Continuous learning for continuous improvement

In the world of marketing strategy and digital marketing in particular, keeping up can sometimes feel like you're constantly chasing your tail. 

Whether it's wrapping your head around a new SEO tool, integrating AI into your content strategy or just dealing with the ever-changing (ahem) sugar-show that is Meta Business Centre - a significant proportion of my time is spent just keeping up to date with change. 

Conquering Doubts with PR Smith’s SOSTAC® Plan

At Pidgin Marketing, my compact yet mighty content marketing agency, I’ve always tried to stay up-to-date and stay ahead by adding more skills to my personal arsenal. 

For me, upskilling is a central part of battling the imposter syndrome that has been an unwelcome shadow in my career. Despite having a decent chunk of experience in the marketing realm and positive feedback from clients and colleagues, those pesky doubts pop up uninvited. 

So, I decided to face them head-on with some serious upskilling – hence, my dive into the world of SOSTAC® Certification. It's a bit like grabbing a strategic compass in the misty mountains of strategic marketing.

‘Reproduced with kind permission of PR Smith’s SOSTAC® Plan www.sostac.org

Why SOSTAC®? 

Choosing this framework wasn't a shot in the dark. Endorsed by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, it's a framework that prides itself on a logical, evidence-based approach, which really clicked with me. 

Its emphasis on internal marketing, often sidelined in business strategy, really struck a chord with me too. 

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is the quote from Peter Drucker that really stands out during this course of study and this is something I’ve found to be absolutely true in my professional experience. 

What Drucker is saying in this quote is that you might have the best strategy in the world, but if you don’t have a positive company culture behind you, it will likely fail. I’ve experienced this myself in the past. Without communicating with your internal stakeholders, leadership and teammates, many marketing strategies are doomed to failure or certainly doomed to be constantly amended until they are unrecognisable when compared to that first marketing plan. 

And so SOSTAC® with its evidence-based approach, logical planning sequence and pragmatic focus on communicating with your teammates FIRST was a top choice. 

Implementing SOSTAC® at Pidgin Marketing

Integrating SOSTAC® into Pidgin Marketing's ethos has been more than just adding a new buzzword to my portfolio. It's about bringing a structured, yet flexible approach to client strategies. Whether tackling employer branding, recruitment marketing, or employee advocacy, it has helped add a further layer of clarity and direction to my work.  

Final thoughts…

Embracing professional development has been key to my journey with Pidgin Marketing. Achieving my personal SOSTAC® certification isn't just about personal growth; it's a commitment to offering my clients greater clarity in their strategic plans. 

If you're looking for guidance in fine-tuning your marketing approach or just want to know more about how SOSTAC® could help clarify your next business or marketing plan, get in touch. 

Drop me an email at martin@pidginmarketing.com, connect with me on LinkedIn or Instagram, or book a strategy call. 

Let's make a plan together!

SOSTAC® is a registered trademark of PR Smith. For more information on SOSTAC® Planning and becoming a SOSTAC® Certified Planner visit www.SOSTAC.org

Empathy and Analytics: Three Years of Pidgin Marketing

Ah, three years! They say time flies, but in the business world, it's supersonic, and this week, I've realised that Pidgin Marketing is three years old! How did that happen?

Pidgin Marketing started when I'd just become a father for the first time and needed a job that offered the flexibility to look after a little boy with some additional needs while building a business. My intention was always to grow, of course, but in that first year, I needed complete flexibility as I got to grips with my new reality!

After leaving a very busy and intense head of marketing role, I wanted to create a business that helped marketers in positions like I had been - working overtime to meet an insatiable content production schedule and sometimes feeling overwhelmed by the marketing strategy they had created!

I chose the name Pidgin because the meaning resonated with me.

(SIDEBAR: For anyone unfamiliar with the term, Pidgin is a linguistic term referring to Pidgin languages, which are new languages that develop in places where people of different cultures commonly interact. These languages blend words and grammar from both languages into a new dialect that creates a unique identity but is understood by both cultures.)

A lot of businesses, especially large corporates or long-established owner-operated SMEs, develop an internal language and all too often use this on their website or social media. While those business leaders are experts in their industry, their internal language typically doesn't resonate with their customers, and it doesn't get engagement online. Also, on the flip side, sometimes business owners don't hear what their clients are saying or don't know how to integrate their feedback into their marketing.

So, with Pidgin Marketing, I want to help build that bridge between businesses and their ideal customers, as that misalignment is, I've found, at the heart of many underperforming marketing strategies.

Pidgin Marketing started as a copywriting and content marketing service and is still my bread and butter to this day. But as my son progressed to Nursery School and we found childcare suitable for his needs, it freed up my time and brain power to take on more strategic work and expand my skill set to grow into my clients' expanding requirements.

I invested in training in paid social media, videography, and video editing, as well as refreshing my knowledge in other areas of digital marketing. My intention was never to dilute what I did well but to bring what I am good at to new mediums and new disciplines. And when it comes down to it, my core strengths are empathy and the love of a good story.

It's not that I try to get interview subjects to cry on EVERY talking head video. Still, I try to ask questions that elicit an emotional response and reveal the humanity of the businesses I work with. People buy from people, so show them your people and show them that your people are people!

Understanding people and being able to craft a story, sometimes over months of digital content, is at the heart of what I offer.

Cringing yet? I know I am. Self-promotion has never been my cup of tea. It's always felt a bit like wearing a suit that's just a tad too tight - which, as a chunky fella who marketed very lovely slim-fitting suits for five years, I know all about!

But, after three years in business for myself, I've realised that maybe I'm doing something right. My clients have stuck by me, and the business has grown organically through clients increasing their retainers with me or from new business won through referral and recommendation.

Part of the growth story has also been honest self-reflection and walking away or saying 'no' when I know I'm not the best person for a brief, like earlier in the year when I finally hung up my PR boots.

Like most boots, PR boots are made for walking, and mine got precious little exercise despite being lovely and sparkly. PR is a discipline that depends on writing, which I'm all good with, but also on longstanding, constantly maintained relationships.

When I looked honestly at my work over the past several years, I haven't needed to maintain media relationships in Northern Ireland, and my contacts in GB were specifically in the menswear world or fashion trade press.

So, even though I LOVED my last PR client and delivered decent coverage on broadcast and press titles, I knew it was best for both of us to part ways and for me to recommend some excellent peers who were more fully based in that world.

As I look to the future, it's not just about adding another client or two to my retainer list. It's about creating a team that can enhance the services I offer as an individual and continuing to bridge the gap between businesses and their audiences. It's also about developing myself and continuing to improve my skills and processes. In the short term, that involves refreshing my analytics training (again!) and finishing my SOSTAC Certified Planner course.

I've always believed in the power of showing up, not just in my clients' businesses as an extension of their team, but online as myself. It's what I preach to my clients and even offer training and mentorship on (plug-plug), but now, it's time that I practised what I preach more consistently.

Expect to see more of me and Pidgin Marketing on your feeds (and maybe even in the 'real' world!) sharing, engaging, and perhaps even entertaining you along the way…

Stating that I want to grow this business further is my first step in holding myself accountable. When I review my fourth year in business, I hope to see significant steps forward for me personally and professionally.

And maybe you can help! I want to get inspiration to push me forward on this entrepreneurial journey. So tell me, what business books changed your perspective, inspired you or helped you achieve the mindset to meet your own ambition? Or which creators or experts on LinkedIn or other platforms have inspired your journey to success? Let me know on LinkedIn or Instagram @pidginmarketing

Here's to more clarity, more connection, and, of course, more success for all of us. It might be Dry January, but cheers to that!

Martin

Pidgin at One: Lessons I've learned as a freelance marketer

It’s been over a year since I launched Pidgin Marketing and I’m happy to report it’s been a pretty good year.

I’ve had the chance to work with some excellent brands, meet some amazing people and do some work that I’m really proud of. 

But I’ve learned a few hard lessons too and I thought I’d share both the positive and negative experiences with the world. 
Hopefully, this might be an encouragement to anyone thinking of jumping into the world of freelance marketing or might be a peek behind the curtain for any prospective clients out there thinking of getting in touch. 

The main lesson of the last year has taught me to structure my work and my billing better, so this article might give you some insights into how I work with clients. 

1. Business development isn’t my strong suit
   

I have a long track record working in sales, I started my career selling ad space and did it successfully for nearly ten years (daaaamn!). But it was part of my career I was glad to leave behind.

Persuading clients into something they don’t necessarily need or which isn’t the perfect fit for them has always made me uncomfortable (and best we don’t even mention the cringe-fest that is “professional networking”).

Shying away from ‘sales’ is something I’ve tried to hide from employers in the past but with Pidgin Marketing I’m embracing it. 

I’m not a salesman, I’m a consultant.

I’ve successfully grown Pidgin Marketing by demonstrating the benefits of what I do and working with the client to expand the brief if needed or even tailor it back, if necessary. It has resulted in stronger, more trusting and longer-term business relationships. 

2. I’ve overcome my inner saboteur and I’m so proud…so proud.

Imposter syndrome is a bitch and I’m thankful that I had a period of rest while I was off on parental leave. Just kidding, I’ve never been more exhausted in my life. 

BUT after five years of a pretty intense work environment where you were spinning hundreds of plates and continually getting punched down, it was great to get some breathing space.

Over the past two years, I’ve realised how much I had allowed my job to change my personality. I became a lot more reserved, more self-conscious and more paranoid about how others perceived me. 

Pidgin Marketing has allowed me to get back in touch with the slightly awkward moustachioed weirdo that gets excited about the latest digital marketing technique or algorithm change - and that’s who I recognise as authentically myself. 

And I think that is working to my benefit, I’ve been lucky enough to develop some strong professional relationships with contacts who have given me work and referred work to me and that is the greatest compliment. 

So thanks to Sarah, Claire, Khabi, Gerry and Marty for recommending me to their clients, contacts and friends, it means a lot.

3. You don’t have to do everything

My last job was very much “we must do everything, immediately, all at once” which led to burnout, constant stress and of course, often a lack of results. I probably started Pidgin with that same idea - “Yes, you need to be on social media every single day, as many channels as possible, get your email marketing sorted now, re-design your website and let me book some billboards.”

Over the past year, I have majorly cooled my jets. 

You don’t have to do everything all at once, you just have to do the right things and do them well. 

I’ve done years of the ‘everything all the time’ approach and working with big budgets and that has actually helped me in working with brands with a tight budget or limited time. I’m happy to call myself an expert at clarifying comms strategies and helping organisations focus on the activities that will bring them the biggest return on their investment. 

4. Time IS money

Thankfully I’ve developed some dependable retainer clients but last summer I hit a major dry patch (we had some great weather, so I wasn’t mad about it). It taught me a few small but important lessons. 

1. Charging too low a rate is counter-productive as a client won’t value your time if you’re cheaper than their cleaner. Time will be wasted on unnecessary meetings, research and admin tasks that could be conducted much more efficiently by a member of their internal team. 

2. I could totally cut my rate down to the bare minimum hourly rate but that wouldn’t cover the hours of additional training and research I put myself through every week (I mentioned I was a nerd about this stuff, didn't I?). So my rates reflect all of that time too.

3. Death and taxes - I’m still learning about inevitability in the business world… Eeesh, tax is a bitch.

5. No pitch? Perfect.

I’m happy to do the work in pitching to a new client when it is potentially worth it. But if you’re going to be a one-day-per-month client then I’ll pass on the big presentation, thanks. 

I’ll happily meet with you, several times if necessary, to talk through your needs in detail and come up with a plan but I won’t spend my time pitching against big agencies. I do always put together a strategy document before we get started in the execution phase of a plan but that’s just to make sure the assumptions I’ve made during our conversations are accurate and that all of our expectations are aligned. 

But this is different to a proper competitive pitch which takes days of competitor and market research, more days of strategising and creative brainstorming and then even more days designing up a beautiful big slide deck. All of this work for potentially zero pay if someone comes in with a more integrated offer or cuts their rate (hint, if the big agency is coming in at under £700 per day, that agency director you’re talking to won’t be the one doing the work on your account). 

If you want big-agency service, go to a big agency and pay them their daily rate because that covers long drawn-out pitches. I’m significantly cheaper than working with an agency but the service you get with me will not include bells, whistles or songs or dancing.

6. Freelance marketing is a two-way relationship

For many organisations, the best bit about using a freelance marketing consultant is not just the ability to access a higher level of expertise at an affordable rate or the ability to ensure a consistently high level of quality in an area of their comms plan they don’t have direct experience in.  

It’s the flexibility. 

Flexibility works for me too. I usually don't work Monday afternoons and make up the time elsewhere in the week if I need to. I’m freelancing because I’m also caring for my son who has some additional needs which mean full-time daycare isn’t right for him.

But I do need to plan my work (and my cash flow) which means I need some commitment from you. 

I can, of course, work totally flexibly if that’s what you need but my retainer clients do get priority access to my time, a better rate and a longer payment term.

A retainer for me is an agreed number of days per month that can be flexibly turned up during the month if required or reduced or turned off with one month’s notice. 

So usually I’ll agree to a set number of days in collaboration with a client and agree on a separate rate for an add-on day or two per month. At the end of each month, we’ll look at work coming up in the month ahead and usually agree then if we need to add that extra day. Sometimes we can do that during the month if something else comes up and I have the bandwidth (shh, I’ll usually make the bandwidth if I’m retained by you). 

There are a host of other little lessons about being a freelance marketer and especially about being an independent marketing consultant in Northern Ireland that I’ve learned over the last year but I have to stop talking at some point.

I’d be curious to know from any clients out there what their best experience of working with a freelance marketer has been. I’m always keen to learn and improve the service I’m offering, so let me hear from you on social media.

If all of the above sounds reasonable and you’re looking for help in creating your marketing strategy, executing your existing plan or just some support in making it all happen, let’s have a coffee (virtual or real). 

Book a free initial consultation with me and let’s get started. 

How To Brief A Freelance Marketer

In my previous blog outlining what I’ve learned in my marketing career, I mentioned the importance of the brief and  I wanted to take a minute to expand on that.

In my career I’ve dealt with a lot of messy briefs…let me re-phrase that (ahem)…Over the past twenty-odd years working in marketing comms, I’ve had my fair share of confusing, contradictory and vague briefs from clients and employers. 

“We need something to tell our customers we’re offering this new service – can you work something up for tomorrow?”

Don’t get me wrong, this is a two-way street. Any marketer worth their salt will know how to interrogate a marketing brief and pull out the information they need to do a decent job. But sometimes those questions come back with a resounding “you tell me” instead of a proper answer. 

This answer is hands-down the most infuriating thing you can say to a freelance marketer (well, this freelance marketer). I appreciate that you’re “putting the ball back in my court.” I can tell you what my immediate impressions are of the best way forward for a marketing strategy, a particular tactic or a specific piece of content – but as a new external marketing freelancer, I’m just guessing based on my previous experience. You are the expert on your company, not me. 

If you want to get the most value from a freelance marketer – be open with them. Give them all of the information, what has worked in the past, what hasn’t, what you think went wrong. Be open to ideas and feedback when they come and don’t shut anything down until you’ve had a chance to hear your freelancer out. 

That being said, here are five specific things you MUST do when briefing a freelance marketer:

1. Let’s Start With You

It’s essential when briefing anyone external to your organisation that you share more about yourself. 

Who are you? What’s your role in the company? What exactly does the company do? What is the company history? How does the company make money / meet its objectives? What’s the background to this current strategy? Who else is involved in the marketing of your products and services? Are there any current programs of change or upcoming changes you’re aware of in the near future?

I can’t emphasise enough how important all of this is. There are so many assumptions we can make based on an external (and potentially uninformed) view of a company. Getting a thorough idea of the company, its history and how it sees itself is vital if you’re asking for strategic help. But even if you just want a quick blog post, it’s helpful to understand some of this wider framework – a good copywriter can help distil this into the text of a social media post or a blog.

2. Share Your Objectives

As a supplier to your marketing department, it’s important I know the objectives we’re trying to reach together. I understand that sometimes those objectives can be commercially sensitive but you should only work with marketing freelancers with a level of senior experience. This means you can trust they understand the importance of client confidentiality.

If working on a specific piece of content, I don’t necessarily need to know your KPIs or revenue targets but it is valuable to know what you’re hoping to achieve with the overall strategy and with this particular output.

3. Set The Parameters

As a fairly experienced marketer, I’ve worked with lots of different organisations in different sectors; from agri-food to legal services and community events to fashion brands. I have a ton of ideas based on previous experience and can advise on what has worked and not worked in my experience. 

If you’re happy to hear those experiences, let me know and I’ll happily share them for free. I want to do the best job possible for you and if I can help you avoid a mistake I’ve made in the past, I’m happy to do so. Just simply giving me the brief and adding ‘we’re open to ideas around this’ or ‘we’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this in a quick chat’ is enough for me. I know this isn’t carte blanche to go off and create an alternative strategy but it’s good to know I’m not going to offend if I spot a different angle or have tried a similar strategy in the past. 

It’s one of the benefits of working with a freelancer with broader experience and it comes free of charge. But if you don’t tell me that you’re open to ideas, I won’t risk offending you and create specifically to your brief. 

4. Tell Me What You Want. Exactly.

This relates more specifically to content creation briefs but is still relevant to anyone looking for overall strategic support. 

This might seem obvious but you’d be surprised how often the brief is ‘we need something that XYZ.’ It’s great that you’re thinking in terms of objectives first but “something,” eh? Something could be anything – is it a blog post, an email, an email campaign, a price promotion, an ad campaign, a PR campaign, a tactical plan incorporating all of this? 

My marketing toolkit is massive and I’m lucky enough to have experience in multiple areas, so you’re going to have to be a bit more precise (or pay me for a little extra time to do some research and come back with an actual plan). To help you get specific, think: 

Distribution – where will your audience encounter this content? 

Format – what’s the best way to get this information across?

Style – what tone are you hoping to strike?

Timeline – when does this need to happen, is it a one-off or part of a longer campaign?

5. How Will You Know It’s Good?

Again, I don’t need to know your KPIs necessarily (although this can help to align expectations and flesh out other elements of your plan which are important for me to understand). But if those KPIs are commercially sensitive, just let me know what metrics you’re going to judge the efficacy of this content by. Is it clickthroughs from social? -OK, I’ll work on a really killer headline and introduction. Is it clicks from organic search? There are a few tricks I know on formatting an article for Google which we can try. Is it time on page or scroll depth? I have some ideas on how to structure this piece to improve those stats too. 

Knowing how you’re judging success means I can create work that is more likely to succeed by those same metrics. 

6. Introduce Me To Your Audience

I’d love it if every brand had detailed consumer personas based on in-depth customer research, the reality is very different. 

That being said, I still need to know your impressions of your audience and who this piece of work is being written for. Geography and demographic info will have an impact on the language I’ll choose for a specific piece of content. If you’re targeting a specific professional niche tell me who they are and where I can learn more about them and how they talk. I’m adept at adapting your company language to the language of your audience (it’s why I’ve called this business ‘Pidgin’), so tell me who they are and I’ll take it from there. 

7. Supply All Of The Information Immediately

I’m not a researcher and I’m guessing you don’t want me to spend hours reading through old news articles I’ve found online about your company to discover something you have in the footer of a press release you wrote last week. 

Just give me all of the data about your company upfront. Send me five or ten articles, blogs or press releases, brochures about this product or links to specific pages on your site which will give me the in-depth facts. I need the information to do a good job for you. 

8. Make A Mood Board

Particularly if you’re briefing me on any sort of visual content, creating a mood board can be valuable. Pinterest is a great tool for doing this and has helped me breakthrough some creative deadlock in the past. 

If you’re asking me to create imagery for your social feed, show me some specific examples of work you’ve liked and note down some thoughts on what you’ve liked about these images or this video. I’ll likely have further questions to try to separate various elements of your taste but having this conversation with visual references will help me brief stylists, videographers and models to achieve the look and feel you want. 

This can also apply to written content and social media outputs too. Send me ten pieces of content or brand social feeds that hooked you in and made you read the full article, sign-up for a newsletter or buy a product. 

I never want this blog to come across as a place for rants or for me to moan about clients. I love marketing, I love working with a wide variety of clients and I am always grateful that anyone entrusts even a small part of their marketing strategy with me. 

But to summarise, everything we do would be made so much better if we communicated openly, collaboratively and without ego. Part of what I love about this job is that I am always learning, so let’s learn from each other. 

Drop me an email if you’d like to work with me at martin@pidginmarketing.com 



5 Lessons

When you’ve been around the marketing block as many times as I have, you will have had a few resounding successes alongside plenty of difficult, stressful and emotionally trying experiences.

Both are, of course, equally valuable. All your experiences, good and bad, make you a better marketer. If you can take pride in your successes and learn from your failures, you’ll come away as a better business person and a better human being.

Marketing is an iterative process, and marketers (good marketers) improve over time.

That being said, there are a few lessons I’ve learned which I think have shaped me as a marketer more than others, so I’ve tried to distil them into five important lessons.

Follow The Money

Marketers love to intellectualise what they do (if you keep reading his blog, I’m sure you’ll catch me doing it too!). I’ve read hundreds of blogs and listened to scores of podcasts as they waxed lyrical on the ‘true’ role of a marketer.

We’re truth-tellers! No, storytellers! No, no, we’re brand guardians! We’re creative data scientists…

The modern marketer is all of these but…what every marketer has to be is…a sales enabler. Our job is to look at an organisation, see where the money is coming from, how the sales happen and make it easier for customers to find the company, engage with it and move from a prospect to a customer.

Sound simple? Well, it rarely is.

Don’t Ignore The Basics

There has always been a cornucopia of choice for marketers in terms of approach, channels, media and promotion. The rise of digital marketing has only added more layers of sophistication (and complication) to the marketing mix.

But it’s important to remember that you don’t get added points for how complicated and impressive your marketing plan is to other marketers.

Often, very often, the most effective piece of marketing is the most basic. The branded mug your customer uses every day, the Christmas hamper and the handwritten Christmas card wishing their family the best, the donation to a customer’s favourite charity. That’s all marketing too. Don’t forget those simple, human touches in your massive omnichannel comms strategy.

You Can’t Do Everything

Related to the point above. There are so many choices, so many channels, so many media titles you can use. But unless you have limitless resources, you can’t do them all. Running a successful marketing strategy involves some prioritisation and a sensible view as to what will legitimately deliver your core objectives and what activities might be a ‘phase two’ choice.

I’ve seen plenty of so-called marketing experts on social media shaming small businesses for saying that they felt Facebook, email marketing or influencer outreach wasn’t for them. But I get it. These channels take work and expertise and often there are higher priorities for a business or limited resources which mean choices have to be made on what to NOT do. Sometimes knowing what NOT to do is as important as knowing what to do.

Know Yourself

The main thing I’d say to any business wondering how to improve their marketing would be to spend the time in understanding who you are as a business and what you want to achieve.

Many companies exist in the day-to-day, working hard and assuming that everyone (internally and externally) is on the same page with what sort of business they are, what their brand means to the market and what they are all working for. But over time, these definitions subtly change and organisations lose the focus they once had. Business leaders are often dismayed when they realise that even their teams don’t agree on fundamental aspects of their brand or are ignorant of the direction the company is moving in.

These disparities can result in internal stakeholders pulling in different directions, marketing communications trying to satisfy too many diverse objectives and usually a comms strategy fighting a losing battle from the offset.

Taking the time to listen to feedback from the market, re-examine your competitors, evaluate your products or services and agree on a set of core principles, objectives and an outline plan are some of the most valuable things you can do as a business.

Learn How To Brief

This is just a personal gripe of mine and something I might write a blog post about in the future. But if there’s one thing any business leader could do to improve their life, their business and their professional relationships, it is to learn how to delegate work and how to brief the delegate.

This can be one of the most frustrating parts of marketing but it can’t be overstated how inefficient (and potentially destructive) a vague, contradictory or unrealistic brief can be.

If you have a clear idea of the output you want or specific language that you really can’t stand, tell the person you’re briefing! You should, of course, remain open to persuasion that another way exists but sharing your assumptions, expectations and previous experiences will help you achieve your goals faster.

That’s it. I’m curious to know what the formative lessons you’ve learned in your business are? Give me a shout on social media if you agree or disagree with any of mine.