There is a certain safety in following the rules. When a marketing path has been tested, there are few surprises or unexpected challenges. Mediocre entrepreneurs can create successful companies by following the steps of the innovators who have gone ahead. Odds are that the copycat businesses won’t last more than a few decades without a significant management change, but they will provide income for the founders until the industry declines or something new comes along.

When I joined the direct marketing industry ages ago, there were a couple of dozen catalogs that were so similar it was impossible to identify the brand without reading the name. There were slight variations in the items, but the look, feel, and product lines were eerily alike. One of the owners explained the copycat philosophy to me. She said that the company that had originated the look did all of the heavy lifting with testing new markets and products. The copycats had higher profit margins because they didn’t invest in testing or new strategies.

The benefits gained by following the leader didn’t last. All of the copycat catalogs died an untimely death. The companies that survived the peaks and valleys of the economy were the ones who invested in quality analytics so they knew what worked with their customer base. They tested different strategies, tactics, and products. Marketing rules established by others were viewed as guidelines to be tested, not hard facts because every corporate culture is different.

Learning from others worked because the guidelines were based on sound business strategy. They had been tested by varying elements to see what works best. Marketing pioneers readily shared their discoveries with new marketers who, in turn, continued testing and improving results. The information tested and shared ultimately evolved into best practices.

Things change.

In the last few years, best practices based on controlled tests have morphed into rules formed by personal preferences. The catalyst for this change was the introduction of social media and the vision of a marketplace controlled by the people. The new age marketers’ imagined a world where people find businesses to fill their needs instead of one where companies seek customers.

The combination of tough economic conditions and the new marketing channel promising untold riches with minimal effort created a perfect environment for people willing to pillage the online community. Individuals facing record long-term unemployment searching for ways to provide for their family and executives desperately seeking to escape a sea of red ink were easy prey. Self-appointed experts commanded attention with declarations of data cooked up in imaginary labs. Testing of cause and effect required too much time and effort. It was much easier to imagine something and declare it as fact.

Rules of engagement were created and enforced by the new age marketers. In their alternative universe, traditional marketing was taboo. Anyone daring to promote their business or products via social media risked being ostracized on public forums. Requiring a return on investment indicated stodgy old school management destined to follow the dinosaurs into extinction. The new marketing rules included:

• Promote others twelve times to every one promotion for your business.
• Do not use automated direct messaging on Twitter.
• Leave comments on other people’s blogs to increase traffic to your site.
• Do not use social platforms to share promotional messages.
• Give to get.
• Be completely transparent in everything you do.
• Do as we say not as we do. (This one was unspoken. The rule makers didn’t follow any of the rules they created.)

Few dared to publicly challenge the new leaders. The new media was, well, NEW. And, different. And, people were already hurting and afraid of making another mistake. Following the leaders seemed safe and $397 for a guided tour of the new marketing channel seemed reasonable in an unreasonable world.

Did it really matter that the tour guides had little or no business experience? Or, that they aggressively promoted each other with affiliate links while pretending that they were simply sharing good sources? Or, that the how-to information they were sharing was based on personal opinion and theory instead of tested and proven tactics? Not much because it was desperate times filled with desperate people. When you are drowning even grasping a straw provides hope.

Time passes and with time comes experience.

When social media was new, no one really knew how it would evolve. The newness is gone, but there are still a lot of unknowns. It’s a shame that the people who stepped up in the leadership roles spent their time telling people to “be awesome” instead of testing different strategies to find best practices. It’s equally shameful that people followed them blindly down a dead-end path.

Fortunately, not everyone drank the social media Kool-Aid. People that didn’t get caught in the drama invested their time in testing different things to see what worked or didn’t. Real companies are making the social channel work as part of an integrated marketing strategy that includes other channels. There are a variety of successful strategies that move people from social activity into the buying cycle. Instead of trying to be awesome, successful marketing teams work to make real connections with customers and prospects. They may not have a zillion followers or fans, but what they have is much better. They have a proven strategy for using social media to generate revenue.

Testing different strategies to establish marketing rules is the best way to create sustainable growth for your company. Doing this requires a complete understanding of your customers, their behavior, preferences, and how everything works together to create a profitable strategy. Start with your data, add questions, and test everything to find proven cause and effect. It takes time and effort but the benefits are worth the investment. And, don’t listen to people who are selling new age marketing without questioning their experience, information sources, and testing strategy. The same people who promised that “it was all about the conversation” are now talking about search engine optimization, direct marketing, benchmarks, analytics, and return on investment. Being able to talk a good game doesn’t make you a player.

Where will your company be this time next year? Will you be celebrating record profits or planning a bankruptcy strategy? The answer depends on what you do now to prepare for tomorrow. Business as usual doesn’t exist anymore. Our marketplace has changed from a multichannel environment to a maze of channels and platforms that distract buyers and stretch limited resources. Maintaining a presence on all of the relevant networks is impossible for small businesses and fiscally irresponsible for large ones.

The economic downturn combined with an influx of new opportunities to connect with customers is overwhelming to even the most seasoned marketing teams. When faced with so many choices and dangers, running seems to be the only answer. Some dart from platform to platform hoping to catch a viral wave that will rain a revenue stream. Others run away from everything new seeking comfort in the tried and true tactics that have delivered past successes. Both strategies are fear driven paths to failure. When everything is said and done, a divided house cannot stand and those rooted in the past will be left behind.

Change is hard. People naturally resist it until the pain of remaining in the status quo exceeds the fear of the unknown. Vision of a better tomorrow shared with the passion of a believer is the only way to move some from the comfort of days gone by. The team responsible for the future of the company has to share the vision. They don’t have to agree on the path, but the final outcome is dependent on their ability to see a better tomorrow.

Maybe the real question is where do you stand? Are you so rooted in the past that the future will pass you by? Or, are you waiting with an open mind, willing to walk through the door of opportunity and do the heavy lifting? The tactics that got your business where it is today won’t take it to the next level. Change like you’ve never seen before is required.

Positioning your company for growth requires a solid plan that encompasses every corporate function, department, and person. The business has to work like a well-oiled machine where every gear provides leverage to the one next to it. The process won’t be easy but nothing worth doing is ever easy. Here are some steps to get you started on moving your organization to the next level:

Assemble

Start with an open mind, blank paper, and the people you need to make it happen. It is helpful if you do this at another location but if that isn’t in the budget, clear your conference room of everything that reminds you of the status quo. List your corporate strengths and weaknesses and then do the same for your competitors.

Analyze

Dig deep into your customer file so you have the best possible understanding of their behavior, buying patterns, and preferences. Keeping customers active longer is the best thing you can do for your bottom line. It increases the return on acquisition costs exponentially.

Brainstorm

Where can you improve service and satisfaction without significantly increasing costs? What do you need to do to offset weaknesses? How can you be more accessible to your customers? What channels are you missing that can make a difference in your business? What customer needs are unfilled?

Eliminate

There are always more ideas and opportunities than there are resources. Select the best and prioritize them by commitment and return. This will help you choose when and what to do based on available resources and potential return.

Strategize

Effective action requires planning. The survival rate of companies managed by knee-jerk reactions and seat of the pants methodology is extremely low. Having a plan provides vision and direction. There may be detours and rerouting along the way, but mapping out the strategy is the best way to keep your business moving forward.

Implement

The best laid plans are worthless without implementation. Executing your strategy inspires confidence and provides feedback that can be leveraged into growth and profitability. Don’t finish the year with a list of things we could have done. Finish it with a compilation of “this worked, that didn’t”. This is the foundation that supports sustainable growth.

Revise

Perfection is impossible. The very best strategy will have components that don’t work. Continuously monitor the progress, eliminating the things that don’t work and expanding the ones that do. In the end, everything may be completely different from the plan but it will be tested and successful.

Celebrate

People need wins to remain motivated. If you are constantly pushing your team to move forward without celebrating the progress, they will burn out. You’ll be left with a failed strategy because it didn’t reward the people who make it happen. Celebrations must be inclusive, crossing departments and divisions. It is only when everything and everyone works together for the greater good that your company will reach its full potential.

Remember

Moving a company to the next level is a process. Trying to plan it in a few days won’t deliver the results you want. Give it time to gestate and expand in your mind so you and your team have full ownership of the process and results.

Saying that integrating multiple channels and platforms can be challenging is an understatement. Most companies don’t have the tools or technology to have a completely integrated strategy. Buying or developing them is cost prohibitive because there are so many nuances that don’t deliver a return on investment.

Not having an integrated strategy can be costly too. Revenue is lost when customers don’t buy because there was a disconnect between marketing and sales. Costs are escalated when there is a breakdown between marketing and service. Finding the right balance of integration benefits both company and customer. Here are the top five components of an integrated marketing strategy:

Customer Focus – Successful marketing strategies start and end with customers. The need to make customers a top priority is well known but rarely executed because marketing glory isn’t won by keeping customers. Acquisition, awards, and viral campaigns get attention but they seldom increase profitability. Acquisition adds growth opportunity. Awards provide recognition. And viral campaigns create drama. But the bulk of the money that contributes to the company’s longevity comes from loyal customers.

Marketing to established customers costs less and generates more revenue. These people know and trust your business so they don’t need a hard sell to get the order. Design your primary marketing strategy around them. Find out how and where they want to connect with you and make it easy for them to do it.

Interdepartmental Cooperation – Contrary to popular opinion, good communication between departments isn’t enough to make integrated marketing work well. Departments have to work together. Communication is important but the commitment to do whatever it takes to resolve issues is vital.

The relationship between marketing, sales, and customer care is often adversarial. Legacy issues haunt current managers. Reaching out to the other teams to create a better working environment and customer experience is the first step. The process of changing from segregated to integrated is hard, but worth the effort. It improves everything from morale to profitability.

Database Communication – Every company has multiple databases filled with valuable and extraneous information. Digging through raw data to find nuggets of actionable information is not fun (at least for most folks) but it can deliver phenomenal results. Trying to create a one-stop shop for all data needs is virtually impossible because multiple channels and departments have individual needs. The resources required to deliver the mega-database are extensive.

Instead of wasting time and money on developing a turn-key solution, create communication paths that allow the sharing of key information across platforms. Some will be automated, others will be manual. All will provide the information needed to successfully grow a profitable business.

Leverage – Each channel has unique strengths and weaknesses. Leveraging the strengths of one to offset the weaknesses of another improves effectiveness and reduces costs. The leverage process begins with an in-depth understanding of each channel, how your customers interact with it, and the associated costs.

Using the information found during the understanding phase, determine the best way to provide the marketing and service your customers expect with the channels that maximize your return on investment. Leverage requires due diligence and monitoring because channels are evolving quickly. Putting systems in place to measure the effectiveness saves time and money.

Return on Investment – Sustainable businesses require profitability. Generating a return on investment requires planning and focus. Every function, channel, and department has to deliver results that contribute to the financial well being of the company. The proceeding statements should be common knowledge for everyone managing a business or making recommendations. Unfortunately it isn’t. Somewhere between traditional and new media, people replaced “investment” with “influence”. Any activity that doesn’t improve relationships with paying customers, increase profits, or reduce costs is a waste of resources.

Including the expected return on investment in your strategy makes it a priority. When team members know that generating a return is a requirement, they think differently. There will be fewer recommendations to do things because everyone else is doing them and more “let’s do this because it benefits our company.”

The purpose of business is to serve customers at a profit. This one sentence tells you everything you need to know about the metrics that matter. The numbers that help improve service, customer management, and profitability need to be measured. Getting these three components right is the key to corporate success.

The metrics most commonly used in social media to measure success have no effect on the things that really matter. Fans, followers, likes, plus ones, and Klout rankings are better suited for cocktail conversation than business strategy. They don’t affect sales, service, or satisfaction.

Social media metrics are misleading because they can be artificially inflated without providing corporate value.

If you want more followers, follow some bots so they can attract more bots. If you want more likes or retweets, say something funny or controversial. The activity and content that increases your social media reach rarely sends people to your website or business. If your goal is to be big in the social media world, focus on creating content that improves your Klout. It’ll let you wear the “I’m big on Twitter” t-shirt with pride and get the occasional perk. But, if you want more sales and profitability, focus on the metrics that really matter.

Implementing a benchmarking program that is updated regularly and includes key metrics is the best way to measure marketing and service performance. The trends provide an early warning system so you can alter your course before financial reports are affected. Metrics to include in your starter benchmarking program are:

Customer retention: Go beyond the standard active customer count to identify customer retention by acquisition year. Established customers are more valuable because they tend to have higher average orders and purchase more frequently than their newer counterparts.

Customer acquisition and activity: Compare the number of new customers, their average order, and repeat purchases with historical data. Are the numbers trending up, down, or holding steady? The trend lets you know if you are acquiring long-term buyers or hit-and-run shopper before over investing your marketing dollars.

Service levels: Monitoring service key performance indication like call volume, length, number of calls before resolution, backorder, delivery times, returns, and so on provides insight into costs and satisfaction.

Marketing and service costs: The costs associated with marketing and service must be diligently monitored to keep them in line with the revenue they generate.

ROI by source, channel, and customer type: Identifying the source of the funds that keep your business going is critical to continued success. It allows you to anticipate future sales and plan costs accordingly.

Monitoring these analytics for trends shows you how social participation affects your business. It measures your influence in orders, dollars, and customers instead of retweets, likes, and fans.

Once your starter program is consistently providing actionable information and you are using it, expand into other areas. The best path for your expansion will appear as you work through the numbers. You’ll see things that make you wonder “why” and “what if.” Use that information to test new ideas, find new markets and customers, and reduce costs.

Creating an effective benchmarking program takes time and commitment. Allow at least a year to get it right and then focus on continuous improvement. There may be some shocking surprises in the beginning. It is not unusual to find a high percentage of hit-and-run customers or low retention rates. Once past the initial shock, implement change to fix the problems and watch your business prosper.

Social media without integration is simply a conversation. It doesn’t drive sales, improve loyalty, or resolve issues. The original theory that the new channel would replace traditional marketing was appealing but it failed to deliver. Social influences the buying decision. It needs other channels to generate revenue and keep customers happy.

People who have bet their career on social becoming a stand alone marketing channel have a hard time accepting this. They continue to point to brands as stellar examples of social success without noting that the companies had established a loyal customer base before participating in social media. It’s time to stop talking about conversations and put the processes and systems in place to leverage social into a viable marketing and service channel.

The new channel doesn’t provide the critical mass at economic pricing needed for corporate success. Instead, social provides one-to-one connections that improve relationships and resolve issues. Harnessing this requires integration of marketing channels and customer service for customers to have a seamless experience. Unfortunately, integration is extremely challenging because it is hard to claim individual credit for corporate success in an integrated company.

If social media is to become social marketing, everything has to work together to make it easy for the customer to connect with the company, purchase products or services, and resolve issues. For some companies this means changing everything from how people work together to how they are compensated. The process can be overwhelming, but the results make it worthwhile. Integrated departments and channels are more productive, less expensive, and easier to manage.

To integrate social into your existing marketing and service strategy:

Share the maintenance responsibility: Social networks are marketing and service channels. When people reach out to your company they want an accurate response in a timely manner. Let your marketing team handle the marketing side and your customer care team deal with the service issues.

Connect with your customers: Amassing thousands of followers is a numbers game with little return. Ask your customers and prospects for their social networking user IDs so you can connect with them. Capturing this information allows you to identify the best platforms for your business and reach out to people who know (and hopefully love) your company.

Reward team members for corporate success: Bonus programs are typically tied to individual achievement. Recognizing people for personal accomplishment is good but be sure to include rewards for team and corporate performance. When people’s pay is tied to how well they work with others, integration is much easier.

Streamline processes to improve efficiency: Every business needs a regular review of processes to operate at peak efficiency and effectiveness. Things needed in the past to process orders and communicate with customers are obsolete today. Annual reviews (at a minimum) are needed for top performance.

Use benchmarking to measure effectiveness: Some aspects of social marketing and customer care are intangible. If you have a solid benchmarking program in place, the effects of your efforts are easier to see. Monitoring key elements on a regular basis keeps you informed.

Celebrate when things work together: Integration is hard. When it works, it works very well. Celebrating those victories encourages your team, shows them you appreciate their efforts, and motivates them to do more.

Next in the Series: Measuring What Matters – The Analytics Every Social Company Needs