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What CEO's must know about marketing

3 mins read

Marketing is no longer about dumping money into a black hole and hoping that a customer or two comes out the other end. With today's methods, you can actually measure ROI (Return on Investment) on absolutely all marketing actions. Didn’t you know this? If so, you are perhaps not familiar with the fact that personas, website, and GDPR are keywords within today’s marketing either?

Who are you trying to reach?

You’ve been in the company for a while, and you’re familiar with your customers. But how well do you really know them? Do you know what their days look like? When they prefer to open their emails? Which channels do they use? What challenges do they face, and how do they solve them?

Many companies invest in tools and surveys that help them better understand their customers. They will gladly invest more time in detailed analysis. Some go even further, hiring psychologists, sociologists, and other experts that delve deeper into the data.

This information is used by the marketing departments to design better communication and strategies. A clear example of this trend is Snap Inc., which has doubled the research, development and sales budget. The new strategy focuses solely on understanding its users better to place these funds better in the future.

Knowing who you are trying to reach will be an important piece of the puzzle in creating a unique user experience that makes visitors feel special, taken care of and that turns them into valuable ambassadors. If you know the ones you're talking to well, you can more easily customise what you say and when you say it – thus push the right buttons.

How are you going to get to know the ones you are trying to reach? Learn more about personas here.


How well does inbound marketing fit your business? Take the test here. 

What is GDPR?

Perhaps you have heard about GDPR before. No? Then it's time to get to know these four letters. They have a significant impact on how your company collects information.

If your company stores information about your customers in one way or another, and you are not sure what GDPR entails, then you should keep on reading. 

So what is it?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation that entered into force starting May 25, 2018, in all EU countries. As it is a regulation, there is no transitional arrangement, which means you can’t come the next day and say you’ll soon be ready to implement the routines.

The regulation potentially carries a big financial impact. The penalty for breaking the regulation is 4% of global sales or 20 million euros – depending on which amount is higher.

The regulation imposes new and stricter requirements regarding the way we collect, store and process personal data. The purpose is to strengthen the rights of the subject and provide better insight and transparency about what the information is actually used for.

With the new rules, individuals will easily know who has access to the information, what the information is used for and how it is stored. The registrant will also be informed of his or her rights to access and, in particular, delete the information at any time. This applies to personal information, which includes all information and assessments that can be linked to an individual.

Read the full article about GDPR here to get tips on what you can do to meet the new regulations.


Visitors must experience your website in a more personal and engaging manner

Visitors do not come exclusively to your website to make purchases. Often they are looking for information, entertainment or just details about what you deliver. In other words, the website is an important part of attracting and keeping prospects, but you only have a few seconds to catch the attention of visitors to make them stay.

Therefore, the website must provide a good experience from the very first second. Visitors must feel that they have come to the right place and that they will find what they are looking for. The website is now your shop window, and you should meet newcomers as the individuals they are.

Is it possible to personalise the website? Yes, and you should begin doing so right now if you haven’t already. It can be done in the form of simple, customised messages that meet those visiting the page.

Personalisation is a simple way of engaging your prospects. Not only do they get a more personal relationship with your business, personalisation will also link you and the prospect closer together.


Count on content before you become completely invisible

It has long been said that "content is king", but content is so much more important than that. If you don’t focus on content, soon no one will be able to find you online.

People search for answers to their challenges or issues through search engines like Google, and it's content that makes your business appear as an answer to these questions.

Branding is still important, and if the person who’s doing the search is familiar with your brand name and has visited your website earlier, you may be at the top of the search result. Nevertheless, we see that businesses are lagging behind the search results from other websites that have answered the same questions.

It's as simple as this: content is alpha and omega. Whether you have resources internally or have to rent out remotely, it's time to get started. Get over the old-fashioned fear that serious B2B companies should not have blogs. Major names like Aker BioMarine and Teknisk Ukeblad have already taken that step – and so should you.


Everything can be measured, always

That time when you put money into marketing without knowing what you’d get back is over. You no longer need to wonder whether or not the money the sales department spent at that trade fair is actually giving something back to the company, in terms of customers. Today everything can be measured.

Read more about HubSpot here.

If you are using the right tools, you can find out exactly which article on the blog gave you the interesting prospect, or which Facebook post provided you with a new customer.

You no longer throw money into a black hole, but measure ROI on everything your company does. This way you can easily distribute your funds in the best manner in the future. 

[TEST]: How well does inbound marketing fit your company?