OUTSIDE-IN MARKETING: Part 1 of 4

OUTSIDE-IN MARKETING is a brief 4-part series on building demand for your business. I developed it together with my colleague, Kevin Renner when we were consulting together.

Part 1: "Marketing is for Growth"

You need to build a sustainable competitive advantage and differentiate yourself in a way that drives more in your target market to purchase from you, again and again. It’s not enough to simply design, build, sell and support a product or service.

We’ve distilled three essential marketing programs that work together to help you grow your business. We call the approach, Outside-In Marketing, and it includes strategies and programs for: Target Marketing; Brand Building & Communications; and Lead Generation & Management.

Here it is in the context of a demand-generation marketing plan:

Mission: Grow sustainable demand for your products and services at a compound

annual growth rate of ___%.

Strategy: Implement an optimal mix of marketing programs to build your brand and your sales pipeline.

Objective 1: Identify, size, and understand the target market.

• Who are they?
• What do they want?
• How do they get it?

Objective 2: Build a brand promise, then communicate and deliver on it.

• Get top-down support for an internal branding effort
• Translate the brand promise into a perception-change strategy and action plan.

Objective 3: Scale lead generation and closed-loop lead management.

• Develop and implement a Pipeline Strategy with key stakeholders
• Agree on and implement a Lead Definition and scoring method
• Agree on / implement Rules of Engagement for inquiries, leads, and customers

The next three parts will look more deeply into Target Marketing, Brand Building & Communications, and Lead Generation & Management.