Follow These Top 10 Marketing MUSTS for Every Campaign

The other day, as we were talking, a client shared with me an email campaign sent out to close to 400 prospects, with a phone follow-up, that generated a big fat ZERO.

Ouch.

To be clear, this wasn’t one of my campaigns, but one they received from a vendor. After reviewing it, I saw that it violated almost every one of the “10 Commandments” of good IT services marketing.

Sigh.

Unfortunately, I see this a lot. Time and again, I see campaigns that are hastily slapped together without any strategy or understanding of what it takes to get a response. In every instance, it results in time and money wasted.

This doesn’t have to happen.

Therefore, I thought it would be beneficial to provide a slightly revised list of “MUSTS” for every campaign. Here are 10 things that every marketing campaign MUST have:

1. There MUST be absolute crystal clarity on who you want to attract as a client.
2. The list MUST be validated, segmented and cleaned to avoid waste and to ensure the message is tightly matched to the market (prospect) receiving it.
3. There MUST be an offer that the prospect will see high value in receiving.
4. There MUST be strong sales copy that sells the offer or next step, not just the ultimate product or service.
5. The communication MUST be written to enter “the conversation going on” in the prospect’s or client’s mind.
6. There MUST be testimonials and/or other trust and credibility-building facts.
7. There MUST be clear, specific instructions on how to respond, and more than one way to respond, ideally offline and online.
8. There MUST be multiple communications/touches, ideally using more than one media.
9. There MUST be accurate tracking and measurement.
10. There MUST be a plan in place to quickly follow up on leads generated.

Most businesses fail from a lack of revenue and profit. A business’ most crucial function is getting and retaining customers at a healthy profit margin. Running a sporadic marketing campaign here and there won’t cut it. You need a thriving, consistent marketing system that consistently delivers leads.

Trust me, I know. I’ve worked with, mentored and assisted thousands of IT business owners. When it comes to marketing, you cannot afford to overlook the MUSTS.

Robin Robins helps CEOs of IT services firms (managed IT services providers, VARs, systems integrators, etc.) create marketing systems that attract more and better quality clients. Her method is based on over a decade of research, testing and refinement of marketing campaigns, working directly with over 8,000 IT services firms from across the country and around the world. This has enabled her company to develop proven, reliable marketing systems for selling IT services that have an extremely high-level of effectiveness.