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Follow These 12 Simple Rules To Design A Website That Grows Brand Value and Builds Brand Equity

12/14/2018

5 Comments

 
Good Design is Powerful. Great Design is Invisible. - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
“Good design accelerates the adoption of new ideas.”
---Yves Behar (Swiss designer, entrepreneur and an educator)
 
Over the years, we’ve helped a good number of startup companies and non-profit organizations develop and implement long-term growth strategies. Without question, one of biggest challenges we typically face when working with their leadership teams is convincing them to invest aggressively in their brands.

We’ve found that entrepreneurs and non-profit executives often place branding on the lower end of the priority scale because it's difficult for them to see the tangible benefits. Oftentimes, they assume that money spent on branding diminishes their operational capacity. Such thinking tends to be a penny-wise but pound-foolish approach.

This is particularly true when it comes to web design. In today’s world, your website is typically one of the first points of contact between your organization and your target audience. Strong web design often propels your organization to success. Conversely, poor web design can completely subvert your mission.

First impressions matter. Make a bad impression, and you’ll likely lose potential conversions. Make a good one, and you’ll typically gain new customers. More importantly, you’ll potentially earn a customer for life if you make a great impression.

In other words, quality web design is crucial to your mission. A high-quality website greatly increases the value of your brand in the minds of your target audience. Furthermore, wise investments in your digital assets ultimately build brand equity for your organization. With this in mind, here are the twelve design rules we suggest you follow in order to squeeze the most out of your website.
​
RULE #1 – Visual Design Matters
Visual branding transcends every aspect of a company's presence in the marketplace. Consequently, effective graphic design is crucial if you wish to generate interest and attention from your target audience. The look and feel of your website often determines whether customers will interact or do business with you in just a few short seconds.

Effective design takes time, effort and a modicum of skill.  That said, the effectiveness
Good Design is Powerful. Great Design is Invisible. - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
of your design will be evaluated instantly by your visitors. Their first impressions will likely determine if, when and how they decide to interact with your site, brand or business. A visually pleasing design scheme will create a favorable first impression and increase visitor engagement.

Here are the design elements that attract your visitor’s attention first and foremost:
  • Your images and graphics (particularly if they're large or over-sized)
  • Your logo and your branded elements
  • Your font and color schemes
  • Your main navigation menu
  • Your text headlines
  • Your website footer and contact information

Tip: Effective visuals and a crisp, clean design add credibility and legitimacy to your website. Effective design also helps establish trust in your brand. This is especially important if you're trying to convert a sale or sway opinions. A visitor will associate the experience they have on your website with the experience they are likely to have with you in real life.
 
 
RULE #2 – Get to Know SEO
To make the most of your Internet real estate, you need to design and build a website that can be found on the major search engines (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.).

The art and science of ranking in search is commonly known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). An effective content strategy accounts for the search terms your target audience uses on a day-to-day basis. An effective strategy also incorporates customized content (e.g. videos, blog articles, podcasts, e-books, etc.) based on your audience's demands and preferences.

Successful SEO requires patience and attention to detail. An extensive knowledge of how search engines work is helpful, and it generally takes time and practice to achieve sustainable success. That said, you’ll be off to a good start and probably gain an advantage over your competition once you get the basics down. After mastering the basics, you can always move on to advanced levels of SEO down the road.

Tip: If you’re just starting out with SEO, it’s a good idea to begin simple. For example, concentrate on improving your site in each of the following five areas:
  • The quantity and quality of inbound links to your website
  • Fresh and regular keyword-rich content updates
  • Optimized meta descriptions and title tags
  • Creating an efficient and effective User Experience (UX)
  • Mobile friendliness / mobile optimization

​
RULE #3 – Responsive Websites Rank Better
Mobile search now accounts for over 60% of total search volume; and that figure is only expected to increase over the next few years.

Indeed, 80% of internet users own a smartphone, and Google indicates that “61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing and 40% visit a competitor’s site instead.” Therefore, the look, feel, form and function of your website on mobile devices is crucial to your long-term success.
Today, every website should be responsive. If you don’t have the time or budget develop a mobile application, then responsive web design is the preferred solution.

With responsive web design, a designer creates a site that “responds to” or automatically resizes
Responsive Website Example  - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
based on the dimensions of the viewing device. For example, the look and feel of a site viewed on an over-sized desktop computer monitor, a laptop, or devices with small screens such as smartphones and tablets, is generally consistent across all devices.

Tip: Most of the major drag-and-drop website builders (e.g. Weebly, Wix, Squarespace, etc.) now include responsive design templates as part of their standard product offerings.


RULE #4 – Your Navigation Menu Matters
Navigation is a crucial component of effective website design. Your navigation menu is basically a map that displays the key places you want your visitors to explore. If your website’s navigation menu isn’t effective, visitors will overlook important content. Worse still, they may become frustrated and abandon your site altogether.

When examining the effectiveness of your website's navigation menu, it's important to ensure that it’s clear, concise and relatively simple. Common characteristics of an effective navigation menu include:
  • It’s easy to find – either across the top horizontally or on the left as a vertical sidebar
  • It’s consistent – visitors will find your navigation menu in the same location on every page
  • It’s specific – avoid overly generic phrases and buzzwords (use descriptive names instead)
  • It’s minimal – streamline the number of navigation links (seven main menu items is now considered a best-practice maximum)
  • It’s a location marker – it's best to provide visitors clues as to where they are once they navigate away from your home page (use a consistent highlight appearance throughout your site)

Tip: The bottom of your page isn’t necessarily the end of your site and the space for your copyright notice. An effective footer also allows visitors dig deeper into your site.  Meaning, you shouldn't forget to include a secondary navigation menu in your website footer. As an added benefit, the additional internal links positively influence your page search rankings.
.

RULE #5 – Take Time When Crafting Your Content Headers
If you effectively utilize and optimize your h1, h2 and h3 header tags, you can greatly improve your website’s search rankings and thereby increase organic traffic. That said,  designers all too often miss the mark when creating the header tags for their web pages. 

Header tags are a critical on-page SEO factor because search engines use them to categorize your site’s content. Search engines prioritize the copy in your header tags above your text paragraph sections. The hierarchy begins with your h1 tag and moves down in importance to the h2, h3, etc. In other words, your header tags supplement the mission or purpose of your web pages.

It’s important to structure your header tags appropriately. To truly be effective, it’s important to include short-tail and long-tail keywords in your header tag content. When the search engines crawl your site, they read your header tags and recognize the keywords you’ve incorporated. They’re factored in to the algorithms the search engines use to prioritize and rank your pages in their search results.

Tip: Your h1 tag should contain keywords targeted toward your audience. Your keywords should relate directly to your page title as well as your body content. As a general rule, you should only use one h1 tag on each page.

Your h2 tags are subheadings. They should contain keywords related to your h1 tag. Subsequently, your h3 tags are subheadings for your h2 tags, etc. In short, order your header tags in a hierarchy based on importance.
​

Also, ensure that your header tags are grammatically correct and coherent. Packing your header tags with keywords may in-fact hurt your search rankings. Google and Bing’s algorithms are sophisticated – attempts to manipulate search rankings generally do more harm than good.
 

RULE #6 –Forget the Fold
The term “above the fold” refers to the portion of a web page that’s visible in a browser window when the page first loads.  The remaining portion of the page that requires scrolling in order to view content is called the "below the fold" section.

Old design standards emphasized keeping as much relevant content above the fold as the space allowed for. That said, above the fold rules are mostly old news today.
Above the Fold Website Example - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
Most visitors are comfortable scrolling a web page these days. Consequently, design emphasis has shifted toward optimizing aesthetics and form styling in recent years. A longer home page is now acceptable and offers some strategic advantages as well. Including 3-5 sections on your home page helps point visitors to key areas of your site. It also creates a more seamless user experience for your visitors.

Tip: Here’s a list of the key elements you should consider including in the sections of your home page:
  • An elevator pitch (brief about us)
  • A compelling value proposition
  • An introductory video
  • An overview of your products and/or services
  • A list of features and benefits
  • Testimonials or press mentions
  • Case studies/success stories
 

RULE #7 – Make Effective Use of White Space
Believe it or not, white space is a critical design element. The term refers to the areas around your page elements that are empty and lack content or visual items.

White space improves readability and helps you compartmentalize your content. It also tends to decrease the apprehension level of new visitors. A page stuffed full of text and/or graphics with minimal white space generally appears busy or cluttered. This diminishes your user experience (UX) and typically leads to a high bounce rate.
Incredibly, nearly ninety percent of all purchase decisions are made subconsciously. This means that your customers are driven by emotional processes, rather than intellectual ones. In other words, comforting aesthetics, high-quality visual branding and positive user experiences tend to trigger calls to action.
Website Whitespace Example - White Space - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
Tip: If your web page lacks white space, review the page and strip elements or content that aren't necessary to the purpose of the page. After that, make sure this content is properly grouped so users are able to distinguish correlations on the page.
 

RULE #8 – Invest Time In Social Media
Effective use of social media really drives website traffic. In fact, over 26% of all traffic now comes from social media sites vs. 35% from search. Given that 62% of people list social media as a primary news source, your organization can’t afford to be silent on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks if you wish to stay relevant.
.
Besides being a valuable traffic and lead source, social media offers a unique opportunity to strengthen your brand’s awareness and reach. While organic search and paid advertisements generate attention, social media tends to spark interest. For example, people can begin following you with a simple click of a button on most social media sites. This provides an opportunity to engage with an interested audience on a regular basis and likely generate additional revenues long-term.

If all this sounds new to you, then we suggest you begin by setting up branded social media accounts and then embed social sharing buttons on the key pages of your website. Social sharing buttons contain icons from your preferred social sites and allow your visitors to share your content directly on their social media feeds. In other words, engaged visitors amplify your brand within their social circles and ultimately drive new traffic to your website.

Tip: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are social media juggernauts. However, they aren't the only players in the game. Indeed, the social media landscape has changed considerably in recent years and the industry is becoming more and more competitive. A plethora of new “free speech” social media startups offer unique opportunities to quickly make a name for yourself. We suggest you check out up-and-coming players like Gab, InfinitySN, Minds and Free Talk which currently seem to be operating under the radar of most major brands. 
 
 
RULE #9 – Leverage and Grow Your Brand Assets
Your website is your public persona. It creates a lasting image of who you are. Therefore, carefully consider what you want your local, domestic and international communities to know about you, your product or your services. Once you've identified your desired game plan, meticulously craft your image and effectively manage your message.
An effective website engages your audience but still conveys critical information in an obvious way. It also allows you tell your brand story in a memorable fashion. Consequently, your website should contain content and images that affirm your vision, mission and values with your target audience. In other words, images and text should come together seamlessly and reflect the attitude and tone of your organization.
Your Brand is what you stand for in the minds of the people you're trying to reach, influence, and move to action. - Chi Rho Consulting - Business Strategy Consultants for startups and entrepreneurs.
Therefore, consider the following as you define or re-evaluate your brand:
  • Put your customer first. What’s the primary purpose of your website? Typically, it’s to drive sales or generally influence behavior. Therefore, ensure that all of your content elements are crafted with your target audience in mind.
  • Develop a “voice" for your organization that reflects your persona. Ideally, your brand voice should be adopted into all your marketing communications materials.  It should be applied to all of your visual elements as well. Is your persona informal? Then, be conversational and fun. Is it upscale? Then be more formal.
  • Create a logo. Consistently use your logo in all your digital communications materials so your target market begins to associate the image with your mission, vision and values.
  • Develop a tagline. Write a clear and concise statement that captures the essence of your brand and seeds your vision in the minds of your target audience.
  • Develop consistency. Ensure that you’re using the same color scheme, logo placement, look and feel throughout all your marketing communications materials.
  • Be true to your brand persona. It’s all for naught if you don't deliver on your brand promises.

Tip: Start by defining your ideal target market before you do anything else. Identify common attribute characteristics like:
  • Age
  • Marital status
  • Education level
  • Political values
  • Ethnicity
  • Location
  • Hobbies and interests
  • Household income

Once you’ve profiled your ideal customers, create content tailored to the audience. Use language and imagery relevant to your target audience and relate on their terms. 


RULE #10 – Font and Color Palettes Really Matter
One of the keys to effective web design is to remember that digital marketing is principally text communication. According to Ryan Shafer (Lead Digital Designer at MTV & VH1), “I encourage all budding web designers to embrace that the web is fundamentally about typography design.”
The fundamental truths of type design have been proven out over the centuries. Consequently, there are some basic rules that all web designers should adhere to:

For Headlines
  • Make your titles bold and easy to scan.
  • San serif typefaces are ideal for headlines because of their starkness. Also, they are easy to read at larger font sizes.

For Body Text
  • Solve for maximum legibility.
  • Larger font sizes work better. A 16px font should be the minimum you consider.
  • Limit your line sizes. A good rule of thumb is to avoid lines of text greater than 80 characters long.

As far as your color palette is concerned, the key is to pick a single palette and strictly adhere to it. ALL of your marketing communications materials should maintain the same color palette. Consistency is
Color Theory Infographic - Website Design - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
extremely important when it comes to creating a cohesive color palette for your website and your other mar-comm materials.

A three-color palette is a good rule of thumb. That said, adhere to basic best practices in color theory no matter what color scheme you choose for your brand.

Tip: If you’re a design novice, a number of free online tools and resources are available to point you in the right direction. For color palettes, we recommend Adobe Creative Cloud’s Color Wheel and Paletton. For font type selection, check out: Adobe Fonts, Wordmark and Type Scale. 

 
RULE #11 – Maintain Fresh Content
The expression, “content is king” is widely-used these days in digital marketing circles.  So, what exactly does it mean?

For starters, it refers to the fact that the search engines place a premium on new content.  Indeed, the quality and relevancy of your content is essential in determining your page's position in search query results.

Simply updating or refreshing your pages on a regular basis doesn’t make your site “fresh” and more likely to rank effectively within the search engines. Similarly, adding new pages just for the sake of increasing the size of your digital footprint won’t necessarily boost your site on the freshness meter.

Google employs a tool referred to as "Query Deserves Freshness" (QDF) to rank and prioritize new content. This tool monitors search query activities and identifies trending topics that stand out from normal activity. When QDF is triggered, Google looks to see if there’s any fresh content on the topic and then gives that content a boost in their search results.

In other words, if you have fresh content on a trending topic, you’ll likely enjoy a ride at the top of the search results for a period of time. Once the QDF boost wears off, your page generally shuffles back to its original position in the search results.

If you’re a savvy and nimble organization, the QDF algorithm provides opportunities to generate a significant competitive advantage. For example, if you create relevant and robust content in pulse with the hottest trends in your market, you can quickly establish yourself as a thought leader within your industry.

Tip: Follow these five simple guidelines if you struggle to create fresh content:
  • Get involved In the conversation - Social media platforms and discussion groups  are great for keeping a pulse on trending topics in your industry.
  • Monitor your competition – Get an idea of what, when and how your competition communicates. Build off their model and take the things that seem to work for them one step further. In other words, beat them at their own game.
  • Archive inspirational ideas – Broaden your interests beyond your industry category. Identify best practices from other industries and adopt them into your business model. If you’re running dry on fresh ideas, refer to your archive for inspiration.
  • Leverage existing web resources – There are several online tools designed to kick-start the creative process. For example, BuzzSumo allows you to analyze content trends in a variety of industries and identify what works well for various market segments.
  • Employ a copywriter – Copywriters often offer a fresh perspective. A good copywriter will identify fresh content opportunities from your target audience's perspective and keep your organization on the cutting edge of your industry.

 ​
​RULE #12 –Utilize High-Quality Images and Graphics
Eye-catching visual elements that complement your branding have a tremendous impact when used properly. Here are a few factors to consider when selecting graphics and images for your website:
  • Thematic images that represent your products or services
  • Photos that create emotional effects relating to the value of your brand
  • Proprietary photos (i.e. high-quality images of your location, your team members, your products, etc.)
  • Images and graphics that complement your brand standards (color palette consistency, theme, etc.)
  • Maintain a consistent look and feel to the elements throughout your site
No matter what, you’ll want to ensure that the graphics and images you select are high-quality files. Otherwise, your audience may walk away with a negative perception of your organization (e.g. a belief that you products and/or services are low-quality or that you're unlikely to deliver on your brand promises).

Ideally, your organization should use proprietary photos from a professional photographer and
Quality Value Quadrant Chart  - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
customized graphics from a professional designer. That said, there are plenty of affordable stock image sites  to choose from if you happen to have tight resource constraints (e.g. iStock, Adobe Stock, Wikimedia Commons, etc.)
​

If you do decide to use stock images instead of proprietary artwork, be careful to ensure that every image you select matches your brand persona and correlates with your written content. Also, you want to establish a unique brand identity and protect your site from having a generic look and feel, so be sure to avoid popular images if you can.

Tip: Remember that page load time factors in to your site’s search rankings. This is especially true for mobile. Therefore, you’ll want to pay close attention to the size of your image files. Familiarize yourself with Google’s “Image Optimization” guidelines if you want to completely optimize your images.
 
 
CONCLUSIONS
As we stated earlier, your website is often your organization’s primary public persona. It holds enormous influence over your target market’s perception of your products and/or services. More often than not, healthy and flourishing organizations tend to have effective websites; while struggling organizations often have ineffective websites.
Investing in the quality of your website tends to pay substantial dividends over the long run. It’s a direct investment in your brand; and there are countless case studies available online which attest to the bottom-line results that successful branding efforts often achieve.

​Subjectively, prudent investments in your brand assets often create a variety of strategic advantages. For example:
  • Effective branding improves recognition – Brand recognition is a driving factor for any company or organization that wishes to grow. It generates traffic and fuels conversions.
  • Effective websites establish trust – People tend to purchase or frequent businesses that appear polished and legitimate. They’re also much more likely to refer them to their friends.
Coke Coca Cola Market Cap With and Without Brand Value Infographic - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
78% of Buying Decisions are Based on Others Perceptions of a Company and the Experience it Delivers Infographic - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
  • Well-branded websites increase advertising effectiveness – Again, branding influences your conversion rate. By investing in your quality of your digital assets, you can lower your marketing spend over the long run.
  • Effective branding builds financial value – If your organization requires loans, investments or an IPO to meet your future growth targets, your brand’s perceived value will play a significant role during negotiations. The greater your devotion to growing your brand's value and building brand equity, the better your negotiating leverage will be.
  • A cohesive brand inspires employees and attracts top-tier talent – If employees are inspired by your public persona they tend to perform better. Similarly, a cohesive brand identity helps you recruit qualified talent to your organization. Having a strong brand turns your logo into a rally flag and your tagline into a source of pride. 
  • Effective branding often generates a competitive advantage – Highly profitable companies tend to have one thing in common. They establish themselves as leaders in their particular industry by building a strong brand and consistently living up to their brand’s promises.


Author: Erik Gagnon - Managing Partner, Chi Rho Consulting
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How to Build an Effective Demand Generation Program in 2018

1/2/2018

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Many C-Level executives associate Demand Generation with technology solutions and/or digital content programs. While both are crucial components, it's important to remember that effective Demand Generation is a complete organizational discipline. It's been our experience that organizations that avoid or ignore one or more of Demand Generation's strategic pillars often doom their programs to failure.

Our 2018 white paper The 4 Strategic Pillars of Effective Demand Generation
 examines the discipline from a strategic standpoint. We look at the key factors which typically separate effective Demand Generation programs from their ineffective counterparts.  We also address the foundations of an effective Demand Generation strategy and offer some tactical recommendations within each of the four strategic pillars:
  • Process
  • People
  • Content
  • Analytics

Over the years, we've helped a number of startups and expansion stage companies establish successful Demand Generation programs based upon the tenants we outline in this white paper.  We've also helped a handful of established companies retool their marketing and sales operations, integrate predictive analytics into their programs and refine their touch point communications strategies based on these principles we highlight. 

The white paper includes an Executive Summary with key findings as well as our conclusions for companies looking to adopt Demand Generation strategies or optimize their current Demand Gen activities.  Click on the picture below to download the white paper now:
The 4 Pillars of Effective Demand Generation 2018 Whitepaper Cover Photo
DOWNLOAD NOW!
If you're seeking to establish a Demand Generation program for your company in 2018, or if your organization didn't produce the results you projected for your Demand Gen campaigns last year, Chi Rho Consulting can help! There's no cost for an initial consultation and we typically structure performance-based fee arrangements with our clients.
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The Four Pillars of Effective Demand Generation

12/18/2017

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Note: This is the second of a five-part series of articles examining the discipline of Demand Generation.  Follow this link to read the first article in the series: Why Nearly 60% of Enterprise Demand Generation Programs Underperform. 
4 Pillars of Effective Demand Generation
"Success doesn't necessarily come from breakthrough innovation but from flawless execution. A great strategy alone won't win a game or a battle; the win comes from basic blocking and tackling."
---Naveen Jain (Entrepreneur and Philanthropist)


In a game of American football, two competing teams vie for control of a ball, which can be kicked through a set of goalposts or run into the opponent's goal area to score points.  If you're a fan of the sport, you probably know that the game has evolved dramatically over the years.  In fact, nearly every aspect of football has changed to some degree since the game's inception over a century ago: the rules, the equipment, the venues and even the on field tactics.  The game constantly evolves, innovates and modernizes.   

Despite, the game's ongoing evolution, the end objectives of the contests have always remained consistent.  Score more points than your opponent and you win the match.  Win the most important matches and and you're crowned champion.  Consistently win championships and you solidify your team as a dynasty.  

I doubt that any dynastic football coach would dispute Naveen Jain's quote we cited above.  Having played the game myself, I can tell you that the best teams on paper don't always win the contests on the field. The bottom line is that ongoing success on the gridiron typically requires consistent and near-flawless execution of basic fundamentals in every facet of the game. 

Suffice it to say, the end objectives of nearly every business enterprise are parallel to the game of football: you play to win.  In our first article of this series, we discussed why a high percentage of companies that have adopted Demand Generation practices and principles are ineffective.  In this article, we'll address the four strategic pillars of successful enterprise Demand Generation programs and examine some of the fundamental tactics that distinguish the champions from the also ran's.   


​The First Pillar: Your Process
As we discussed in the first article, Demand Generation defines your organization’s personal relationship with your leads, prospects and customers.  Needless to say, every customer touch-point offers an opportunity to strengthen your relationship with your customer. Consequently, your organization needs to be structured around your customer rather than your products or services to fully optimize your Demand Generation efforts.

Unlike traditional Lead Generation programs where interested (warm) prospects were turned over to a sales professional to close deals, Demand Generation programs nurture the relationship through the entirety of the Revenue Funnel.  In other words, you're not just looking to close a deal.  Instead, you're seeking to 
establish long-term relationships with your buyers; where satisfied customers become loyalists and loyalists become vocal brand advocates.  
Demand Generation Revenue Funnel
​So why is having a dynamic, ongoing relationship with your buyers so important these days?  First and foremost, the digital revolution has dramatically altered buying processes and decision making over the last few years. In effect, buyers are more knowledgeable and better informed than ever before.  They're turning to friends, colleagues and other key influencers to research their purchases long before they ever engage with your sales team.

Recent studies by Forrester Research, DemandGen and CSO Insights all reveal some startling figures that support this claim. For instance:
  • 74% of business buyers conduct more than half of their research online before making an offline purchase.  – Forrester
  • 72% of buyers turn to peers for relevant content when researching purchasing decisions. – DemandGen
  • Companies with superior Demand Gen platforms generate 50% more sales-qualified leads and a 33% lower cost per lead – CSO Insights

​These figures indicate that your customers' needs and buying patterns must be at the center of your Demand Generation strategy.  The stats also suggest that you need to actively engage with customers at every point in the revenue funnel principally on their terms. 

An effective demand generation process does just that.  It more closely aligns your Marketing and Sales functions, and it creates a seamless buying process that eliminates the gap between Interest and Desire:
Lead Generation vs Demand Generation 5 Stages of Revenue Funnel
​The Second Pillar: Your People
​Traditional business models typically view Marketing as a cost silo and Sales as a revenue silo. Effective Demand Generation generally requires a blended model approach. In our experiences, we've found that a combined marketing/sales organizational model, built around the touch-points in the revenue funnel, typically works best.   

For startup companies, adopting a blended organizational model is usually a relatively easy task.  Conversely, established businesses with traditional lead generation models seem to experience difficulties.  To be successful, you will most likely need to change the skill-set of your personnel, the reward structure based on changes in goals and performance metrics and the organizational structure to align to the buyers' purchase path.  This requires a shift away from the traditional way of thinking of both marketing and sales.

It's important to remember that organizational change Is difficult and that people sometimes resist the efforts. Your marketing personnel and your sales team need both support and leadership in order to make the strategic shift pay off.  Consequently, clear communication of your overall mission, vision and objectives from the top on down are critical for transition. 

As we mentioned earlier, effective Demand Generation processes bridge the gap between marketing and sales.   Over the years, we've found organizations that appoint a C-Level leader to oversee the whole process are generally more successful than their peers who draw territorial lines between marketing and sales functions.  Therefore, we strongly urge our clients to appoint a "Chief Demand Officer" (or a Chief Revenue Officer if you prefer), who owns the he entire Customer Life Cycle.

The CDO / CRO leads a team that is responsible for meeting the revenue objectives for your products or services,  Their functional org chart generally looks something like this:
Demand Generation Functional Org Chart
The CDO / CRO's functional teams exist to create awareness, nurture prospects, close sales, up sell, cross sell and strengthen relationships.  Support staff (Marketing Ops) support the entire organization.  Along with traditional sales and conversion metrics, two critical financial  measurements tie the teams' activities together:
  • $CPC ($ Cost per Customer - The total amount spent to establish, build and maintain a customer relationship)
  • $LTV ($ Lifetime Value - Total revenue generated from an individual customer relationship)
Again, we stress that effective Demand Generation is built around customer-centric strategies rather than product-centric strategies.  Customer needs, preferences and behavior should drive activities.  Organizing your people around the customer generally improves your ability to execute and typically streamlines your operating costs in the long run. 

 ​
​The Third Pillar: Your Content
Once you've fully committed to a customer-centric business model, it's time to turn your attention to your content strategy.  Like every marketing program, success is a matter of being in the right place at the right time with the right solution. An ideal Demand Generation program establishes your organization as the expert in your particular line of business. Therefore, each and every interaction with your prospects and customers should affirm and strengthen the perception that you are the leading solution in your category.

First and foremost, you need to find and target the best touch points to engage customers.  This isn't an exact science. Tactics vary by industry and product type. Additionally, every business has varying strengths and deficiencies. Therefore, we strongly suggest you begin with category best practices that seem to fit your model. Test them out for yourself and quickly adapt and expand the ones that seem most promising.  Here are some basic tactics to consider through the various stages of the revenue funnel:
Demand Generation Touch Point Tactics
With this model in mind, here are our five fundamental recommendations for developing an effective content strategy:​ ​
1.  Ensure That Your Branding Is Consistent!
​Brand consistency is crucial for success! Consistency is the key to building awareness, and it also builds momentum through the other four stages of the revenue funnel. Effective branding delivers economic, experiential and emotional value to your customers.  It encourages repeat purchases and drives advocacy.
Keep in mind that your company or product logo alone does not equal your brand! Branding is a blend of art and science and includes a number of very important factors.  Among the most important:
  • Pitch (what you tell the world about you)
  • Voice (purposeful and consistent word / prose styles)
  • Visualization (consistency and differentiation)
  • Expertise (leadership)
  • Execution (quality of your product or service) 
Logo Alone Doesn't Equal Brand
Your brand should resonate through each and every touch point with clarity.  This includes your advertising, your direct marketing materials, your content programs as well as your presentations, product demos and one-on-one interactions with prospects and customers.  

2.  Emphasize Digital Content / Digital Distribution!
The traditional purchase decision journey is losing its relevance. Most customers no longer follow a linear path to purchase. In fact, Google Mobile Insights recently revealed that 76% of people who conduct a product search on their smartphone visit a business within 24 hrs & 28% of those searches result in a purchase!  ​
It's obvious that technology is influencing each stage of the journey.  Furthermore, the rise of social media coupled with mobile and targeted messaging has created new and very influential touch points. The decision journey is now a cyclical loop with customer brand advocates playing a substantial role in the buying process.

​The bottom line: d
igital largely influences and drives decision making these days!
Demand Generation Non Linear Purchase Path
3.  Target Messaging To EACH Member of The Buyer Team!
Take a step back and examine your company's definition of a customer. If you're focusing your full attention on the Decision Maker, you're likely costing yourself business.
A recent DemandGen survey reveals that nurturing the full Buyer Team relationship produces a 20% increase in overall sales conversions! This means that the person who signs the deal with your company generally pays attention to the thoughts and opinions of their peers, direct reports and outside influences before making their purchase decision. 

In effect, customer behavior is the aggregate of all buyer team interactions.  Audience segmentation and tailored messaging strengthen the overall buyer team relationship and generally improve conversion rates..  
Buyer Team Roles
4.  Don’t Underestimate The importance of Influencers!
As TapInfluence notes, Influencer Marketing is a strategy that "focuses on using key leaders to drive your brand's message to the larger market." Rather than marketing directly to prospects, you instead inspire, hire, and/or pay key Influencers to advocate on your behalf.

Influencer marketing generally pays substantial dividends on a relatively modest investment.  A recent Nielson / TapInfluence study indicates that Influencer marketing content delivers a Return on Investment (ROI) 11 times higher than traditional forms of digital marketing.  Additionally, Influencers generally create their own content and/or integrate your talking points into their delivery feeds.  This means that Influencers expand your organization's digital content capabilities and, to help with SEO (search engine optimization)  to a certain degree.

5.  Ensure That Campaign Tracking / Performance Measurement Is a Top Priority!
Demand Generation is an outcome-driven discipline. It’s about pipeline contribution, customer lifetime value and increasing your company's market share. If you're spending time or money to create content, we presume you want to spend both wisely. Therefore, be certain that you track and measure all of your related marketing and sales activities to a granular level.

An additional note on the subject of performance measurement: it's a myth that content programs cannot be quantified or effectively analyzed. Frankly, digital content offers a wealth of data when the programs are executed properly.  As a result, Demand Generation is an ideal pairing for predictive analytics. 

Remember that we now live in an era where Big Data is now accessible and actionable to a great degree.  That said, it takes the right tools and the right skill sets to organize, access and analyze the wealth of information that content programs create. 
​​The Fourth Pillar: Analytics
Although it doesn't directly appear on your balance sheet, your company's structured data is an extremely important and valuable business asset. To a large degree, your ability to access, analyze and interpret the data generated through all of your customer interactions drives the effectiveness of your Demand Generation campaigns.  As a recent report by DemandMetric / Radius demonstrates:
  • Over 50% of companies with an ineffective Demand Generation process indicate their customer data richness is lacking.
  • 47% of ineffective companies reported severe data accuracy issues.
  • Marketers who have adopted predictive analytics are much more likely to also have an effective Demand Generation process.
  • Over 90% percent of companies with effective Demand Generation processes are able to use their customer and prospect data to execute various marketing campaigns.
Effectiveness of Demand Generation With and Without Predictive Analytics
We recommend that you take stock of your data as early as possible! Missing, inaccurate or poor quality data impedes effective Demand Generation as well as the successful application of predictive analytics. You may wish to consider a full audit of your CRM applications, gathering and storage systems, personnel, as well as the depth, accuracy and quality of your structured data.   That way, you can quickly begin to harness your assets and pull together an action plan to address your deficiencies. 

A real opportunity exists in most industries to develop a sizable competitive advantage through structured data.  Believe it or not, the DemandMetric / Radius report suggests that only 44% of CMO’s understand predictive analytics well; and only 11% of those that do understand are actually implementing or using predictive analytics for Demand Generation activities.  Even more surprising, only 55% of companies that employ predictive modeling are using their data to find new revenue opportunities!

We'll state once again: Demand Generation programs are an ideal pairing for predictive analytics.  Even if you're a very lean organization, commercial solutions do exist to help integrate predictive analytics into the process.  If your current Demand Generation campaigns are yielding less than desired results, chances are there's room for improvement if you unlock the full power stored within your enterprise data systems. 


Conclusions
Effective Demand Generation is an enterprise-wide endeavor. It requires a firm foundation built upon each of the four strategic pillars we described above. Whether your company is new to the discipline or you're a seasoned player, you need to ensure that you're executing the fundamentals efficiently and effectively. Otherwise, you're likely to be steamrolled by your competition.

You may be wondering why we haven't listed technology (e.g. automation systems, adaptive control technology, CRM systems, etc.) as a fifth pillar. While the right technology certainly speeds delivery, improves effectiveness and can also lower costs, we'd argue that technology systems are complementary tools to each of the four pillars we've described above.  In our next article in this series, 12 Things to Consider Before You Automate Your Demand Generation Processes, we'll discuss the benefits of several Demand Generation technologies as well as  some serious technological pitfalls you'll want to avoid.       


​Author: Erik Gagnon - Managing Partner, Chi Rho Consulting
 
Note:  This is the second of a five-part series of Jumpstart Strategies articles examining the discipline of Demand Generation. Here are links to the other live articles in the series: 
  • PART 1: Why Nearly 60% of Enterprise Demand Generation Programs Underperform
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Why Nearly 60 Percent Of Enterprise Demand Generation Programs Underperform

11/28/2017

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Demand Generation Man Holding Slide
“Leaders of the future will have to be visionary and be able to bring people in - real communicators… it's going to be incredibly valuable and incredibly in demand.”
--- Anita Borg (1999)

When American computer scientist Anita Borg spoke these words, the World Wide Web was still in its nascency.  At the time, there were roughly 280 million internet users.  Today, there are over 3.4 billion users.  In parallel, the number of active websites has grown 10-fold since 1999.  Today, there are over 311 MM active websites worldwide.
​
While the ascension of the Web has largely been a boon for marketers, it has also presented clear challenges in recent years.  Specifically, how do you differentiate yourself from your competitors, stand out from the crowd and identify your business as a leader in a competitive marketplace? For a growing number of companies, particularly those with a long sales cycle, the answer to the puzzle has been Demand Generation.

​
What Is Demand Generation?
In theory, Demand Generation is “the focus of targeted marketing programs to drive awareness and interest in a company's products and/or services.”  The scope of the discipline includes:
  • Brand building campaigns
  • Specialized outbound marketing
  • Content rich inbound marketing (Social Media, Blogs, eBooks, Podcasts, Videos etc.)

Demand Generation defines your organization’s personal relationship with your leads, prospects and customers. However, unlike traditional lead generation and customer acquisition programs, the objective of Demand Generation is to build and nurture key prospect and customer relationships for the long term.

An ideal Demand Generation platform establishes your organization as the expert in your line of business. Your customers turn (and return) to you for solutions to their most difficult challenges and purchase decisions. They also trumpet your products and services within their peer circles. From a P&L standpoint: the net effects of an effective Demand Generation program are two-fold: 1) it increases the lifetime value (LTV) of your customers AND 2) it decreases the cost to acquire new customers (CAC). In addition, an effective Demand Generation also increases market share over time.  
​Several early adopters and innovators have been very successful with their Demand Generation efforts. For example, companies like Five9 and HubSpot have firmly established themselves as leaders in their respective B2B marketing service categories largely due to their well-​​executed
Five 9 and HubSpot Logos
Demand Generation programs. Consequently, many other companies (across a vast ray of industries) have jumped on the Demand Generation bandwagon in recent years.

​
Is Demand Generation Producing Positive Results?
The answer to this question really depends on whom you talk to. For example, a recent Annuitas benchmarking survey of 100 B2B enterprise marketers indicates that only 2.8% of the respondents believe that their Demand Generation programs are very effective. Conversely, a whopping 58.5% of the respondents said that their programs are largely ineffective:
Picture
​In contrast, a recent survey by Demand Metric reveals another side to the story. While only 30% of study participants report having a B2B demand generation process that meets their objectives, respondents with advanced business analytics capabilities report significantly better results.  Indeed, “when predictive analytics are applied, process performance soars, effectively meeting the objectives set for it over half of the time.”
Picture
To us, the Demand Metric survey results suggest that many marketers aren’t completely engaged in the full discipline of Demand Generation. While the Effectiveness Rate for companies that apply analytics is significantly better than their peers who don’t (55% vs 18%), even that figure seems disappointing. Obviously, for most of the marketers polled in both surveys, something seems to be lacking or missing in their Demand Generation formulas. In our experience, there seems to be two critical factors that many organizations overlook or completely ignore when they decide to adopt demand generation methods: organizational structure and process management.
​

The Essential Building Blocks For Effective Demand Generation
Industry analysts predict that Demand Generation budgets will continue their upward trend. According to the 2017 Demand Generation Benchmark Report, two-thirds (67%) of marketers expected to increase their budgets this year. Furthermore, one-third (33%) of marketers anticipated a rise of 20% or more. Similar budgetary increases are also expected for 2018. Consequently, it’s a near certainty that CEOs and CFOs will soon begin to demand better results from their Demand Generation investments. If marketers continue to under-perform, you can bet that heads will start to roll.

That said, blame for ineffective Demand Generation programs shouldn’t be solely directed at Marketing and Sales executives.  We’d argue that many organizations have attached themselves to the DG buzzword without understanding the full nature of the discipline. Consequently, it seems that many companies focus on tactics while missing the big picture.

For example, when C-Level professionals are asked, "What exactly does Demand Generation entail?" Many of them will point to content creation or marketing automation (or a combination of the two). Better yet, scour job boards and you’ll find several Manager / Director level positions entailed with the responsibility of "Leading" Demand Generation efforts within companies large and medium and small alike.

We believe that tactically reliant Demand Generation recipes are almost certainly destined for failure. In our experience, we’ve found that tactical proficiency is only one factor in becoming an effective Demand Generation marketer. You must realize that Demand Generation is a complete business discipline. Ergo, for a company to be truly effective in the discipline it must embrace Demand Generation as an overall business strategy.  For the strategy to succeed, your company must first become a customer-centric organization.  As we've learned over the years, this often requires a measurable degree of organizational restructuring, realignment of departmental duties and a commitment to enterprise analytics.
​
Conclusions
For your Demand Generation program to be truly effective, your organization needs to be structured around your customer rather than your products or services. As Erin Kelley of Annuatas noted a couple years back, “If you don’t know your buyers inside and out, there is little guarantee that your demand generation programs will work in the way you expected.”
Picture
It's our belief that many companies that experience failing or below expectation results from their Demand Generation efforts haven't fully embraced the DG concept as an over-arching business strategy.  Like any key strategic initiative,  your Demand Generation strategy requires a clear commitment from C-Level leaders and buy-in from every layer of subordinate management in order to truly be successful.  

​
​Author: Erik Gagnon - Managing Partner, Chi Rho Consulting
 
Note:  This is the first in a series of Jumpstart Strategies articles that will address Demand Generation. Please check back soon for our second article: The 4 Strategic Pillars of an Effective Demand Generation Platform.
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