Most people enjoy long-lasting relationships, as long as they’re positive and beneficial for those involved. Long-lasting relationships feed on open and consistent communication, which means that it’s important to speak to whomever you’re in a relationship with. Speaking – communicating – involves conversation. Conversation involves listening, and listening is a valuable skill.
Especially for marketers.
At Artonic we believe that it’s part of our job as amazing digital marketers to cultivate long-lasting relationships with our clients. To us, that means we engage in conversation with our clients on a consistent basis. And that means asking questions, so we can listen to the answers.
It’s important to listen, because that’s how you learn. By learning what our clients need and want, we are better able to define reasonable goals on which to focus your marketing campaign.
It’s our hope that your marketing team engages in regular, open communication with you, their client. But even if they don’t, you can open up the dialog yourself.
Start the Dialog
Questions are a big part of getting to know the person with whom you’re in a relationship, so we’ve put together our top three questions that can start great dialog between you and your marketing team!
Question #1: What are Your Goals?
Establishing a goal is the foundation of your campaign. Without a goal, what will you focus your campaign on? A goal establishes meaning and gives the team something to work toward.
Open the dialog with your marketing team by informing them of your goals.
Ask yourself: What do I want from this marketing campaign? Then ask yourself if the goal is worth pursuing. A strong goal is based on reality, measurable, and achievable within a specific time frame.
For example, you may decide that your goal is to get more people to visit your website. That’s a good start, but doesn’t really identify anything specific to work toward. To make this goal more attainable, let’s ask a few more questions, like, How many people visit your website now? and, What is your time period for increasing website traffic? Three weeks? Three months? Also, What amount of visitors do you want to increase to? To have a great goal, ensure that you can actually reach that goal within a reasonable time frame, and that you understand the baseline that you’re starting from.
When you bring up your goals to your marketing team, get ready to have a in-depth conversation; your team will have several follow-up questions as they listen to your goals.
Question #2: How are Your Leads?
Your marketing team will ask this question after your campaign is in full swing, meaning it’s been a minimum of six to eight months since your marketing activities started. But once your campaign is fully underway, the first question your agency will ask each week/month/quarter is, How are the leads?
Answer this question honestly. If they’re great and you’re happy, then your marketing team is happy, too! If not, let them know what’s going on because it indicates that something’s not quite right with your marketing campaign.
Most marketing campaigns have the goal of increasing leads, but a low amount of leads may not be your problem. You may be getting tons of leads, but not many that are qualified, or not many that close.
Let your marketing team know, and be candid. Let them know the amount and types of leads you’re receiving and also what amount and type you’d like to receive. (And be sure that your goals for leads are measurable and achievable within a specific time frame.)
Another discussion to have regarding leads is, Where are they coming from? Be sure you’re asking your leads how they’ve found you, so you can tell your marketing team.
Question #3: How are Sales?
Sales are what makes your company go ’round, so it’s vital that your marketing team knows how sales are.
This requires some openness from you, to share your sales details. But it’s worth it. And you can always manipulate the data, or use a percentage instead of actual numbers.
The thing to remember is that it’s very difficult to work toward a goal – i.e. More leads – when you’re unsure how many leads are coming in or how many leads are desired. And that may be how your marketing team feels if you’re not filling them in. Keep them in the loop; they want to know the results of their efforts.
Keep the Dialog Open
These three questions are only a starting point; ideally, you’ll have lots of in-depth conversations about goals, leads, sales, and everything else with your marketing team! As you should – your relationship with your marketing team is vital to the strength of your campaigns, and to your success online. And that relationship thrives on communication and conversation.
Other Great Questions
Your team won’t only focus on leads and sales, they’ll ask about virtually everything to do with your company! Other great topics of conversation include:
- Your company vision and mission statement
- Target audience segments
- Competition
- Scripts for employees to handle leads
- Call tracking
- Top client questions and concerns
Your marketing team will constantly ask you questions for the life of your campaign, and you should ask questions, too.
If you’re curious about something, ask! Your team is here for you – they want you to succeed, and they want know when their efforts hit the mark and when they don’t. It’s not fair to your team if you have a question or concern, but don’t address it with them. They’re part of your team, too; don’t shut them out.
Do you have anything to add? Let us know – leave your thoughts in the comment section below!
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