BUSINESS GROWTH

PLAYBOOK
 Goals
Before you step on the field you have to know WHY you’re doing so. Like
every athlete and team training to win a championship, achieving a goal
takes hard work. If you’re going to make the commitment and investment
in resources, you need to know what you’re specifically trying to achieve
and define what success looks like. It’s also important that all team
members are striving for the same goal. Start by writing down your goals
and getting buy-in from management and team members.
Goals WRITE YOUR GOALS HERE:

___________________________________________________________
S.M.A.R.T. GOALS ARE:
___________________________________________________________
• SPECIFIC - Set real numbers with real deadlines. Don’t
say, “I want more visitors.” ___________________________________________________________
• MEASURABLE - Make sure that you can track your
goal. Don’t hide behind buzzwords like “brand ___________________________________________________________
engagement” or “social influence.”
___________________________________________________________
• ATTAINABLE - Work toward a goal that is
challenging but possible. Don’t try to take over the
___________________________________________________________
world in one night.

• REALISTIC - Be honest with yourself, because you ___________________________________________________________

know what you and your team are capable of. Don’t
forget any hurdles you may have to overcome.
___________________________________________________________
• TIMEBOUND - Give yourself a deadline. Don’t keep
pushing towards a goal you might hit “some day.” ___________________________________________________________

SOME EXAMPLE GOALS MIGHT BE: ___________________________________________________________

• Grow traffic through Google and social media by 3x ___________________________________________________________

over the course of 1 year

• Convert 20% more traffic into prospects and customers ___________________________________________________________

by the end of Q3
___________________________________________________________
• In 4 months, increase lead to customer conversion
rates by 15% using email marketing to convert leads
___________________________________________________________
into customers
Source:
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33898/How-to-Set-SMART-Marketing-Goals-for-2013-TEMPLATE.aspx ___________________________________________________________
extra point To help you set realistic and attainable goals, below
are monthly historical conversion rates for HubSpot’s
When setting your goals, consider both the personal and
7,000+ customers.
professional benefits of reaching your goals.

Will it mean a promotion? Less stress? More time with TOP 50% MEDIAN
family? An exotic trip? Visits 5,254 1,508
Visits Conversion Rate 1.9% 0.93%
Having these written down and visualizing you achieving
those goals will help to keep you motivated and focused. Leads 100 14
Leads Conversion Rate 33% 7.1%

WHAT ARE 3 BENEFITS OF ACHIEVING Customers 33 1

YOUR GOAL?

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________
Source: HubSpot.com

Where do your goals fit in the above chart? Are you trying to attract more visitors
to your website? Convert more vistitors into leads? More leads into customers? Or
are you trying to turn customers into brand advocates and promoters?
 AUDIENCE & FANS
With your goals clearly established, you need to turn your focus on the
people that help pay the bills. No franchise or organization can survive
without a loyal fan base. Define your audience. Who is your ideal customer?
What are their likes/dislikes? What will turn an arm-chair quarterback into a
raving, season-ticket-purchasing fan? What are you putting on the field that
will get their attention and how can you give them an experience they’ll
want to share with friends?
AUDIENCE & Fans GOALS:

• Persona’s primary goal

Create fictional representations of your ideal customers (aka:
audience, fans, buyer personas.) These should be based • Persona’s secondary goal
on real data about customer demographics and online
behavior, along with educated speculation about their
personal histories, motivations, and concerns. CHALLENGES:

BACKGROUND: • Primary challenge to persona’s success

• Secondary challenge to persona’s success

• Basic details about persona’s role

• Key information about the persona’s company

HOW WE HELP:
• Relevant background info, like education or hobbies
• How you solve your persona’s challenges

DEMOGRAPHICS: • How you help your persona achieve goals

• Gender
REAL QUOTES:
• Age Range

• HH Income (Consider a spouse’s income, if relevant) • Include a few real quotes – taken during your
interviews – that represent your persona well. This
• Urbanicity (Is your persona urban, suburban, or rural?) will make it easier for employees to relate to and
understand your persona.

IDENTIFIERS:

• Buzz words

• Mannerisms
COMMON OBJECTIONS: BUYER PERSONA NOTES:

• Identify the most common objections your persona ___________________________________________________________

will raise during the sales process.
___________________________________________________________

MARKETING MESSAGING: ___________________________________________________________

• How should you describe your solution to your ___________________________________________________________

persona?
___________________________________________________________

ELEVATOR PITCH:
___________________________________________________________

• Make describing your solution simple and consistent

across everyone in your company. ___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________
SOURCES
http://academy.hubspot.com/examples/customer-examples/?Tag=Buyer+Persona
http://offers.hubspot.com/free-template-creating-buyer-personas ___________________________________________________________
20 Questions to Ask in GOALS

Persona Interviews 9. What are you responsible for?

10. What does it mean to be successful in your role?

Now it’s time to run the interview! After the normal small
talk and thank yous, it’s time to jump into your questions.
There are a few different types of questions you want to ask CHALLENGES
to fill out a complete persona profile -- these questions are
organized into those areas. 11. What are your biggest challenges?

ROLE
WATERING HOLES
1. What is your job role? Your title?
12. How do you learn about new information for your job?
2. How is your job measured?
13. What publications or blogs do you read?
3. What does a typical day look like?
14. What associations and social networks do you
4. What skills are required to do your job? belong to?

5. What knowledge and tools do you use in your job?

6. Who do you report to? Who reports to you? PERSONAL BACKGROUND

15. Describe your personal demographics (if

COMPANY appropriate, ask their age, whether they’re married,
if they have children).
7. In which industry or industries does your
16. Describe your educational background. What level of
company work?
education did you complete, which schools did you
8. What is the size of your company attend, and what did you study?
(revenue, employees)?
17. Describe your career path. How did you end up where
you are today?
SHOPPING PREFERENCES NOTES:

18. How do you prefer to interact with vendors (email, ___________________________________________________________

phone, in person)?

19. Do you use the internet to research vendors or ___________________________________________________________

products? If yes, how do you search for information?
___________________________________________________________
20. Describe a recent purchase. Why did you consider a
purchase, what was the evaluation process, and how
___________________________________________________________
did you decide to purchase that product or service?

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________
SOURCES
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33491/Everything-Marketers-Need-to-Research-Create-Detailed-
Buyer-Personas-Template.aspx ___________________________________________________________
 COMpetitors
Most organizations know their division rivals like the back of their hand
but they can’t ignore the other teams on their schedule. The scouting
report needs to be as thorough on new competitors as it does on old
ones. Technology has leveled the playing field and has made the game
more about strategy than salary caps. Analyze the competition, online
and offline, and create a scorecard to see how you stack up against
the competition. What do you need to do to come out on top?
COMPETITORS Instagram: _________________________________________________

Do an analysis of your competitors online presence. Use
the chart below to take note of what their website, blog
and social media sites look like. Are they frequently creating
compelling content? Are they engaging with customers via
social media? What compelling content and offers do they
have on their website? What lead generation techniques do
they use? Are they active in industry forums?
Company Website: Traffic Rank*: ___________________________
Indexed Pages*: ___________________________________________
Linking Domains*: _________________________________________
mozRank*:_________________________________________________
Google+: _________________________________________________
Pinterest: __________________________________________________
Industry Forums: __________________________________________
Media Mentions/Guest Blogging: ___________________________
Awards/Certifications: _____________________________________
Other: ____________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________

Marketing Grade*: _________________________________________

Company Blog: ___________________________________________

Top Articles: _______________________________________________

Top Keywords/Phrases: ____________________________________

Offers/Calls-to-Action: _____________________________________

Unique Content: __________________________________________

Content Format Types: ____________________________________

Facebook: _________________________________________________

Twitter: ____________________________________________________

LinkedIn: __________________________________________________

YouTube: __________________________________________________
*Run your free report at marketing.grader.com
 stadium
Every team needs a place to play and the proper equipment to
perform their best. What does that look like for your organization? Do
you need to build this from scratch or will a renovation suffice? What
luxuries do your fans want and expect? What tools does your team
need to be successful? Unfortunately, not every game can be a home
game. You’ll need to win on the road to be successful and to engage
with new fans in their city, wherever that online city may be!
STADIUM MORE IMPORTANTLY, WHERE ARE YOU
DOING THE LISTENING?

WHERE ARE YOU DOING THE TALKING? • Social sites and all mentioned above

• 80/20 Rule for listening to promotion

• Social sites: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+,
Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram • Determine the goal of your listening strategy

• Industry Forums • Identify pain points and common questions

• LinkedIn Groups • Find out who are the influencers online

• Commenting on blogs • Use social to develop a sense of community

• Trade publication blogs • Boost customer service opportunities

• Customer blogs • Gain competitive intelligence (use social as a

focus group)
• Vendor blogs

• Influencer blogs

• Partner with organizations that share your audience for

co-marketing opportunities

WHAT DOES THE TALKING LOOK LIKE?

• Format? Video, photos, blog articles, white papers, tip

sheets, eBooks, webinars

• Seminars

• Podcasts

• Presentations to local organizations

• Interviewing industry experts

 YOUR TEAM
With a game plan nearly in place, you need a team that can help
execute a winning strategy. Find team players who can thrive in the
conditions, who match up well to the competition and who can
electrify the fans. In order to achieve your goals, it may require making
a few trades, shopping the free-agent market or adjusting your offense
to align with your talent. Evaluate your team honestly and be sure they
are in positions that set the team up for success.
YOUR TEAM • By creating a group, it not only helps with
content creation but it adds variety and helps with
promotional efforts
WHO’S DOING THE TALKING FROM • Helps prevent writers block and burnout
YOUR TEAM?
• It helps align departments

• What are their credentials? • Gives contributors a reason to participate in social -

now they have something to share and reasons to
• Why should anyone listen to them?
listen (to get content ideas)
• What authority do they have?
• Having a team helps address any social complaints -
you can send feedback to appropriate department

HOW DO YOU BUILD AN INTERNAL
COMMUNICATION TEAM?
• You need ONE person to be the champion and to
layout the framework of the group
• Review objectives with group
• Most people object to being brought in “last minute” -
build a team up front and it’ll make your program that
much stronger
• Look for individuals who have expertise and the
necessary social skills (particularly those that like
to help)

• Get buy-in by relating it to their goals and objectives

(ie: customer support, sales, HR, tech support, account
executives, claims, underwriting, etc.)

• Set goals and set hard deadlines

• Start small - if everyone contributes a little, they can

accomplish a lot as a group

• Ask for ONE meeting per month and for ONE piece of
content per quarter - Q&A format to begin to alleviate
fear of “blogging”
 TRAining
In order for any team to be successful, the players need to be
aligned with their goals and understand the system that helps them
achieve those goals. Without proper (and very specific) training,
the team will be out of sync and lack chemistry. Communication is
imperative for success. With the game changing so quickly, be sure
to have a solid game plan and the proper training in place to get the
most out of your team.
TRAINING • Leverage partners and vendors for content or
podcast interviews

After defining the campaign objectives, components, team • Work to establish relationships with the top influencers
members then put it on a calendar: in your industry

• Create an Excel Doc they can use • Put on an industry event or a seminar

• Assign dates - when will the campaign begin • Look for speaking opportunities at conferences and
trade shows
• How many days between emails

• What days are you going to host/record the webinars

ANALYTICS:
• When will the premium content be completed/released
(be sure to assign to-do’s to a person) • Create a chart to be able to keep track of monthly
• How often will you meet with the team members to go metrics (benchmark against HubSpot customers)
over deliverables and results - accountability is key • Visits, leads, customers

• Top content and format

Consider paid media until your organic traffic gains traction,
then adjust paid media accordingly: • Ideas

• Facebook ads • Industry hit-list for experts

• Google Adwords • Top performing keyword phrases

• LinkedIn Ads • Top brand advocates

• Paid Media with trade publications • Facebook Likes, Shares, Tweets, Pins, etc.

• Retargeting • Trade publication mentions

• Consider Co-Marketing Opportunities:

• Find relationships that benefit all parties: you, them and

your shared audience

• Link up with an industry organization to do a co-

webinar, industry report, etc.
 OFFENSE
For teams to be successful, they must all be on the same page and
work together to score. Your offense is what helps put your team on
the score board and move down the field. Take the time to make sure
everyone on your team is on the same page to win the game.
Your Offense
CONTENT IDEAS:
• 10 frequently asked questions (ask CS Reps, Sales
and Support)
• Respond to last 5 complaints
• Interview head of each department in
your organization
• Interview sales team about what they’re “hearing on
the streets” - take 1 point from each rep and to create
one article
• Newsjacking - find a hot topic in the news and find a
way to relate it to your business/industry
• Review your web analytics - write more about topics
that have been viewed the most
• Look at LinkedIn Today for popular articles and add
your take on the article
• Ask your peers and network for content ideas that are
top of mind for them
• Listen to podcasts while commuting
• Look for qualified guest bloggers
DEVELOP “TOP OF THE FUNNEL OFFERS”
• Create content that draws people in but then you
need to find conversion opportunities to get them
into a lead nurturing campaign in order to continue
the conversation.
NOTE: it’s a conversation, not a sales-pitch.
• You’re looking for ways to share additional information,
similar to the content they’ve enjoyed consuming from
your site
• Create top of mind awareness and work to build trust
with your audience- Give before you get...
• Find an offer that allows you to gather minimal
information from a user (ie: First, Last and
email address)
• Think white paper, case studies, tip sheet or eBook
• Who’s going to help develop this content
• Who has the expertise within your walls
• Can you ask industry experts to contribute (by simple
questions via email)
• What’s the goal of this piece? Thought leadership.
• Develop the lead nurturing emails for this campaign:
1. Thank them for download, ask them for feedback
2. Share similar and additional info
(blog posts, infographic)
DEVELOP “MIDDLE OF THE FUNNEL OFFERS” NOTES:

• Offer something of greater value, such as webinar, ___________________________________________________________

industry report, toolkit, grader/calculator
___________________________________________________________

BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL OFFERS: ___________________________________________________________

• Free trial, free sample, 30 minute consultation,

___________________________________________________________
product demo, seminar, exclusive Q&A session with
industry expert
___________________________________________________________
• Who will follow up on these opportunities? What team
members are qualified to take this conversation offline? ___________________________________________________________
Do they know the campaign objectives?

• Does the sales team understand where the buyers are ___________________________________________________________
at once they’ve reached this level?
___________________________________________________________
• Be sure the sales team has gone thru this funnel so
they can offer insight and understand where the buyer
has been ___________________________________________________________

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