Strategy always comes first

03 Jan

By pzmaven Marketing Comments Off

Sometimes when discussing options to promote a business, owners and high level staff can get caught up in the details of what they can do. Either they can’t think of creative concepts, and spend time sulking about that, or they are very quick to bring up all the things they can do to promote their business, as if the this new flurry of ideas will save the company.

For example they can:

Print flyers, brochures, and business cards
Create email campaigns
Post on social Media
Create videos
Put my ad on a billboard or bus bench
Distribute Door Hangers
Advertise online
Team up with other companies
Put their ads on billboards
Run a contest
Create a referral program
Run a sale
Etcetera
Etcetera
Etcetera

These are all just tactics. Just instruments and tools to achieve something. It’s kind of like saying you want to build a chair. And you think you’ll make the chair simply by acquiring wood, hammer and nails. That’s not enough. What kind of chair is this? Is it minimalistic? Is it a throne? What dimensions should the materials be?

The problem here is that following these ideas, or executing random tactics is usually akin to throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. Whether something was successful or if it was not, either way, they will likely have a hard time pinpointing why!

Anyone who spends time trying it this way will spend their time in a cycle of desperate attempts at trying new things, only to see marginal success and then have to go back to the drawing board.

This is not sustainable.

When diving into marketing it is very easy to get distracted by the latest shiny new object, or the temptation to try something someone else is doing. But it is not until you have defined your strategy that the operation can truly be advanced.

So, what is a strategy? According to Forbes, A strategy is a framework for making decisions about how you will play the game of business. Without a strategic framework, everyone and everything is free to go in all directions. Decisions are disjointed. Results are interpreted differently. The vision is unfocused. Good intentions can become unfortunate tragedies. Many efforts are wasted. Confusion ensues. Morale is lowered. Motivation becomes scattershot.Time and money are squandered. You get the idea.

On the flip side defining your strategy helps you:

Guide your focus in the right direction
Intelligently select the appropriate tactics for your circumstance
Organize your approach, maybe even split into different phases
Prioritize your activities
Sequence and time your selected tactics
Solidify the reasoning behind your decisions
Communicate your approach better
Define what success looks like, and give purpose to your analytics

If this is so important and consequential, why do so many people skip this step?
Well, the process of strategizing is a high level activity that wont immediately move the needle. Most people want to skip right to the part that they feel will produce results. It’s also an activity that requires slow, methodical thinking. It’s a change of pace from the “get results quick” world of business.

That doesn’t make it any less important. If you’ve been on the hamster wheel trying different tactics instead of strategizing first, maybe its time to take a step back and do the foundational work. Until you have a strategy, everything else is just aimless practice.

If you’re interested in the bigger picture be sure to check out our comprehensive guide to digital marketing.

Author

pzmaven

Fellow human and enthusiast of almost all things digital. When I was younger I ran a successful event coordination production. That’s a nice way of saying that I was a young kid throwing parties and doing very well. I was making thousands of dollars per event, which was more than what I needed to survive. Throwing parties was all about marketing. But throwing parties can wear you out. Eventually I felt I “grew up” and decided to get a “real job”. I was doing very well in a corporate job for many years. In 2016, when I left my full time job of 10 years to start a marketing agency, I was shocked at how aggressive and fast paced the changes in the field of marketing occur. It was no longer about broadcasting who you are. It became about understanding your audience and providing value for them. Since then, I dove headfirst into learning what was new. I’ve compiled a list of resources for myself, and decided to share.

For example they can:

Print flyers, brochures, and business cards
Create email campaigns
Post on social Media
Create videos
Put my ad on a billboard or bus bench
Distribute Door Hangers
Advertise online
Team up with other companies
Put their ads on billboards
Run a contest
Create a referral program
Run a sale
Etcetera
Etcetera
Etcetera

Anyone who spends time trying it this way will spend their time in a cycle of desperate attempts at trying new things, only to see marginal success and then have to go back to the drawing board.

This is not sustainable.

On the flip side defining your strategy helps you:

Guide your focus in the right direction
Intelligently select the appropriate tactics for your circumstance
Organize your approach, maybe even split into different phases
Prioritize your activities
Sequence and time your selected tactics
Solidify the reasoning behind your decisions
Communicate your approach better
Define what success looks like, and give purpose to your analytics

If you’re interested in the bigger picture be sure to check out our comprehensive guide to digital marketing.

In marketing we are always creating messages. These messages embed meaning behind them always, wether intentional or not.

When someone puts up a post with a quote on it. You can often gain insight from what is said. You can also gain some insight about the person that is posting it. Because the fact that they are posting it means that it bears some kind of significance to them. For example, when someone posts a quote that reads:

“You need the darkness to see the stars.”

You can assume that the person behind the post has experienced some darkness. In order to appreciate the value of those words, they themselves must have somehow engaged in the topic being expressed.

I remember one morning a long time ago, walking into an Einstein Brothers Bagel store with my dad. At this time they were known for delicious breakfast bagel sandwiches. This day they had signs up everywhere that read

“Come for lunch!”

I was so surprised by the reaction that one sign provided for two different minds. Immediately I thought, “hey I never thought of coming for lunch”. My dad had a different thought completely. He told me, “wow, their numbers must be very low that they have to explicitly promote the lunch hours. That tells you a lot about how people think about this place.” He was right.

Ever since, I have looked at attempts at communications in a different manner. Maybe it’s being astute, or deliberate, or considerate of different factors. Statements can communicate more than simply what they state at face value. When you ask your self why is this statement being put out at all, you can discover so many truths behind the statement itself.

Sorry to get political on you, but here’s another example:

Why does Donald Trump put out so many messages defending himself and attacking others from a distance?

It reminds me of a documentary I once saw. It shows a group of gorillas and highlights their struggles to position themselves as high as possible on the social ladder. The stronger males are usually quiet. They understand they have the strength and are targets to be challenged by those that want to climb the ranks. In the documentary there was a clever little gorilla. He was nowhere near the strength he needed to be. He found some tin cans. He learned that banging on them and throwing them around made really loud noises. So one day, he stormed into the middle of the group, banging on his tin can and scared away even the biggest and the strongest alpha male gorilla. What an amazing feat. He was king for a day! But in very short time, the other gorillas got curious, and eventually they too got their hands on the tin can. As soon as they realized that this loud banging did not empower them in any way, or that there was no magic behind this contraption, they looked at the supposed king and sized him up in a new light. A day later he was beaten to death by the entire crew of gorillas for being an imposter.

Is Donald Trump rattling his tin cans at us?

It is possible to cultivate the ability to process the information that is being presented to you in ways that provide a deeper and richer understanding of the world around you. With a little bit of inquisitive and introspective effort, you can unlock the meanings behind the messages.

Introduction

Have you ever heard of any of these?

Landing pages
Facebook ads
Influencer marketing
Free Downloads
Email list subscriptions
Hashtags
Videos
Blogs
Webinars

Of course you have. You’re likely to have encountered some of these marketing tactics because today’s best companies use them. I noticed them all the time. I wanted to replicate the apparent success of the companies. Naturally I decided to try out some of these tactics. I made the mistake of thinking that because I had seen them, I understood them. These were just the tips of marketing icebergs. No matter how well executed, implementing any number of these tactics was NOT likely to yield any kind of tangible results without a good strategy behind them. I learned the hard way that it’s a horrible idea to begin implementing before understanding of the process as a whole. You’ll have much better time if you understand the big picture before you dive in. It’s essential to know how each of the pieces affects the other.

In a nutshell, the general concept of modern digital marketing, is to drive business towards you as authentically as possible. This is in stark contrast to “the old way” which basically consists of somehow broadcasting your sales pitches to the world to see what sticks. Getting people’s attention is very difficult these days. They encounter all types of distractions in the way of messages, app notifications, emails, and more. Digital marketing done correctly seeks to retain the attention of an audience by generating genuine interest. An audience is paying the best kind of attention when they are genuinely interested.

Digital marketing, when done correctly is sustainable for all involved. It is sustainable to the company doing the marketing, because it should produce enough of a return on their investment to continue doing it. But it is also sustainable to the prospective audience because genuine interest suggests that they value the content that they are being provided enough to continue giving you their interested attention. Those that are not good prospective fits will simply not receive any continued marketing. In this way, the company’s brand and reputation cannot be tarnished and all parties are satisfied.

Now a days, people’s patience is low. They are no longer easily suckered into “click-bait”. Attention is more sparse than ever, and highly valuable. Authenticity and value are the new currency of marketing.

Ok, let’s begin.

Preparations

Marketing, when done correctly, is a beautiful adventure that takes both creative and analytical ingenuity. There are few professions that work that way. Marketing can really challenge you, but it can also be absolutely fulfilling. Proper marketing undoubtedly takes time and effort. Luckily you can apply a structure to your approach to keep yourself from going insane.

The project summary gives a high level description of the objectives, strategy, descriptions of key elements, and a rough timeline for the project. Having an overall strategy is fundamental to your marketing and often overlooked. The strategy is the backbone for all endeavors to come. Your strategy guides the decisions for individual tactics.

I learned the hard way that without the proper preparations, I was setting myself up for failure. It took me months of research and sometimes paid material to learn the best ways to set up. Here are the documents you can draft up to prepare your marketing campaigns, and why they’re important.

- - Profile and Project Summary – Having your basic project information in a format that can be easily distributed facilitates communication and understanding. It will save you time by not having to repeat yourself and it will help to put all involved on the same page.
    - A Company Profile provides information the organization behind the project so that everyone understands the context of the project.
    - A Contact Directory provides information about key people involved in the project. This document can save you time from needless reference questions. This is a good document to keep on a collaborative platform such as google Drive or Dropbox.
    - Buyer Personas – The better you are at Identifying your target market, the better you will be able to create content that can connect and engage with them. Creating buyer personas is an exercise that helps you define your target audience in a way that can be used by everyone in your project.
    - Content Maps – A content map helps you layout the topics for each buyer persona. It uses the concept of buyer’s journey to encourage writing that is relevant to a prospect based on their level of interest and general knowledge of the topic.
  - Marketing Guidelines – One of the first things people think of when it comes to marketing is their logo. I have news for you. Your logo is important, but it’s only a part of your image. These days, your image is a very big deal. Because attention is so hard to acquire, you need to project the right image everywhere and consistently. Your image consists of how you look, what you say, how you say it, and where you say it. You can maintain a defined consistency by drafting up the appropriate documents such as branding guidelines and writing style guidelines. These documents will communicate to your team and any outside teams involved exactly how you expect the usage and implementation of your image and your message.
  - If you’re going to skip the branding guidelines at the bare minimum cover the basics of logo creation and try to understand the difference between vector & raster graphics and why vector is usually the best way to go. Keep the design simple so that it can be used on many applications.

Attracting Visitors

It doesn’t take a genius to realize that in order for any marketing efforts to work you first need to be able to attract visitors. When I first began to explore this topic, there were so many options available. I read about blogging, posting on social media, creating landing pages or squeeze pages, using paid advertisements, and all of these would require excellent copywriting. There were so many ways to get this part wrong. It took me a long time to learn to do it right. What’s the best place to start?

Each of these methods have their own rules. Here’s a bit of what I learned.

Blogging – Why should you blog? Blogging helps drive traffic to your page. It also helps convert that traffic into leads. It helps you establish authority, and it does so by driving long term results. Seth Godin in his book “All Marketers are liars tell stories ” explains the benefits of blogging daily. Make sure to always have a call to action.
Social Media – Social Media has become the preferred way to get information. Most people trust that their network has tried,tested and found the best solutions to common problems. The conversion code that more websites were referred by facebook than by Google. Find is the new search.
Paid Search – Adwords and Retargeting. Paid search marketing means you advertise within the sponsored listings of a search engine or a partner site by paying either each time your ad is clicked (pay-per-click – PPC) or less commonly, when your ad is displayed (cost-per-impression – CPM)
Influencer Marketing – is a form of marketing in which focus is placed on influential people rather than the target market as a whole. Word of mouth is always the best form of marketing and Influencer marketing is the best way to “buy” this method at scale. It takes a little research to find the right fit, but it can pay in dividends.

Converting Visitors to Leads

Once you’ve solved the traffic issue, it’s time to make sure these strangers are converted into your prospects. Your pages should be optimized to register basic information from visitors that show interest in your offer. This is done through the smart use of forms. Forms should be well placed, simple and intuitive, and in some cases dynamic.

Landing Pages / Squeeze Pages – Hubspot says web pages with more than 30 landing pages do better. Landing pages have a single focus and are designed to perform one singular function.
Quality copywriting is essential to getting quality leads. If your content is not interesting or helpful, you won’t gain much traction. If your content is not resonating with your intended audience, your efforts will fall flat. If your content is not relevant, your leads will be of little use.
Search Engine Optimization – You may be thinking, where does SEO (Search Engine Optimization) fall into all of this? Well, the short answer is that SEO considerations are pervasive throughout the process. Search engines are increasingly contextual, intelligent, and based off natural language. The keywords and topics that you want to rank for should be considered, but increasingly natural language is prefered.

Nurturing Leads to Close Sales

Not every lead will be ready to be your customer. Some leads will want to know more about you before they make a purchase. Others are a good fit, but the timing may not be right. It’s good practice to follow up on your leads periodically. This activity is called lead nurturing. One of the best ways to nurture leads is by using Email Workflows – At a minimum, the email workflows help to remind those prospects that you exist. Done correctly they provide valuable insights, and position your company in high regard in your prospect’s minds. Only send quality content to avoid being regarded as spam.

A good CRM software, customer relationship manager software, can also help you follow up on your leads.These programs keep track of each time a client has been “touched” which can be a phone call, email and sometimes even messaging services. A good CRM program will segment your contacts in ways that make it easy to prioritize who to contact. They will typically show you the contacts history with your company and any notes that you or your team have left for that contact.

Qualifying Leads – There are two kinds of leads you should be aware of. Marketing Qualified Leads are leads that have been identified as likely to make a purchase at some time in the future. Sales qualified leads are leads that are ready to purchase today.
Closing Sales – Closing sales has become more about guidance and help with any final questions. Consumers are much more informed throughout the marketing process that closing the sale is usually about finding the last few concerns and ensuring the prospect about a good fit.

The best part about modern marketing, is that, if done correctly, the closing should be relatively simple. Many of the questions should have been answered with the information gathered during the rest of the process. Prospects ready to purchase will typically be asking very specific questions, or maybe trying to reconcile something about their own situation. The general advice is to stop selling and just help.

Leveraging Results

- - Analytics – You should be analyzing all aspects of your implementation frequently. Every Piece counts. You should start by looking at how many visitors you’re getting. A good benchmark is to have anywhere from 1.6% to 2% of your visitors converting into leads.
  - A list of other good benchmarks here
  - Going Beyond – Hubspot calls it delighting customers. Others will call it earning repeat business and referrals. There was a point in my business where I was selling just fine but I had a customer retention problem. Getting to this point can be scary because you are now invested and yet losing ground. Your brand and reputation are always at stake. This part of the process is often underestimated. It is vital to your success. You must continuously project the value you provide to your customers or they will take it for granted. You must always be marketing.

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Learning

Strategy always comes first

Strategy always comes first

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