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.
