While the modern business world has dealt with downturns before, the current situation is unlike any that we've previously experienced. This doesn’t mean the worst predictions are necessarily accurate – they rarely are – but it's hard to predict what's going to happen. However, by taking steps to maximise the return that you're getting from your investment in sales and marketing now, you'll be better placed to grow your business whatever the future brings.
How to Achieve your Goal
So, how can you ensure that you're spending your budget effectively? Here are five steps to take now if you want to stay on the path to business success:
Calculate your Acquisition Costs
You can't increase your return on investment if you don't know how much it costs you to make a sale. What's more, you may be undercharging or overcharging for your products and services, and that could be causing damage to your bottom line. The types of products and services that your clients are buying and the channels that they are using to buy them may have changed as a result of the pandemic, so take this into account too.
Reassess your Marketing Activities
Analyse your sales and marketing data to ensure that you're utilising the most profitable marketing methods and channels. Inbound marketing methods, such as content marketing, email marketing, or social media marketing, tend to be more cost-effective than outbound methods, such as cold calling. However, you need to co-ordinate your inbound marketing activities effectively and use your ideal clients' preferred channels, or your ROI won't be as high as it could be.
Identify Ways to Boost Staff Productivity
If your sales and marketing staff are more productive, your acquisition costs will drop and your profits will increase. One of the best ways to increase productivity is to harness the power of the latest technology. If you aren't already using a sales, marketing, and customer relationship management platform, such as HubSpot, now's the time to start. It will enable your staff to work together more efficiently and organise their time better, while giving you instant access to the performance data that you need.
Improve your Relationship-Building Techniques
It's even more important to nurture your prospects and existing clients in difficult times, so that you can increase sales and reduce your acquisition costs. Therefore, you need to ensure that your relationship-building processes are up to scratch. Keep on your prospective clients' radars by implementing effective follow-up communication and content marketing strategies, and automate these activities wherever possible to save both time and money.
Use a Professional Business Growth Agency
Finally, hire an experienced business growth agency, such as JDR. We can help you formulate and deliver a cost-effective, scalable plan to maximise your sales and marketing ROI. Our team of experts can analyse your current strategy and results, and give you advice that's tailored to your company's unique needs.
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