"It’s time to move the discussion away from today’s latest hot marketing tools and tactics to what really counts: convincing customers to trust you with their business—not just once, but time and time again."
- Marketing Above the Noise, page xviii
"The delivery mechanisms change; the basic marketing concepts behind them don’t."- Marketing Above the Noise, page 48
Much of the first portion of the book is dedicated to providing in-depth details about each of eight dynamic market leverage factors, or “timeless marketing truths,” that should guide every marketing effort. If these factors seem basic, it’s because they are. No matter the specific tools and tactics you use to activate your marketing efforts, these eight factors need to be acknowledged, understood and carefully considered for a campaign to succeed:
These factors should be viewed as essential and interdependent, and it’s important to recognize their influence on one another when developing a marketing strategy. Consider the value your sales staff could bring to a product conversation with their intimate knowledge of your customer base. Customer feedback and perception becomes a part of your brand, and can influence the way you create products, sell those products, and communicate your message. Understanding the interplay of these eight factors and letting that interplay inform your strategy is the key to marketing successfully, digitally or otherwise.
"The era when marketers could talk at customers has long passed."- Marketing Above the Noise, page 44
Web commenting, email and social media have made it so that customers are finally getting to respond to messages that marketers are putting out. And online conversations have many of the same dynamics as in-person conversations, including the desire for a speaker to feel heard. Popky lays out an easy three-step process to help marketers keep up their end of the conversational promise:
"So sales thinks marketing just wants them to execute against a marketing plan that marketing insists sales should follow. While marketing thinks sales just wants them to execute against a set of deliverables that sales has demanded from marketing. See the patent here?"- Marketing Above the Noise, page 105
A common struggle, especially in large organizations, is what Popky calls a “sibling rivalry” between sales and marketing. Because both the sales staff and the marketing staff will be evaluated based on the results that come from shared decisions, each feels compelled to assert their take on the issue at hand, which can result in tensions. To ensure the best possible outcome, both teams needs to share their value and also feel valued, so Popky advises an “exchange system” to promote optimal collaboration.
By allowing marketing folks to sit in on sales meetings or calls, they can gain perspective on the client-facing experience and come back with a new understanding of what customers want. When sales folks embed with the marketing team, they can better appreciate the various factors that go into creating marketing initiatives. In both instances, the “host” department will feel valued and appreciated for being recognized as a vital part of the process.
At the close of the book, Popky tells readers not to worry if their marketing efforts aren’t quite up to snuff just yet: In 2013, a Marketing2020 study showed that most organizations have not yet been able to pull off all of the key things mentioned in the book. But awareness and mindfulness is key to getting there, so Popky invites readers to take the online assessment to evaluate your organization’s status on the eight Dynamic Market Leverage Factors.
Linda Popky has been writing for as long as she can remember–first poetry, prose, and fiction, then nonfiction, and now for business. For nearly as long, she’s been involved with marketing–on the agency side, with corporations, with non-profit organizations, and as a strategic marketing consultant.
