), social sharing, blogging, social media, forums, and other
online communities.
Outbound marketing, on the other hand, is the more traditional form of marketing. It relies on
trade shows, television commercials, print ads, email blasts, and cold calls as the brand’s way of
initiating a conversation with the customer. It is the exact opposite of inbound marketing which
is about having the customer find you. Outbound marketing reaches out to a wider audience,
although it is more difficult to track and less profitable than inbound marketing. While the goal
of outbound marketing is lead generation and can provide a means for companies to reach
more customers in a short amount of time, the rise of inbound marketing has appealed to
more brands as it is more cost-effective, and they realize its importance in reorganizing their
marketing strategies.

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Marketing Performance
System
The Importance of having a Marketing Performance System
Everyone knows how important it is to measure marketing performance, yet many marketers
fail to implement it properly. It can be due to a variety of reasons, including data challenges,
budget constraints, or merely lack of tech support. In fact, one of the biggest and most expensive
mistakes you can do is to start a marketing program without any performance systems in place.
•• A marketing plan involves both time and money. It is the result of much research
and planning as a result of investing time and money as well. Ignoring the results of your
marketing performance means you wasted the money that you put into creating it. It is
much cheaper to regularly evaluate your marketing plan rather than to ignore it and fix the
costly mistakes it resulted in, along the way.
•• Marketing performance evaluation can save money. After all, the goal of every business
is to increase profitability and save money where possible. By evaluating your marketing
plan on a regular basis, it is easier to determine if your marketing money is being spent
properly. It can also identify if there are certain aspects in your marketing plan where you
Marketing Performance System
Marketing Analysis
Internal Analysis
Sort Analysis
Target Market
STP
External Analysis
Completion Analysis
Website hits
Facebook hits
Twitter followers
In call for enquiry
Product enquiry
Product Sales/
No. of sales (units)
Output from feedback form
Implimentation of In-out long
Marketing plan
Digital Marketing strateg
Implementation
Outdoor strategy Implimentation
PR Strategy Implimentation
Marketing Plan
Implementation Outcomes Good Very Good
Not
Impressive

29
can cut costs. An example would be reducing your budget for Google Ads if you find that
Facebook is a more effective online marketing channel for your business.
•• Having a marketing performance evaluation can also help you adjust your marketing
strategy easily. To put it simply, how would you know which channel is more effective if
you aren’t analyzing the numbers? Brands need to remember that there is no such thing
as a static market. What could be popular today could change tomorrow, especially in
the dynamic, ever-changing digital landscape. A marketing performance system can tell
you if something is changing in the needs of your customers, such as a gradually declining
demand. It will allow you to spot these changes as they happen instead of a knee-jerk
reaction to sudden changes in your sales.
Here is a list of 10 metrics that provide insight on your marketing performance:
1. The total visits on your main website are the primary metrics that you should be
analyzing since it is he main goal of marketing to get customers to your website. Measuring
performance can vary depending on your existing marketing strategy. For example, landing
page hits may be more important for determining the success of a pay-per-click campaign. On
the other hand you canalso measure the total visits if you want to get an idea of how well your
campaignsare driving traffic. When the numbers increase or decrease, this should tell you that
you should be adjusting your marketing strategy. The idea is to have a healthycampaign where
visits and traffic continue to grow at a steady pace.
2. Conversions are the ultimate metric when it comes to analyzing the success of any
marketing plan. Conversion can be defined in a variety of ways such as a making a purchase
on a site or filling out a form. Regardless of what a brand defines its conversion to be, it is the
ultimate quantifier for the marketer.
3. New sessions is a marketing metric feature in Google Analytics which tells you how
many of your site’s visitors are new versus how many are repeat visitors. This is important to
look at because it tells you if your communication efforts are effective and if your site is relevant
enough to keep attracting recurring customers. This can prevent you from making expensive
mistakes like drastically changing content, if you find something that already works for you.
4. Channel-specific traffic is another feature under the acquisition section of Google
Analytics. This metric will give you useful information about which channels your visitors arrived
from. Channel- specific traffic is important because it provides information on which channels
are more effective in brining you traffic than others. These channels are as follows:

•• Direct: the number of people that visit your site directly
•• Referrals: visitors who found your site through other links
•• Organic: visitors who found your site after doing a search online
•• Social: visitors who found your site through social media, which will further aid you in
evaluating your social media campaigns
5. Bounce rate tells you the number of visitors that leave your site without clicking any
other links to explore further. This happens if a visitor lands on your homepage after they
searched for your product, but then leaves before they click other links. Ideally the bounce rate
should always be low. The more engaging your content, the longer a visitor spends on your site,
the more they are likely this will lead to a conversion. It will also tell you if there may be issues
with the way your site is designed or its overall usability, as website design should also be taken
into consideration with your marketing plan.
6. Customer retention rate is best measured if your product has a short buy cycle. Certain

30
tools such as e-commerce platforms and other members-only services can tell you how many
of your customers are repeat customers. Low customer retention rates may mean that the
product lacks engagement with the customer, and because of this they have turned to your
competitor.
7. Customer value is more challenging to measure. It refers to calculating all the sales one
customer will initiate, which means this is not a metric that startups can use. A simple way of
computing this is by estimating the number of transactions a single customer makes per year
based on historical data.
8. Lead to close ratio is calculated by dividing the total number of sales by the total number
of leads. The result is a figure that tells you how successful your sales are, as it is directly related
to your marketing initiatives. Although it is more of a metric for sales, this is important because
it helps you identify what is your return on investment. If you find that you have a low close
rate, you may need to communicate to the sales team that they need to adjust their sales
strategies.
9. To calculate the cost per lead, compare the cost of a campaign for a specific month and
compare it to the leads you generated from the same channel at the same time. You may have
spent $500 for a Facebook campaign for one month but it generated 10 conversions thereby
costing you $50 per lead.
10. Return on investment is the most important metric for the success of any marketing
campaign. It is the most transparent metric for profitability: positive ROI means that you are
on the right track while negative ROI means that some serious adjustments need to be made.
If you are reading this white paper, then you have probably seen a negative ROI in your books
last year and you are doing the right thing as you learn how to reorganize your marketing.

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The Importance of Hiring
Professionals Or Outsourcing
Your Marketing Activities
It has become accepted practice for companies to hire interns or fresh grads to do certain
jobs for important departments such as branding, graphic design, social media management,
advertising strategy, and others. While this is the norm, companies merely do this to save
money by cutting corners in various departments. The problem here is that by not hiring
professionals, companies can make expensive mistakes in two ways: having to fix the problems
caused by inexperienced workers, and missing out on important opportunities that are brought
in by professionals.
If your company is one that is large and well-established with smooth-running systems, it would
be acceptable to hire interns who can fill in the gaps for monotonous tasks that your other
employees are overqualified for. However, if you need to focus on reevaluating your marketing
strategy because you need to focus on growing your business and profits, the best investment
you can make is in the people you hire.
Let’s take the role of a social media manager for example. The reputation of your company
and success in online marketing relies heavily on social media exposure and engagement. Why
would you leave this crucial task to someone who is not a professional? While a fresh graduate
can handle basic social media management, a professional with years of experience has the skill
and talent required to adapt to the changing social media landscape. It will also save you time
training and mentoring that you can use on other more important business matters.
Your time is important, and you want to be able to attend to other matters without worrying
what people are saying about your brand online. This is because you can rely on a professional
social media manager to provide you with data and results that you need to make decisions.
And if you aren’t sure, you can rely on their expertise because they have focused on this field
for a long time.
The same goes for outsourcing the work to specialized agencies to do the work for you.
Outsourcing marketing activities has become common. But working with them rather than
having someone else do the work in-house makes sense because you can enjoy the benefits
of a million-dollar marketing budget within your means. Digital experts and agencies have
worked with top-tier companies and have years of experience under their belt. Their skills and
expertise are unmatched, and you can sleep at night restfully, knowing you’re leaving the job
up to experts.
Other benefits to outsourcing your marketing activities include:

32
Save money. For less than the salary of an executive you will
be able to get a whole staff of experts who are dedicated to
growing your business. You will also be able to save on software
and advertising costs.
Save time. Instead of
training someone or
learning everything by
yourself, you will save
time leaving it to people
who know the industry.
Access and transparency.
It is part of the service
to provide you with all
the results and reports
you need. Then you can
apply it as needed to your
marketing strategies.
Expertise. Digital experts can bring significant value to your
table, something your entire team can learn from.

33
The Art of the Follow-Up
Persistence is key especially with marketing, as there are many opportunities to continue
working on. There are the leads, prospective leads, and current customers. If you aren’t
persistent enough, you can risk losing your lead and prospective customer to the competitor. If
you follow up too much, you will come off as annoying. Here are some tips in following up:
•• The basic rule of thumb is that if you haven’t followed up, you haven’t really pitched.
It’s not enough to send one email or call once, but forget about that lead if you don’t receive
a response. Remember that if it’s worth going after, the effort in following up will be worth
it.
•• It is recommended to follow up at least two times more than you think you should.
Ideally, the first two times should be weekly, and every 2 weeks after that. You never know
if you are in the back of a prospect’s mind, they may just be very busy and end up forgetting.
Some leads just need a little nudge sometimes. Seeing your name in their inbox at the right
time can spell the difference between a lead and a new customer.
•• Assume that your lead has forgotten about your initial pitch. Success in sales happens
when you approach a follow up like it’s a new lead. Remind them about the previous follow
ups you’ve made, if you’re making an email follow up, include the previous email. If you have
a few minutes to leave a message, keep it short and remind them what your pitch is about.
•• Stay humble and don’t act like you are owed anything. It can be frustrating to follow
up four or five times without getting any responses. Remember that no matter how many
times you have pitched, leads are not obliged to send a response to you. Each follow up
should be as polite as the first, at all times.
•• Be resourceful in your follow up by opting to try other channels. If your phone calls and
emails aren’t getting responses, try connecting with your lead on LinkedIn, tweeting them,
or sending a message on Facebook. You may also have several contacts for one prospective
client, you could try sending the others a message but make sure that you let them know
who else you’ve contacted in the company or it could make you look unprofessional.
•• Last but not least, always say thank you at the end of each encounter with a prospect.
Each time someone took the time out of their busy day to read your proposal or reply to
your text message regardless of the response, let them know that you are grateful with a
simple “Thank you”.

34
Employee Feedback Funnel
An efficient way to assess your business or marketing strategy and product design is to receive
feedbacks. All too often when specialists in marketing or advertising devise a plan or strategy,
they deem consumers as the best source of extracting evaluation about how a marketing
strategy fares or how the product design impacts them, and this is rightly so considering that it
is the consumers who are being courted by companies.
When specialists focus much of their attention to the target market, they tend to forget that
there is a considerable size of market within the business organization itself—the employees.
And this is because the employees after all have their own needs and that makes them as part
of the important market.
While there is no ethic in imposing loyalty among your employees, there are a few ways which
you can actually naturally reap their patronage—by listening to them. In fact, when you find a
means to listen to their thoughts, you are establishing healthy communication channels, which
by the way, results in a lot of mutual benefits, and loyalty could be among them.
A wise approach to this objective is to devise a system where your employees can post
comments, reviews or anything informative about your business strategy or product design.
With an intra-feedback system available in your business, your employees are empowered
when it comes to decision-making. Of course, to make this system work in your favour, you
can limit this privilege by imposing rules such as:
•• Limiting the posts or feedback to business related. This means that if the employees
may have had qualms about another co-employee or supervisor, the same is not allowed
or will be deleted.
•• Prohibiting cussing and foul words although they can use blunt words when making a
feedback.
One hindrance to enjoying the benefits of having an employee feedback funnel or to its success
is the fear among the employees of having their names indentified by the system. But this can
be eliminated when the system does not require the employee to key-in any information which
may lead to his identification like employee number or name.
An anonymous employee feedback funnel when initiated properly can provide you advantages
because of the following reasons:
•• The employees are in a position of seeing things often invisible to the manager or officer.
The employees are equipped with inside-perspectives on what works and what will not.
•• Corollary to the above, the employees have the perspective which when aired out can
help you figure out the consequence before it reaches the market. As a matter of fact, the
anonymous employee feedback funnel is a powerful tool to help your company come up
with marketing strategy or concept design which exactly attracts specific target markets.
Equally important to the initiative of having an anonymous employee feedback system is the
approach used in asking questions. The questions themselves can be artfully phrased or asked
in a manner that would engage the employee and motivate them in integrating honesty in their
insights. This way, they will feel more valued by your company.

35
Database Management System
Companies thrive on the data collected from customers. This is especially true when you do
business on the Internet. The data gathered must be accurate, recorded, tracked, and updated
on minutely basis, if you want to get ahead of your industry.
Data about leads, existing customers or prospects are better handled by an organized system,
where you can easily access them and execute actions particularly doing a follow-up.
Internally, the data are accessed by your employees to accomplish accounting reports, calculate
your sales estimates and to send invoices to your customers. The data are accessed to in
databases. Since the data increase over time and vary in many ways, it can be easy to get
lost somewhere while performing data-related tasks. The only reasonable approach to be
efficient in managing several databases and in relating them to each other is to have a database
management system.
Regardless of the size of your business, having a database management system will surely work
to your advantage. You are able to simultaneously manage with ease data in several types such
as customers, their inquiries and complaints.
The nature of database management systems are extreme versatility. There are customization
features to make the tasks simple and efficient. You can use a database management system in
many ways:
•• Access data. In the digital world, programs in database management system are
utilizing a language termed as Structured Query Language (SQL) in order to access, delete,
or update your data within their tables. Such programs, especially the SQL Server by
Microsoft and including all other MySQL systems that are open- source provide external
programs an access to their data through the SQL queries.
•• Search through the data. With a database management system, your business can
create and maintain data throughout the lifetime of your system. There are many tables in
the system that allow you to do searches through it using criteria. For example, customers
can do a search product tables using a name, price, brand, color or other criterion. The
database system keeps the data in sequential, predictable format to enable users to find
previous records without inconvenience.
•• Update the data. In a comprehensive database management system, you can delete
obsolete data, update existing records, or enter new data. For example, a sales agent who
sold a thousand units will necessarily record the transaction into the database management
system. The data entered will include the agent’s identification, customer information,
product sold including the quantity. The system itself will, after entering the new information
on the customer’s table, update the agent’s record by subtracting the thousand units sold
from your inventory record.
•• Relate data. Perhaps, one of the many and important functionalities of a database
management system is to manage the relationship of data to other data. For example,
when your database has a table about information of an employee and another table
about product sales, the system will manage what connects the two tables. Managing the

36
relationship between the data will help you determine which among your sales agents made
the most sales.

37
Innovation System
In its technical sense, innovation refers to new concepts, processes, or even devices. When it
comes to businesses, innovation is the introduction of new processes, applications, or services
which all offer better solutions. The business world is highly competitive. Changes are constant.
And in order to survive competition, you need to be innovative in your business. This means
being open to new ideas, strategies.
The introduction of Internet technology has revolutionized almost everything we need in order
to accomplish day-to-day activities. But even with the Internet, the need for innovation is ever
more important. In the digital age, innovation is more about imagination. It is about mobilizing,
being able to compete in new approaches.
Many companies understood that innovation is the key to success and these are Warby Parker,
Amazon, Shazam, WME, Tesla Motors, Box, T-Mobile, Water-Gen, Universal Identification
Authority of India, Fit Bit, Mary Ching, Wild China, Institute Sarita, Rose Studio, and Nisiss.
When you have an innovation system integrated into their organizations, your company will
never go out of business. In addition, your business will enjoy the following advantages:
•• Being responsive to competition and trends. With innovation, your mind works towards
discovering existing or future opportunities. Entrepreneurs are notonly concerned about
what they can offer to their existing clients, but more importantly, how they can continue to
keep their customers. This means anticipating future trends or developing a product, idea,
or service which allows you to meet future demands effectively and quickly. Innovation
helps you keep ahead of competition amidst shift in markets, trends, and technologies.
•• Being able to develop an incomparable selling point. From consumers’ perspective,
innovation is a way to add value to organizations or to their products. It is an effective
approach of having continued patronage by your customers and attracting new ones. When
a sound innovation system is integrated into your business, it can offer you an irresistible
commercial advantage—being able to successfully attack saturated markets or quickly-
changing markets. There are many customers who would never hesitate to shell out more
dollars for novel, well-crafted and innovative service or product, than to spend less for
something that is not given much attention by its designers.
•• Maximizing what you may already have. Contrary to what others believe, innovation
is not always about coming up with a new service or product as it may also be about
improving efficiency or quality of an already existing product or service. The practice of
having constant innovation in business will attract new customers, reduce unnecessary
losses, retain more quality staff, and increase profits.
•• Being able to differentiate yourself from the rest of competitors. If your product
or service is similar to any other, there is little chance of being chosen by your targeted
market. Among everyone in the line of business, why would the market pick your
business? What sets you apart from them? Innovation will make you stand out from the
rest.

38
Google Analytics
Part of your comprehensive marketing strategy is the Search Engine Optimization. For online
businesses, having your web site ranked on the first page of search engine results will definitely
give a boost to your conversion rates.
In Search Engine Optimization and marketing goals, one tool that should be taken advantaged
of is Google Analytics (It is free to use by all Google account owners). This friendly tool comes
with the following features:
•• Sales and conversions. Its accompanying tools include e-commerce reporting,
attribution model comparison tool, data-driven attribution, goal flow, goals, and multi-
channel funnels.
•• Data collection and management. It has User Permissions, filters, and API.
•• Audience behaviour and characteristics. The features include social reports, traffic
sources, map overlay, custom dimensions, audience data and reporting, browser/OS,
custom dimensions, flow visualization, and mobile traffic.
•• Campaign and advertising performance. Your business will benefit from its
accompanying tools for cost data import, mobile ads measurement, advertising reports,
campaign measurement, remarketing, and search engine.
•• Analysis and testing. You can track your dashboards, custom reports, annotations,
advanced segments, real-time reporting, and content experiments.
•• Mobile applications. As more users prefer the tablets and smartphones in browsing
the web including doing online shopping, many businesses created a mobile version of their
websites. With Google Analytics, you can take your business to a higher level with its iOS
and Android SDKs, Google play integration, crash and exception reporting, application
profiles, and application-specific metrics and dimensions.
•• Product integrations. The good thing about Google is that you can take advantage
of all its applications so long as you have an account with them. One benefit for being
a Google user is to integrate with its other products like Wildfire, Google+, AdWords,
AdSense, Google Display Network, and Google Tag Manager. Each of these products is
helpful in your business endeavour and when you use each one of them, your business will
surely achieve great results.
•• Site and Application performance. In nourishing your business, your attention to
details is important. There is so much to do when it comes to maintaining your web site.
With Google Analytics, you can do site-speed analysis, site search, in-page analysis, event
tracking, and even work on your alerts and intelligence events.
With Google Analytics 5, you can do a lot of awesome things to enhance your web site contents,
user experience, and conversions.
The dashboards, for example, are where you see the important data analytics whenever you

39
need to take a look at them when you log in. Google Analytics 5 dashboards are flexible. You
can create several of them and each can have different widgets.
As there are endless ways of launching online campaigns, you need to filter those which are
suitable for your business and line of strategies. Time is of the essence and you would only
choose those which can give you the most conversions or traffic. Google Analytics 5’s Advanced
Segments feature is very helpful on this part. The Advanced Segment is customizable as well. It
can monitor traffic for you from search directories in Google Analytics is highly efficient for both
small and medium-scale retail web sites.

40
Integrate Marketing
Department, Sales
Department and Customer
Department
Each department of a business implements important tasks. Every department enjoys autonomy
in planning and execution. But while each department has a domain to mind on its own, the
decisions and respective outcomes from different departments has an impact on how the
business fares in the market.
More importantly, for a business to achieve its goals, it needs collaboration from all departments.
Three departments that need integration are the sales, marketing and customer care. The
rationale for such principle is that they all affect one crucial element of a business—the
customers.
The integration that is recommended to be initiated in a business is the communications
aspect. These three departments must work in harmony towards uniform goals. When the
communications—which include processes—of these departments are integrated, everything
else flows naturally to your business’ advantage.
In fact, the work or performance of the sales, marketing, and customer care departments flow
similarly to how a domino functions. For example, just how efficient the marketing strategies
of your business are, is best assessed on how much sales your company makes on a daily,
weekly, monthly, quarterly, per annum or yearly basis (if you make an account on such basis).
Otherwise state, your sales reflect the performance of your marketing campaign.
Integrating Marketing, Sales and Customer Dept.
Marketing
Department
Customer
Department
Sales
Department

41
Moving on, irrespective of how much or less sales your business makes, there will always
be customers who will approach your company to express some concerns, which may be a
complaint, an inquiry on possible service or product your company might have also offered, or
a request for a service. Now, the crucial part is that, the performance of this department has a
huge effect on either your sales or marketing departments.
Integrating these three departments can give you benefits such as:
•• Create and maintain sound, functional, teamwork. Consistency is important in planning
and executing decisions including marketing campaigns. When there is consistency, all three
departments reinforce, strengthen, and support each other’s processes, which result in a
strong message to you customers.
•• It motivates creativity and innovation. Of course, while consistency is essential, you
need to be cautious not to create a bland, boring, and monotonous strategy. The key is to
use creativity without altering the message. Lines, slogans may be repeated or delivered in
different approaches. But the message is the same and it will create a lasting impression on
your customers’ memory.
•• It yields direct and quick results. When the great minds of each department work
together on a uniform theme, the results can be great. They can be quick as well. Words
will spread like a virus, and you can actually create a trend. Everybody will take about your
product or service.
•• It enables you to customize customers’ preference. To successfully customize
preference of customers, each department must collaborate with one another sharing
information gathered by each team. Complaints are addressed more efficiently, the
customer care improves accordingly, and information is given to customers accurately, and
thereby, strengthening customer loyalty.
•• It accelerates processes. Not only will it fast track transactions, it does so with the
least hassles, and at the lowest cost possible.

42
Active Customer Relationship
Management
As business is a multi-faceted undertaking, you need help to make everything under your
control. The processes normally associated with doing business can be overwhelming you
cannot afford to lose track of any of them. A very essential element in any business is your
clientele. The importance of maintaining communications with them cannot be underestimated.
You have to constantly maintain healthy relationships with each of them and at the same time,
manage other affairs.
Customer Relationship Management is a very helpful strategy to equip you with efficiently
juggling between managing customer interactions and company relationships. Such strategy
can increase profitability. With a sound customer relationship management campaign, you can
give due attention to your relationship with people including colleagues, customers, suppliers,
service users. It can even be used to as a tool to be hands-on on the human resources, customer
services or the supply-chain department.
Just on the aspect of customer alone, the customer relationship management enables you to
register contacts and leads, monitor every interaction with a client, reveal possibilities, and
keep your customer data. All of these functionalities can mean one thing—increase conversion
rates.
But although the importance of having a customer relationship management integrated in an
organization has long been established, not all businesses maintain this aspect constantly.
Thefollowingaretipsonhowtomaintainandoptimizeyourcustomerrelationshipmanagement
strategy:
•• Set your customer expectations. To be successful in building optimal customer
retention you have to set early your client expectations. Never wait. Do it earlier. With
this tactic, you can remove uncertainty when it comes to what service level you should
offer your clients to make them happy. Too, this can help make your vision clearer
because it allows your business to establish Key Performance Indicators toward particular
expectations, and insure you are over- delivering on time.
•• Become an expert. It is especially true that small to medium-scale businesses are
more service-dependent in running their operations. But the truth is, whichever industry
you belong, if you could be the expert in that field, there is no stopping your from retaining
more customers. Being a trusted advisor to your clients will establish customer loyalty and
decrease customer churn.
•• Take advantage of automation. While the task of actively maintaining the customer
relationship management is time-consuming, you need not manually work on its features.
In fact, it is recommended to automate the processes including customer follow-up. It
will help minimize downtime and at the same time, keep your customers’ networks on
optimal condition.
•• Build your Key Performance Indicators around your customer service. One
Become an expert. It is especially true
that small to medium-scale businesses
are more service-dependent in running
their operations. But the truth is,
whichever industry you belong, if you
could be the expert in that field, there is
no stopping your from retaining more
customers. Being a trusted advisor to
your clients will establish customer
loyalty and decrease customer churn.
2
Set your customer expectations. To be
successful in building optimal customer
retention you have to set early your
client expectations. Never wait. Do
it earlier. With this tactic, you can
remove uncertainty when it comes
to what service level you should offer
your clients to make them happy. Too,
this can help make your vision clearer
because it allows your business to
establish Key Performance Indicators
toward particular expectations, and
insure you are over- delivering on time.
1

43
sure way of improving your customer retention is to ameliorate your customer service
quality. According to statistics, 68 percent of customers walk away because of customer
dissatisfaction.
•• Be creative. Be thoughtful. Small matters count. And they matter most when they
are unexpected. For example, you can send greetings to your clients during occasions,
invitations to some events or just to special ones, and share with them interesting or related
news. Be creative. Be thoughtful. Small matters count. And they matter most when they
news.
news.
news.
news.
•• Be creative. Be thoughtful. Small matters count. And they matter most when they are
unexpected. For example, you can send greetings to your clients during occasions, invitations
to some events or just to special ones, and share with them interesting or related news.
Take advantage of automation. While
the task of actively maintaining the
customer relationship management
is time-consuming, you need not
manually work on its features. In fact,
it is recommended to automate the
processes including customer follow-
up. It will help minimize downtime
and at the same time, keep your
customers’ networks on optimal
condition.
3
Build your Key Performance Indicators
around your customer service. One
sure way of improving your customer
retention is to ameliorate your
customer service quality. According
to statistics, 68 percent of customers
walk away because of customer
dissatisfaction.
4
Becreative.Bethoughtful.Smallmatters
count. And they matter most when
they are unexpected. For example,
you can send greetings to your clients
during occasions, invitations to some
events or just to special ones, and share
with them interesting or related news.
5

44
Digital Business Strategy
According to the cultureist site, more than 2 billion people are using the Internet on a daily
basis. And that figure continues to rise each year. Many of these users surf the web to address
their needs—from clothing to medicine to food, cars, houses, and even services. Since the
invention of the Internet, we have started living in the digital age.
Whether you are selling a product or service, if you could just take advantage of that fact and
integrate digitization system in your businesses, there is no reason why your organization will
not grow. With the Internet, you can do business without the limitations of geography.
But bringing your business into the digital world is not enough. You need to devise a digital
business strategy which ought to be integrated into your online marketing, if you want to stay
on top of your competitors. Below are important motivators on why you need a digital business
strategy:
•• It gives you direction. Without a clear digital business strategy, many business
owners do not have concrete strategic goals within the context of online business. For
example, once the Internet is integrated into your business, you start entertaining
objectives like earning new customers, or building healthier or deeper relationships with
your existing clients. Of course without that necessary strategy, you will not bother to
put in enough resources to achieve those business goals. You will not make an effort using
analytics to evaluate how you are faring when it comes to such goals.
•• You will know your share on the online market. Online services have a very high
customer demand. If you know your share in the digital market, you will understand your
position in the digital marketplace. More importantly, you will have understanding of the
difference in the dynamics in traditional channels which have varying customer profile,
customer behavior, competitors, options for marketing interactions, and propositions,
among others.
•• It gives you information about your customers online. It is a given that when you
do business on the Internet, you have to know who your customers are. Knowing your
customers so well will give you that edge over your competitors. It will motivate you to be
innovative, to offer products or services which are what your customers exactly need.
•• It will help you become integrated. A dynamic digital business strategy is not about
using one channel or platform to course your marketing strategy. It is about a combination
of different tools, applications, processes or networks (including social media) which can all
lead you to the right customers. No doubt, when you are integrated, you are more focused.
•• You will receive feedback. Feedback from customers both existing and potential,
specialists, and fellow competitors is truly important. Getting feedback helps you
become more realistic when it comes to reaching for your goals. It helps you stay
competitive. Even the feedback your competitors are receiving from their customers can
be used to your advantage. It is useful in making changes to your strategy.
“Marketing’s job is
never done. It’s about
perpetual motion.
We must continue to
innovate every day.”
Beth Comstock

45
Active Market Information System
A great way of being able to make wise marketing decisions is to have a market information
system which allows you to smoothly bring together several types of data, equipment, people,
and procedure. The system is designed to gather, analyze, sort, assess, and distribute timely
needed information to decision makers according to the latter’s regular needs.
With an active market information system, you will not only be abreast of how things go.
More importantly, you will also understand why things are the way they are and which part of
your performance failed your plan. The data gathered and subsequently reported include real-
time information or performance of projects or cost centers. Included in the information are
important details to enforce individual accountability.
In addition, the market information system will produce reports on a fixed or regular schedule
to determine and notify decision problems whether structured or semi-structured. Despite
a business’ managerial sophistication level, the market information system will bring you the
following benefits:
•• It equips managers with information which can be shared with other decision makers
virtually. With data shared easily and timely among the team, the company can make wise
decisions particularly at crucial times.
•• It makes marketers collaborate conveniently with customers when it comes to
requirements or product designs. This feature initiates and harbors good relationships
with your customers. It makes them feel valued—that they are being made an important
consideration in making decisions.
•• It allows you to integrate with other systems. The market information system can work
together with a customer management system, for example, to cater to operational needs
such as processing customer transactions from completing a sale to delivering customer
service on a daily basis. In an essence, it makes you an efficient entrepreneur.
•• Get access to customer feedback and data. Armed with this valuable information,
your organization can align its business processes to fit the needs of your customers. With
an effective customer data management, your business has the advantage of executing
promotional and direct marketing campaigns. It avoids delays, prevents common mistakes,
predicts consequences, and helps you become more responsive to market needs.
•• Have in your possession a very valuable asset. In a highly competitive modern world,
information is deemed to be highly important asset a company can ever earn. For example,
you have got the powers when you know trends among the buying consumers or the
customers’ behavior. Such information is predictable when revenue and sales reports are
analyzed.
•• It helps you become innovative. An active market information system makes you
knowledgeable about the latest products released in the market, how the consumers react
to such products or how the products fare in the market. When you have this information,
your business can make adjustments not just to fit in the market, but to dominate the market.
•• It provides feedback about your marketing strategies. As mentioned earlier, when you
take advantage of a market information system, you can evaluate performances. You will
have information about every segment of your marketing—which areas need more work
and which need maintenance.

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