VP marketing is one of the most important positions in any company, especially for digital companies that depend heavily on technology to thrive. AVPs are the face of your business to potential customers, so how well you market yourself and your product depends largely on their popularity and influence.
As we grow closer to the winter season here in the northern hemisphere, many people will be thinking about hibernation and slowing down production or activity levels. For some businesses, this thought can mean preserving capital and resources until next year.
For other businesses, however, spring has sprung! This article will discuss what kind of role an entry level position like Vice President of Marketing entails, and some basic tips for aspiring marketers with no direct supervisory experience.
I would also like to address another common misconception about VPs of Marketing. Many believe that a marketing vice president must have his/her own marketing team under him/her, but this is not always the case. In fact, there are even some companies without a formalized VP of Marketing position.
What exactly is the job description of a VP of Marketing?
The very definition of a VP of Marketing differs from person to person, which makes it hard to describe the position clearly. According to our experts, the VP of Marketing’s main goal should be “to take care of the whole customer journey, from awareness to purchase to use” (Source).
Creating a successful internal marketing team takes time! It also requires that you know what steps need to be taken for each of your departments to feel comfortable promoting Vanlalujaar.com or the product line within their department.
As mentioned before, every employee in your organization should feel free to promote the company and its products anywhere at any time. This is important because if someone does not feel this way, they may go out of their way to keep themself uninvolved with the company.
If this happens, he/she will not help spread the word about the company, which would hurt business. You want everyone working for the company to actively contribute to the success of the company and its products, so make sure that is done!
What I like to do is give people a goal to aim for when it comes to internal promotions. For example, let’s say there is an accountant who has been doing his job very well for the past year. He never gets much attention though, as other employees notice how professional he looks but none of his colleagues ever see him enjoying himself at work.
He deserves a chance to show off his skills however, so I ask all accounting staff whether anyone knows anything about buying gift cards. I then have him pick between two types of card (x-amount amazon gift cards and x-number walgreens gift cards) and price per item.
Creating your business’s online presence is the next step in building your marketing strategy. This includes creating an individual profile or page for your company on social media sites, developing a solid web presence that people will recognize, and producing engaging content to promote your services.
Your potential clients may look you up across various platforms with ease, so make sure those images, videos, and descriptions are clear and match what your business offers. Your email should be easily viewable as well!
By investing time into this area of your business, you will create a sense of consistency which will help keep customers coming back. You can also use these sites to spread word about your business and products effectively.
And don’t forget to stay organized! Make notes, save articles for later reading, and update your pages when needed.
A promotional campaign is not only about spending money, it’s also about developing an effective strategy that includes creating messaging and advertisements to promote your product or service.
Just because you have the resources to spend heavily during a limited time frame does not mean that you should use them, unless you know what you are doing!
Too many brands make the mistake of going all-in with their marketing strategies too quickly without first establishing themselves as an authentic source through social media and other channels.
They start spending lots of money to get the word out there about their products before they even prove that they can sustain long term success. This sometimes backfires and actually makes people question if the company will be around next season!
This isn’t necessarily bad, but it is important to establish yourself as an integral part of the community first in order to win over some loyal customers. Find ways to interact with others online and create engaging content to draw attention.
Another way to use social media to promote your business is to distribute promotional material such as flyers, brochures, or advertisements that feature you or your products.
You can take advantage of all sorts of free resources to create and edit these promotional items. There are many websites where you can make an account and then design, write, and edit your item quickly.
Some of the sites let you produce printed copies directly from your computer so those with little technical knowledge can do it for you! All you need to know is some basic writing and graphic editing.
These items are very effective in generating new leads and sales for your business. People who get involved by passing along the advertisement will definitely be inspired to visit the company’s website or at least check out their services.
Even though you might want to lower your prices, do not drop them more than needed unless you have enough revenue coming in! If you are offering too much value for your product or service, then people will not purchase it because there is no sense in buying what you already have.
Your pricing should be aligned with how much you want to make from your products and services. You must know yourself and your skills before deciding where to place your prices.
If you feel that your current prices are too high, try lowering them! There are many ways to go about doing this; you can decrease the list price, reduce the sale percentage, increase supply, or use promotional discounts.
As we already discussed, knowing your target audience is the first step to successful marketing. But now it's time to get more specific with that information!
What people are looking for changes constantly, which is why it is important to stay up-to-date on the trends in your field. This will give you an edge over competitors who may be struggling to keep up.
Research and experiment to find out what works for your business and what does not. Find mixers and hosts at social events, visit local businesses and see how they promote themselves, read reviews online and compare prices to determine if there is better value elsewhere.
By staying informed and experimenting with new strategies, you'll land on some good ones that can help your business grow.
As mentioned earlier, marketing is more than just advertising yourself or spending money to promote what you sell. It includes connecting with people to get their attention and then engaging them in ways that are meaningful to you and them.
This is known as engagement marketing. Creating conversations that motivate action are your main focus here.
Conversations that make people feel understood, appreciated, and heard are the ones that keep them coming back. And we’re not talking about small talk here – it needs to be meaningful to those speaking and for others to recognize that they have value.
What do you want to achieve? What messages do you want to spread? If these things matter to you, you will need to connect with other people to help you fulfill your goals.
Your potential customers and clients are a valuable source of information. They can tell if you are worth investing time in and if your message makes sense to them.
Another way to strengthen your company’s reputation is by encouraging word-of-mouth marketing or, as it's more commonly known, testimonials. By asking potential customers for feedback, you establish an interactive relationship that benefits both parties.
Testimonials can help promote your product through credibility. If someone else has used your product successfully, then people will trust their opinion of it.
By adding a short review to your website or business social media pages, you create an opportunity to showcase the products features and qualities. These reviews are also helpful in building relationships with your audience, as well as creating new followers and supporters.
In addition to helping your business grow, using testimonials helps boost engagement levels. The more comments you get, the higher the follower activity level!
So how do you ask for customer feedback? There are two main types of testimonial requests: soft and hard.
Soft testimonials require no details about who the reviewer is or what they said. They are simply statements such as “I love my [product/service]” or “It works! I've tried others but this one does x.”
Hard questions require at least a first name and email address of the person doing the reviewing so that you can follow up later. This is not necessary unless you want to verify whether they are real person accounts.
