In our last article, we took a broad overview of how Reach Revenue help businesses to achieve their sales revenue goals. Reach Revenue’s Directors, John Linney and Nik Smith, have, based on their combined four decades of senior sales and marketing leadership, crafted a way of working with any small, medium, or large enterprise, which reliably and consistently leads to the growth of a loyal and committed client base.
In this piece, we will expand further on the first stage of the Reach Revenue model, that of creating ‘awareness’.
Baselining your brand awareness
If there is one lesson we have learned over the decades of refining our approach, it is to take nothing for granted. Our first task is to establish to what extent our client has created an identity for themselves, and more importantly, if this has been effective. It is not uncommon to ask this question of senior management, only to be advised that they ‘think’ they have. To this, we have three main questions:
How do you know?
Are you sure you have raised awareness with the correct audience? And;
If you have found the correct audience, has your identity resonated with them?
Without answers to these questions, any narrowing of the sales and marketing funnel is not possible. But, how do you find answers to these questions?
At Reach Revenue, we have developed a robust skillset in the use of data analytics to probe business data, to determine with precision the strength of our client’s existing awareness, branding, and identity.
At the centre of our approach to data analytics is asking not just what is happening, but why, and how. Analytics giant, Gallup, believe that too many firms fail to do precisely this, and that bringing these three aspects together, it then becomes possible to place the business in the best position for the future.
To this end, we know that quantitative measures are not enough; it is also vital to include qualitative measures to provide an accurate baseline of brand effectiveness. We achieve this by speaking directly to prospective clients and seeking their valuable perspectives. Woven together, the insights from data and other sources provides the baseline on which start our sales and marketing journey.
Creating a solid foundation
Having established our starting point, our next objective is to create an awareness campaign which is fit for purpose. In some cases, this may require subtle improvements to an already effective and well received branding effort. In many cases, however, this is where the real work commences. Understanding who is your prospective client base, what they need, and why they need it cannot be avoided. All too often, these answers are not fully understood, leading to frustratingly low rates of client attraction.
To start to answer these questions, we must challenge the status quo
Who are your clients?
If you don’t know your precise target market, down to their ages, education levels, locations, likes, dislikes, occupations, stage of business cycle, we will find out for you. We will also ask questions such as, ‘is the market you are currently targeting actually correct?’ For example, if your organisation sells software to the legal industry, do you really need to constrain your market focus to this area? What about those tangential businesses, such as tax advisors, accountants and other such professional occupations? While the messaging may vary between each target market, the opportunity to raise awareness outside of your traditional vertical could prove highly lucrative.
What do your clients need?
By reaching the correct audience with the incorrect product, message, and hence solving the wrong problem, your campaign will not gain traction. But more than this, in the current era of social media and ‘big data’, prospective clients have come to expect businesses to fully understand their challenges, and to do so before they do. From the client’s perspective, they will start to become aware of your business just as they have the need for products and services; and all of this is possible with the use of predictive data analytics. By leveraging predictive data analytics, businesses can head their prospective clients ‘off at the pass’ and reap the rewards.
Why do your clients need your products and services?
Understanding the ‘why’ aspect of client need is vital. It is not enough to assume that just because a client makes a buying decision, you necessarily understand the reason for that decision. Are prospective clients looking for quality, price, efficiency gains, speed, time to market, to support a local business, or are they looking to partner with a business with strong ethics and a focus on environmental sustainability? To this end, we look to increase brand awareness by accentuating and refining how we communicate how your products or services:
Meet clients’ needs for features, benefits, quality, and price (product)
Benefit the customer’s business or personal life (process)
Impact the customer’s revenues and profits (performance)
Taking the next step
Raising awareness is both a science and an art. By blending our experience gained in senior leadership roles in sales and marketing for some of the UK’s largest and most successful businesses, the science of data analytics, and an iterative process of refinement, we can quickly create a new strategy for awareness of your brand, business, products and services. With this in place, the following stages of attraction, engagement, conversion, and retention will lead to the sales revenue success your organisation needs.
Reach Revenue works with business owners, leaders and investors to develop high performing sales and marketing teams aligned to the strategic objectives of their business. To find out how we can help you, please call 0203 858 8030 or email info@reachrevenue.net.