By Ed Pierce, Principal, ITA Fleet Communications
As a provider of fleet services and products, you are well aware of the competitive nature of this marketplace. Making inroads is a laborious, time-consuming and expensive proposition! A big part of that expense is marketing, for good reason.
Fleet managers already have a tough job choosing between all of the options available to them. Every day, they are inundated with marketing messages, delivered through fleet press, corporate communiques, social media, blogs, sales reps, and more.
Standing out, being recognized, and more importantly, becoming known for the qualities your brand represents are challenging, even with a large budget. Add in the dollars associated with a sales team that expects market pre-conditioning and continuous brand reinforcement, and it becomes clear that the impact of marketing is greater than many businesses believe.
Too many otherwise-successful B2B companies employ an ad hoc approach to marketing that is inherently ineffective. Built on disparate, quick-decision, single-channel promotional opportunities, there is no way to measure success beyond the leads or calls that are directly attributable to the ad. A quote attributable to Albert Einstein is apropos: “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”
Compared to a fragmented, tactically-limited marketing approach, an integrated marketing plan that explains why, how and in what mix tactics are applied can deliver meaningful results, ensure greater efficiency and the best possible return on a company’s marketing investment.
Does your company have a business plan? A five-year strategic plan? A sales plan? Do you regularly measure and update these plans? So, how can you not have a marketing plan? Not just a budget, but a detailed plan – situation analysis, market-awareness-perceptual research, competition, target market demographics, distribution channels, media, messaging, tactical review, and so on!
In the next column, we will dive deeper into the benefits of an integrated marketing program. If you have a specific marketing issue or question, call me at 610–585-0801 or send an email to [email protected].
