Regardless of the size of your company, your industry, your geography, there are ten essential aspects of Marketing every company should resolve to address. Finding, keeping, growing the value of your company’s customers. This is the charge of Marketing, Marketing with a capital “M.” There are books galore on Marketing, from the general to the specific (everything and anything from database marketing, to digital marketing, to direct marketing, to generational marketing, and so on.) Whether you are a specialist or a generalist, there are ten essential capabilities every Marketing team in every organization needs to perform profiently. 

Know Thy Customer

Marketing is an outward facing organization.  That means Marketing must be connected to the Market and to Customers.  If your organization doesn’t depend on your for information about your industry, your customers, and your competition, it doesn’t need Marketing.  This means you must:

1. Understand the ecosystem. If you haven’t mapped your ecosystem do so sooner than later.
2. Create the profiles, roles, and personas of your customers. Customers are not created equal. Know the profile AND personas of the right customer for your business. Find out which customers are the most profitable and satisfying for your business.
3. Map the customer journey. The more you understand your customer’s journey the better you can address opportunities to improve key business results such as product/service adoption, and loyalty. 
4. Conduct customer research. Gain insights into customers needs and wants to help identify new solution opportunities. 
5. Develop and test your value proposition. The concept of positioning is one of the most important components of the marketing mix. 

Know Thy Market and Marketing

6. Maintain a constant pulse on the market. Perform competitive analysis regularly. Develop a competitive intelligence system to help with new product development and sales.

7. Integrate your marketing. 

8. Institute a market requirements gathering process to support innovation and new product development.

Purchase Your Assessment

Measure What Matters

Marketing is no longer just about the sales funnel. While lead generation and sales are important arms of any organization, the real value lies in activities that generate measurable business results. At a minimum you must have measures related to:

9.Acquiring new customers. These measures includes cost to acquire, time to convert, and so on.

10. Keeping and growing the value customers. Measures such as customer satisfaction, loyalty, and lifetime value. 

As you can infer, many of these ten essentials require marketers to be more analytical and process oriented.  Learn how to improve your data, analytics, process and measurement capabilities. 

FAQ:

1. Understand the ecosystem: Map your industry environment and stakeholders.
2. Profile customers: Develop detailed customer profiles and personas to identify the most profitable and satisfying segments.
3. Map the customer journey: Understand each step to improve adoption and loyalty.
4. Conduct customer research: Gain insights into needs and wants to fuel innovation.
5. Develop and test your value proposition: Positioning is a cornerstone of effective marketing.
6. Monitor the market: Maintain competitive intelligence and analysis.
7. Integrate your marketing: Ensure all channels and tactics work cohesively.
8. Institute market requirements gathering: Support innovation and new product development with structured processes.
9. Measure customer acquisition: Track cost, time to convert, and related metrics.
10. Measure customer retention and value growth: Monitor satisfaction, loyalty, and lifetime value.

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