Mastering Marketing ROI in the Supply Chain World

Chris Peer, CEO of SyncShow, joined Tom Raftery, the host of the Digital Supply Chain podcast, for an insightful conversation on the intersection of B2B marketing and supply chain management. Here's a summary of the conversation. 

Marketing is the foundation for all business communications. Of course, strong marketing drives incremental sales. It also improves average order values and customer lifetime values. Strong marketing can make recruiting and retention easier. It can also deliver consistent and impactful internal communications. Marketing drives business regardless of sector, size, customer, or product. 

The Genesis of SyncShow

SyncShow was built to address specific marketing challenges within the supply chain industry.
Founded in 2002 and based in Cleveland, the agency works with supply chain companies in the industrial sector, including warehousing, transportation, distribution, trucking, and 3PLs, to deliver ROI-driven marketing. These small and medium-sized companies need a competitive edge to scale their business in a very commoditized and competitive market. SyncShow delivers the marketing to do just that.

"We help them put together a marketing infrastructure that will deliver leads and business growth year after year. They can outsource all the marketing to us, or we can assist to upskill their current marketing team," Chris said.

SyncShow builds a complete marketing infrastructure for clients. This differs from other marketing agencies, which often create campaigns based on channels and tactics instead of goals and strategy. SyncShow's framework holistically affects the entire organization and helps clients scale as they grow.

After two decades of success at SyncShow, Chris translated SyncShow’s unique process into a methodology called The Great 8 Pillars of ROI-Driven Marketing. These 8 Pillars are the core of any successful marketing infrastructure. 

Exploring The Great 8 Pillars

The Great 8 Pillars methodology moves beyond traditional tactics to build a foundational marketing infrastructure that drives tangible business growth. These pillars are the core components of the infrastructure. Each pillar contributes to creating a measurable and sustainable marketing strategy. The framework includes practical examples of how these principles have been successfully implemented and yielded significant returns for SyncShow clients.

"We lead our clients through the 8 Pillars so they can receive a steady return on investment from their marketing and stop wasting time and money on ‘whack-a-mole marketing,’ or marketing that doesn't work. When your marketing is all tactics and no strategy, you need to throw more and more money at it to keep getting results. In the end, you burn out the team and never scale the business," Chris remarked.

The Great 8 Pillars build the operational foundation for a marketing department. They include strategies, goals, KPIs, websites, and more.

Pillar 1 – Goals, KPIs, and Industry Benchmarks

The first pillar includes tracking and setting attainable goals that will have a tangible impact on your bottom line. To be successful, all marketing efforts should lead to one cohesive marketing goal. At SyncShow, the goal is often to 10x a client's marketing investment. Then, identify key performance indicators (KPIs) that lead to the goal. KPIs should follow the SMART goals framework. Each KPI should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timebound. Some examples of KPIs are web sessions and average order value. If you need assistance setting goals and KPIs, industry benchmarks are a great place to start.

Pillar 2 – Value Proposition, Messaging, and Branding

Many companies skip the second pillar because it’s challenging to accomplish. Developing a brand involves every team in a company. But ignoring this step can be the biggest mistake a company can make. Without a clear value proposition or brand messaging, customers will not understand how a product can solve their problems.

A value proposition communicates the specific value you offer that makes your company the logical choice to do business with. The unique selling proposition (USP) goes hand in hand with the value proposition. The USP uses storytelling to tell a brand message that is clear, engaging, and relevant to the target audience, enticing them to convert.

Pillar 3 – Marketing Strategy

A successful marketing strategy cohesively incorporates multi-channel outbound, inbound, and customer marketing. This is more than tactical ideas or boilerplate plans. To scale a business, you need to build a cohesive marketing strategy. Each strategy starts with buyer personas and individual customer profiles. Then, research and data are used to make educated decisions on the messaging and tactics to attract those customers. 

The Results

SyncShow has generated a 10-20% increase in new client business by utilizing The Great 8 Pillars framework. As a HubSpot Platinum Partner, Chris emphasizes that a good customer relationship management (CRM) tool is critical to integrating all internal systems into a cohesive marketing strategy. This ensures that a client can track a marketing-driven lead all the way to the sale. For more information about SyncShow's work, visit the website to review their case studies. Chris has also written a book about the 8 Pillars entitled, The Great 8 Pillars: ROI-Driven Marketing for Manufacturing Companies, available now.

"This book is for leaders in any B2B organization, but we've factored our expertise and work in the transportation, logistics, and supply chain industry over the last two decades into the framework. So it is especially impactful for those kinds of companies. Reading the book will help you understand marketing and how to manage your marketing department," Chris said.

AI's Emerging Role in Marketing

To end the conversation, Chris and Tom discussed how AI is reshaping marketing. However, balancing technological advancements with the need for human insight and creativity is critical. They also speculate on the future of marketing in supply chain management, particularly in light of rapid advancements in AI and digital technologies.

Chris agrees that AI is changing the world, and marketing is no exception. But he also maintains that marketing has been changing radically for two decades. He said, "Marketing was largely arts and crafts 20 years ago. Now, with digital channels and analytics, marketing is so sophisticated. It's scientific. So, AI will be another evolution."

He says that although AI is changing content development, it's not ready to replace human writers. SyncShow has been monitoring content written both ways. They are finding that content written by humans still performs better. He expects that within the next six to 18 months, AI will bridge that gap. Chris also predicts that AI will soon disrupt search engine optimization and social media. Right now, however, AI still needs human support.

“AI has a valuable place in marketing today, and that's to help marketing teams research topic ideas and find data for thought leadership content. But the output still needs experts to rewrite it into readable and brand-right content,” Chris concluded.

The book The Great 8 Pillars: ROI-Driven Marketing for Manufacturing Companies is available on Amazon here. For more information about how SyncShow can help you build a marketing strategy that delivers 10x your investment, click here to schedule a consultation.