By Are you looking to refresh your marketing strategy but need help figuring out where to start? Understanding marketing maturity is key to taking your efforts to the next level.
In this article, we will explore the concept of marketing maturity and provide an action plan for revitalizing your marketing efforts. From identifying your current level of maturity to implementing new tactics and measuring success, we'll guide you through giving your marketing strategy a much-needed refresh.
Don't let stale marketing hold your business back — join us as we delve into the world of marketing maturity.
Understanding Marketing Maturity
Understanding marketing maturity is crucial for companies looking to take their marketing efforts to the next level. A company's marketing maturity refers to the level of development and effectiveness of its marketing strategy, which can range from ad-hoc and reactive to highly refined and optimized.
A high level of marketing maturity equates to a high level of skills, expertise, and the use of marketing tools to drive growth. Many marketing professionals focus on the project and the sellers, while most succeeding marketers deviate from the norm by focusing on the prospective buyers and factors that promote strategic growth.
Brands looking to create a change in their marketing plans must first evaluate their marketing maturity by analyzing their brand's processes, methods, the technology used, and the results to help establish where it stands on the marketing maturity spectrum, which can either be immature or well-matured.
The 5 Stages of Marketing Maturity
The path to achieving maturity isn't easy as brands often expect. Let’s review the stages of Relequint’s own marketing maturity model, starting with Reactive through Catalyzed.
Reactive Stage
This stage is characterized by a high level of innovation and experimentation as companies try to find the best ways to meet the market's needs. The market is relatively small and new, and there is a high degree of uncertainty and risk. Companies operating in an emerging market often focus on creating a new market or capturing a share of an existing market.
Proactive Stage
The Proactive stage is a stage of maturity where there is a high degree of alignment between the market's needs, the solutions available to meet those needs, and the strategies of the companies operating in that market. There is a clear understanding of what the market wants and what is needed to succeed within it. This often leads to a high level of competition and a focus on efficiency as companies work to optimize their offerings and operations to meet the market's needs.
Integrated Stage
The Integrated stage is a stage of maturity with a high degree of standardization and integration among the various products and services offered within the market. There is a clear dominant design or standard that the market participants widely adopt, leading to a high level of compatibility and interoperability among the different offerings. The market is more mature, efficient, and stable, and the companies operating in this stage typically compete on price, service, and support rather than on product differentiation.
Catalyzed Stage
Brands at the Catalyzed stage have achieved most or all the checklists in marketing. Email marketing, analytical, social content, targeted ads, and even personalized interactions like chatbots and auto-response systems are common here. Their strategy plans need to be more website-oriented as it is now sent across every communication channel they own.
It’s Time to Refresh Your Marketing Efforts
True maturity stage marketing is undoubtedly influenced by several nuances and layers, including well-established and documented processes, widely adopted standards, and the appropriate metrics to demonstrate value. While there are many different reasons why a company might decide to use the B2B marketing maturity model, for many of them, the answer is straightforward: It fosters an expectation of expansion and aids in educating, coordinating, and managing internal teams and management.
When it comes to marketing, your brand must be appropriately portrayed. Your brand identity must be prominently shown in your content, including offers, product descriptions, blog posts, and everything in between. Take a step back and think of it as a journey rather than becoming overwhelmed by adopting everything required to attain a fully operational, completely optimized marketing operation all at once.
Marketers should prioritize business-consumer relationships by employing A/B testing and behavioral retargeting. Also, by combining first- and third-party data derived from their brand's analytics and provided customer information, marketers can communicate with customers across all digital channels and execute intelligent hyper-personalization.
Conclusion
Every marketing plan aims to produce new material for people to consume while demonstrating that you are aware of market and technology changes in your industry. Make sure you communicate with and show your customers that your business is aware of their shifting preferences and is prepared to accommodate their needs.
Take Relequint’s Marketing Maturity Assessment now to determine your current stage of maturity and the next steps needed to refresh your marketing initiatives.
