David Searns | Co-CEO
But I want it now!
Do you remember watching Willy Wonka as a kid?
And do you remember Veruca Salt, the bratty kid who demanded that her father immediately give her everything she wanted—including the goose that laid the golden (chocolate) eggs?
Well, thanks to companies like Amazon, we've all become a little like Veruca Salt.
We expect. No, we demand, instant gratification.
And when it comes to our sales teams, recruiters and marketing results…we want it now!
But that's not how marketing works. Or sales. Or recruiting (if you need hard-to-find talent).
The 3-Month Marketing Lag
Right now, I am sitting in an airport, on my way to a conference where I will be teaching a class on sales and marketing integration to a group of staffing firm owners.
As I was reading my email, I came across an article from Blake Emal talking about the "3-month marketing lag."
The lead in this story was an incredibly simple truism:
It takes marketing results 3 months to catch up with marketing efforts.
So often, when I speak with staffing executives, I hear tons of interest in finding new ways to sell and more cost-effective ways to recruit.
But not a lot of patience.
People want to send an email and have leads flood their inbox. Run an ad and have web traffic explode. Optimize a website and be #1 on Google the next day.
I want that too. But unlike Veruca, you and I can't have it now.
Setting realistic expectations
So, how long should it take to get results from your marketing? Let's look at a few regularly cited stats:
- In advertising, someone needs to see your ad 21 times to recall your message.
- In sales, it takes 6 to 9 touches to capture someone's attention and 15-17 to get their interest, yet 90% of salespeople give up in four or less.
- With PPC campaigns, you'll see results in the first few weeks, but it typically requires 3 to 6 months of testing to optimize the campaign.
- SEO efforts generally take around 6 months before they start to drive meaningful results.
But what if you want faster results?
(insert sarcasm)
Then you should have started three months ago!
Accelerating Marketing Response
Let's wrap up today's newsletter with some good news.
You can make marketing go faster.
Here are 7 strategies to accelerate your response:
- Narrow your focus.
The more focused you are on a specific audience, the easier it is to create impactful marketing. 40% of marketing response comes from picking the right prospects.
- Create compelling offers.
Give people a reason to take action. 40% of marketing response is predicated on what you offer.
- Integrate marketing and sales.
Your prospects are lazy. Even the ones that want to talk with you are unlikely to make an effort to reach out (it's easier to stick with their current vendors). To overcome inertia and increase marketing response, pick up the phone!
- Be systematic.
Create a structured process that integrates multiple forms of outreach with sales calls to maximize the probability of reaching your target audience.
- Don't rely solely on digital communication.
Email is fast and easy. Same with LinkedIn messaging. But the average person receives 121 emails per day. And most of your prospects are above average! To make your marketing stand out, integrate physical touches like mail, package deliveries, drop offs, and calls.
- Use emotion.
People buy emotionally…then justify their decisions rationally. If you want to have a stronger marketing impact, hit their heartstrings before selling your benefits.
- Be persistent.
As I have written before in SMART IDEAS, you have to play the long game to win in sales, recruiting and marketing.
If you missed that issue, here it is:
https://newsletter.haleymarketing.com/newsletter.smpl?arg=deliverable_display&d=54412&did=54412&aud=company
2025 Will Be a Good Year…if You Act Now
Things are looking up for the staffing industry.
We're anticipating slow growth for the rest of this year and stronger growth next year.
But why wait?
In every past downturn, the companies that recovered earliest…and then grew the fastest were the ones that got aggressive with sales and marketing in advance of the upturn.
Assuming Blake is right…and you have a 3-month marketing lag, now is the time to take action.
Now is the time to put the right marketing in place to ensure you have a great 2025.
Need help figuring out what to do with your marketing?
Download our Strategic Vision workbook and our SMART MARKETING checklist.
You find them both here:
https://www.haleymarketing.com/haley-resources/ebooks/ |
