Can you believe it is February already?
If you haven't started connecting with the right audience just yet, don't panic, there is still time. If you want to achieve different results in 2017, then you need to be doing things differently. But habits are hard to break! You may have mapped out a great plan for your marketing activity, connecting with customers, reaching out to new customers, keeping in contact with previous customers (I get it - your plan is awesome), but somehow February has rolled around and you haven't quite got it all happening just yet. Don't panic, there are still 11 months to go. Here are some tips to help you get back on track: Each year January presents us with the opportunity to think big and set new objectives for the calendar year. It's the half way mark for the financial year too, so it's a wonderful chance to review our year to date performance. Over the years, I have seen many business leaders conduct great planning sessions, leaving everyone invigorated and energised, but many fail to take the next step and schedule in the activity that will action each objective.
Goals that are left hanging mid-air with no actionable tasks assigned are simply dreams. The key to getting stuff done (#gsd) is planning for success. Here are some tips to help get you and your team on the right track: Content Inc. by Joe Pulizzi is a very exciting read! As Founder and CEO of Content Marketing Institute, he certainly knows and understands the power of content marketing.
In Content Inc. Pulizzi uses case studies to demonstrate how entrepreneurs use content to build massive audiences and create radically successful businesses. He challenges us to "build your audience first, then create your product". His not-so-typical business advice isn't just for start ups though, he also articulates clearly how an established business can use the principle of content marketing effectively. A great capability statement can be the difference between getting that next big job or sitting on the sidelines. But what makes a capability statement great?
After reading many capability statements from many businesses across a broad range of sectors, these are my top 6 tips for creating a great capability statement: Ever walked into a room ready for an event and just didn't get 'that feeling'?
Creating an atmosphere at any sort of event can be a tricky ask. You need to ensure you can get people into the right mood. Not pump them up too much, if your event is quite serious, but not keep them too flat if you're setting up a jam packed workshop with an awesome keynote speaker. This will leave your keynote speaker with all the hard work in trying to set the tone! Here are a few sure fire ways music can help you get that feeling: Vanilla is great for ice-cream, but not for branding.
I don't hate vanilla, in fact I love it! What I do hate is bland. Bland is simply not something you want to associate with your marketing activity. Whether you're working on your brand promise or brand delivery, there is no room for vanilla. EVER. You can spend heaps of money on a fantastic marketing campaign with a professionally produced television ad, matching radio ads, great print ads and a digital campaign to compliment your efforts, only to have it all fall over when you have a potential new client walk into your store and experience poor customer service.
Too often organisations spend their entire marketing budget on the big stuff and forget about frontline staff training. When the whole objective of your position is to drive traffic to your business door, don't forget about who they will meet when they get there. I am often approached by clients to assist them with their marketing. One of the key steps in assessing where they are at (before we start looking at where they should be), is reviewing previous campaigns and results. I have found that sometimes the really clever campaigns that are tricky, funny or ultra-creative aren't delivering the required business results.
There can be a number of reasons for a marketing campaign falling short, however one of the key themes I have witnessed lately is brand misalignment. Someone will be seen as the expert in your field. So why not you?
In this context, an expert is not someone who calls themself an expert, but someone who acts as the expert. It's not about claim, it's about behaviour. Planning your marketing activity is a task we all do in some form or another. For small business owners, sometimes it is a list in their mind of what happens when. For more sophisticated organisations it is a written plan or schedule complete with resource allocations. Whatever type of plan you use, it is vitally important to ensure you look at it with the right lens.
We can get very carried away in planning social media activity, public relations activity, tv campaigns, in store campaigns, newsletters, internal campaigns and very soon we see the marketing calendar is full. Taking the next step to review the plan through different a different lens can add power to your planning and ensure your efforts will be effective. |
AuthorRoxanne Grey |