What is Smarketing?

When sales and marketing align within a business, great things can happen. And that is Smarketing. I think this past post from Mark Roberge of HubSpot hit it on the head.

Smarketing

As companies continue to increase the percentage of leads that originate from inbound marketing, effective alignment of sales and marketing becomes a critical area of organizational design. If the two departments are managed as separate silos, the system fails. For companies to achieve growth and become leaders in their industries, it is critical that these two groups be properly integrated.

Well, that’s a lot of words, and what does it mean for the growth of your business?  What Smarketing means to businesses is the ability to bring marketing-qualified leads (MQL) and sales-qualified leads (SQL) together through a process that measures, grades, disseminates, and follows up on possible leads for your business.

What? Marketing can get me leads? Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. And yes, if you haven’t heard about this thing called “inbound marketing” the purpose is to drive leads to your business. Seth Godin says it so well: “Selling to people who actually want to hear from you is more effective than interrupting strangers who don’t.”  Inbound marketing is more than social media, blogging, web design, landing pages, or e-newsletters. Inbound marketing is a an overall strategy that combines many effective tactics to result in getting found and converting those interested in your story to eventually be funneled into new revenue creation. Still not sure? Learn what inbound marketing is here.

Inbound marketing is not your dad’s advertising, and no longer just a dead line item on your P&L. It is an alive, living, and breathing animal, and when working in concert with your sales team, leads to “Smarketing” (or what we like to call the BOOM factor).

Communication is vital to proper Smarketing. Here is a great list by Mike Volpe from a past blog post titled “6 Sales and Marketing Communication Tips to Build Smarketing.”   Tips to Smarter Smarketing:

1. Have sales and marketing meet frequently
2. Build multiple relationships between sales and marketing
3. Mix marketing and sales desks together
4. Provide many types of feedback between marketing and sales
5. Agree on terminology
6. Use data to communicate

Smarketing is not just a cool term or even a way of saying something we already know differently. It is an entirely new way of thinking. I am pretty sure credit for the term "Smarketing" goes to super smart marketeeers Dan Tyre & Mike Volpe around 2007.  Inbound marketing itself was a term only coined in 2005 by HubSpot CEO—super smart guy—Brian Halligan.  Marketing or advertising by themselves are nothing except chatter anymore; simply chatter that no longer can stand above those seeking information via their smart devices, tablets, computers, or even internet across their TV. To be successful, your company must have a strategic inbound marketing program that works in concert with conventional advertising and marketing programs. Then to be ultimately successful, ongoing Smarketing, sales and marketing aligning, must be done to capitalize on new business opportunities.

With many of our clients, we are finding it even goes beyond simple Smarketing, but to the level of corporate growth strategy that is planning years in advance for positioning, profitability, and new markets to penetrate. Now, if only I could come up with a cool term like inbound marketing or Smarketing. Let me think...

S.I.G.N.S.

Smarketing

Inbound

Growth

Nifty

Strategy

Okay fine, it seems clear to me I lack what it takes to coin a cool term or phrase. But that's okay, just fine in fact. I am happy to stand back while we educate businesses to the power of inbound marketing and help them develop Smarketing strategies that bring the BOOM to their growth plans and bottom line.