Practical.

How to develop a custom marketing strategy that works for you.

Every business and every leadership team is unique. The strategies that work for one business might be awkward and ineffective for yours—even if you’re in the same industry.

Creating a bespoke marketing strategy may sound daunting so we’ve outline some high-level steps below to guide you through the making of your own secret sauce.

1. First, determine where you are now and where you want to go. While every organization will have unique needs there are always areas of opportunity and untapped value that can be realized. 

This step is going to require research and time in order to be done properly because it’s the foundation for every step that follows. Uncovering your value hotspots* is, unfortunately, not an hour long endeavour. What is a value hotspot? It’s an area of the business where there is notable revenue already being produced or where significant value lies dormant, waiting to be unlocked. Each of these hotspots has high growth potential and needs to be the primary focus of your marketing efforts. 

You and your team may have to dig beneath the surface to find these hidden gems, some of which may be right in front of you, and easily overlooked.

In every organization, regardless of size, there are usually only 2-5 solid hotspots. Keep your focus narrow to ensure you avoid the dreaded trap of Initiative Diarrhea! 

Initiative diarrhea, a memorable term coined by HR expert and CEO consultant, Sandy Ogg, is exactly what it sounds like—too many small, insignificant initiatives undertaken at the same time. It’s similar to the “spray & pray” approach, in that they both divert large amounts of time, money, and energy while only serving to overwhelm your team and produce mediocre results. It’s also a great way to drown or discourage star performers. 

Keeping your initiatives pared down and simple is easier said than done as it requires restraint and strong leadership, but we know you’re up to the task.

2. Once you’ve established your targets, brainstorm ways to reach them. While there are an infinite number of marketing solutions, there are only going to be a handful that work to achieve your desired results AND that will be a good fit for you, your team, and your business. 

A brillant marketing strategy is useless if you don’t have the expertise, resources, and people power to execute the plan. 

If you want to start making videos as a marketing tool, you’ll need a video team, equipment, space in the calendar, and a good spokesperson (or people) who can pull it off. If you don’t have these resources, making regular marketing videos might turn out to be more of a resource vampire than a revenue generator. 

To help get the brainstorming started, here are 22 possible marketing channels: 

Just because something is hot at the moment, doesn’t mean it’s a space you need to be in. TikTok might be a great tool for promoting a skateboard company, but a less great tool for reaching a mature audience who don’t understand what #hashtags are. It’s also critical to ensure your marketing strategy is aligned with your brand, products, and personality. If you’re an insightful leader with fresh ideas but are also a quiet introvert, you may prefer marketing techniques that allow you to share your valuable IP while you stay out of the spotlight. 

3. Keep your lead generation flow in mind at all times. It might even help to have a diagram of it, even if it’s a quick napkin sketch.

What is lead generation flow? It’s the process your prospect(s) will go through on their path to becoming devoted clients or customers. Here’s a sample of one we often use at PCW:

• Level 1 – Simple, free materials to generate interest (like this blog post)
• Level 2 – A meaty but low commitment offering that may require a small financial investment. (Books, whitepapers, reports, mini-courses, webinars, etc.)
• Level 3 – A robust product or service that requires a more committed prospect (In-depth courses, multi-step products, team consulting or coaching)
• Level 4 – Your most significant offering (private consulting, custom courses, bespoke products or services)

Level 1 serves the largest number of people while it generates the least amount of revenue per prospect or client. Level 4 serves the smallest number of dedicated clients or customers but they generate the most value per interaction. Your flow may differ slightly and may have more or fewer levels, but the general architecture remains the same.

 

Overall, you’re looking to design a process that draws your target market into your business and guides them through increasingly more lucrative steps. While the flow should be natural that doesn’t mean everyone will take one step forward every time. Some prospects may jump steps and skip around, some may sample what you’re offering and decide you’re not for them, or it’s not the right time. 

That brings us to a critical reason for creating this flow: It weeds out potential clients or customers who aren’t right for you, without having to use valuable human resources to filter contacts manually. It also has the opposite effect: Welcoming new business that is the perfect fit. 

A solid lead generation process creates the goldilocks effect without the hassle of sleeping in beds and tasting porridge.

Now that you’re well-versed on the foundational steps to creating a solid marketing plan, it’s time to get started on the nitty-gritty. If you’re just too busy or are hitting some road blocks, reach out to a PCW team member at info@practicalcreativeworks.com to learn how we can help your business grow.

*Value Hotspots is part of the Talent to Value™ methodology developed by the team at CEO.works.

Creative.

Why creativity matters when it comes to marketing.

You’ve got your marketing strategy all mapped out. Now what?

Some will state that if you have a great product or service to offer, it will simply sell itself. And while it’s true that a better offer is an easier sell, if no one knows about it, it might as well not exist. We also find ourselves facing extensive competition and a rapid rate of change working to throw us off track. In this environemnt it’s essential to inject creativity into any marketing strategy in order to thrive.

Below I’ll outline three reasons why creativity matters and how you can use it to your advantage. 

1. A creative marketing strategy helps differentiate a brand from its competitors. We are drowning in a time of abundance with global markets offering an unprecedented number of products and services. It can be difficult for a brand to stand out in this chaotic landscape. 

Crafting campaigns that are thoughtful and unique to your business can provide a notable advantage, even over incumbents in your industry.

A great example of this was Dollar Shave Club vs. the well-stablished incumbent, Gillette. While Gillette spent a substantial sum on marketing and celebrity endorsements, they really weren’t doing anything memorable, aside from gouging their customers who had few other options for a decent shave.

Dolar Shave Club stepped in with a bold and quirky promotional video that went viral for it’s daring and creativity. The well-produced video was made to look like a rough, amateur production that was antithetical to everything about Gillette. It was certainly a gamble but a well-calculated one that has since established Dollar Shave Club as a serious competitor.

2. Creative marketing is a vehicle for creating an emotional connection with consumers and clients. Marketing is not just about selling a product or service; it’s also a way to build a relationship with your audience. Creative marketing campaigns can tap into the emotions of your market and create a sense of community and engagement.

There are probably a few examples of companies you feel really get you. Sometimes there are businesses that offer the same product or service but just don’t connect with you in the same way, even if they charge less. This phenomena occurs for a couple of reasons. One, we are a social species that thrives in groups or tribes and we crave belonging. Second, we are merely human beings with a limited capacity to make decisions in any give day, week, or month. Once we’ve found something we resonate with and that gets the job done, it requires too much physical, mental, emotional energy to switch unless the stakes are high enough.

We are experiential creatures, and brands that can tap into our emotional pathway have an advantage over all others.

3. Finally, creativity is the spice that keeps things fresh and interesting. Your market is constantly bombarded with messages, and it’s easy for a brand to get lost in the static that looks and sounds like a constant white noise machine. Creativity provides the possibility that your brand can capture the attention of your audience and keep them engaged. 

As I mentioned before there are a near-infinte number of options today and a plethora of advertising messages—some of them bold and blatant, some of them subtle and disguised as something else. Whether you choose to go spicy or subdued should be guided by your brand but either way it’s worthwhile to invest in a creative team with a solid track record to execute your strategy. 

In-house or outsourced, hiring the best creative talent may seem frivolous, but successful companies know it’s the key ingredient in their secret sauce. 

If you need a little help cooking up a creative strategy and serving it hot, reach out to the team at PCW. info@practicalcreativeworks.com

Creative.

Once you’ve developed your marketing plan, the real work starts.

The final stage in executing a successful marketing plan involves getting the work done, measuring results, and fine-tuning. 

It can be tough to get started. Once you’ve overcome that hurdle, the next hardest part is to keep going. Consistency moves mountains and builds pyramids. It’s not a sexy concept but it is effective. Taking small steps on a regular basis creates a habit which then becomes a way of being. Unless your company has more work than you can handle (what a horrible problem to have) you’re best served by executing a regular, repeatable marketing pattern.

What does consistency look like? It’s going to be different for each unique business, but it’s essentially a rhythm the marketing team has determined based on the availability of resources and the demands of the market. 

When you’re starting out, or starting something new, there’s always more that you can be doing. However, it’s important to make sure your team can maintain the schedule you’ve set rather than burn themselves out.

Smaller initial steps can work better in this instance because it’s easier to ramp up as needed rather than scaling back. Early wins will help motivate the team and quick losses have the effect of demoralizing even star performers. 

As the marketing strategy is rolled out, you’ll need to step back on occasion and adjust or fine-tune your process to optimize your results. Your business is always changing, even subtly, and so is the market. There is no technique that works all the time, every time. The basic foundation may stay the same but the vehicle and delivery are always in flux. 

Every good plan also contains unknowable details. The only way we can uncover these hidden hurdles is to release the work and keep an eye on the results we’re getting to overlay them against our goals. Sometimes it’s the approach that will need adjustment and sometimes it’s the goals that were off in the first place. 

This is why it’s critical to have a way to measure your progress. It may not be as clear cut as dollars in revenue, but there should be some kind of quantifiable result you’re after. Any kind of metric can work, from the number of impressions, an increase in inquiries, or the number of new discovery meetings booked per month. 

Executing a plan and then failing to measure anything is a waste of a good plan, time, and resources.  

Remain open to learning from the process. This is an underrated aspect of any marketing strategy. When you have your ear to the ground, the whispers of opportunity become apparent. You might learn that your market desperately needs and is willing to pay for something you don’t yet provide but can adapt to offer them. You might discover that your competitors are working on top-secret projects you were unaware of or you might simply find out that you’re providing a much needed product or service that provides great value to your market. This alone, when shared with your team, can invigorate and inspire them to continue growing along with you.

No plan is flawless, and neither are we. By being willing to learn, adapt, and grow we can fine-tune our way to business and professional success.  

Executing a plan and having the flexibility to maintain it can be challenging. PCW is here to help keep you regular. Reach out to us—we’re a friendly bunch and would love to see you flourish.