Remote work happens and has before 2020. Newsflash!
The pandemic made it essential. Corporate offices closed. ODL. Now what are we going to do?
Many were unsettled.
Front Porch Marketing didn’t miss a beat.
Going back to 2011 when our company was founded, I was inspired by a business leader who started her business on a virtual model years prior. They still are rocking remote work and a “galactic headquarters.” F yer I. Successful companies have been using this model for years and years.
Companies functioned virtually decades before 2020. Really? Yes, friends, yes, they did.
Many questions were asked in 2020: • Team engagement. How can we function as a team without our myriad of useless meetings? • New business development. How would I do new biz development if not meeting one-on-one? Talk to your business partners. Existing clients, associations, affiliations, time to find new connections via LinkedIn. • Meetings. We must be in person and spend an hour at least pontificating all the thing. Nope. No, you do not. • Client relationships. How can we nurture them if they aren’t in person? Pick up the phone.
5 key reasons, and there are more, remote work works
It is more efficient. Less time spent commuting, more working.
Remote work is flexible. Choose the hours you work. Throw in a load of laundry between emails. It is important to remember, however, you don’t always have to be “on.” Walk away from the computer light, Carol Ann.
Enhances the work horizon. Our team is all over North Texas and Colorado and and and which means we can benefit from being a part of many communities and have access to top talent anywhere.
Business development happens. Less disruptions, more focus. Biz dev doesn’t have to be face to face. Utilize your resources. Resourceful people find new ways to make shit happen so their businesses thrive.
Saves money. Eliminates the unnecessary things. I pay my mortgage only, not rent for an office and its utilities too. Only one cleaning service. Less tax burden.
How we work impacts everything from our satisfaction to the broader economy. Speaking of broader economy, we are seeing wide reaching benefits from the pandemic. More small business owners are open to working with agencies that aren’t in their own backyards.
I will save the story of the business referral someone gave to a rocking business owner in California that recently led to our newest client relationship.
We aren’t “remaking work.” Remote work is how we have worked for 10 years. We focus on doing great work with people we love for people we love while taking care of our loves.
If you had to think of a pinnacle moment with the C.E.O.S. in your life, what does that look like?
Does it center around an act of kindness that was fueled by previously voicing a need? Providing a spectacular purchasing process because you answered all of the customer’s questions? Or simply, being affirmed by a team leader for a job well done?
Through each of these experiences, the space to have a conversation was created.
The Pinnacle Question
Celeste Headlee, award-winning journalist, professional speaker and best-selling author of We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter, is notorious for creating these spaces with people and raises an important question in 2016 that is still relevant today.
“Is there any 21st century skill more important than being able to sustain coherent, confident conversation?”
To put it simply, no.
Headlee believes that in order to hone this skill people need to engage in “honesty, brevity, clarity and a healthy amount of listening.”
Yet, sadly, this skill has been greatly inhibited by a highly polarized culture. One that is constantly driven by the need to speak with the intent to be heard instead of speaking with the intent to listen.
This egotistic intent, where the focus is on oneself instead of others, has created an unbalance that Headlee hopes to restore to balance.
“A conversation requires a balance between talking and listening, and somewhere along the way, we lost that balance.”
This unbalanced, polarized culture is fueled by the most trivial of issues from politics to entertainment. Nowadays people are so passionate for or against a side that the idea of compromise has become pointless to them.
“Pew Research did a study of 10,000 American adults, and they found that at this moment, we are more polarized, we are more divided, than we ever have been in history.”
Although this study seems daunting and irrevocable, Headlee’s decades of professional speaking experience allowed her to create a framework that will help renew the balance and bring people back to the roots of speaking with the intent to listen.
Headlee’s 10 ways to have a better conversation:
1: Don’t multitask. Be present.
2: Don’t pontificate. Enter each conversation with the assumption that you have something to learn.
3: Use open-ended questions. Find out the five W’s: Who? What? Where? When? Why?
4: Go with the flow.
5: If you don’t know, say that you don’t know.
6: Don’t equate your experience with the other person’s experience. All experiences are individual.
7: Try not to repeat yourself.
8: Stay out of the weeds. Focus on the root of the story not the trivial points.
9: Listen.
10: Be brief.
Although 10 rules seems like a lot to remember, Headlee states that if a person takes the time to master even one of these rules that they will be skilled enough to create a space to enjoy better conversations with coworkers, friends, and team members.
Conclusion
Whether you use one or more of these rules, Headlee’s TED Talk boils down to this, “Go out, talk to people, listen to people, and, most importantly, be prepared to be amazed.”
I am truly amazed each day by the people in my life and grateful for the conversations that have made me into the person I am today.
My hope for you, is that this framework will help you flourish in your day to day conversations with the C.E.O.S. in your life and encourage growth in your soft skills.
Go out and do great things!
Bio on Headlee
Celeste Headlee presenting at TEDxCreativeCoast on 10 ways to have a better conversation.
Celeste Headlee, the speaker of this TED Talk, “10 ways to have a better conversation,” has over 20 million total views to date. Celeste’s work and insights are featured on TODAY, Psychology Today, Inc., NPR, Time, Essence, Elle, BuzzFeed, Salon, Parade, and many more. She has presented to over 100 companies, conferences and universities including Apple, Google, United Airlines, Duke University, Chobani and ESPN, and received the 2019 Media Changemaker Award, (celesteheadlee.com).
There comes a time in every company’s life when their logo might need a little freshening up. Maybe it looks dated. Or it no longer reflects your company. Maybe your logo looked great on your original product, but it no longer works for what you manufacture now.
Take a page from logo makeovers past and ask yourself, “What does your logo communicate now?”
Your Logo No Longer Works with Your Products
Imagine pairing Apple’s first iteration of their iconic apple-shaped logo, the rainbow-striped apple, with the first-generation iMac. The iMac debuted in 1998 and was a colorful departure from the standard boxy, beige and gray computers of the time. If Apple stuck with their rainbow-striped logo, the result would have been a product that looked more like a child’s toy than a high-tech computer.
Does your logo “play well” with your existing products? If not, it might be time to thank it for its service and toss out the elements of your logo that no longer work for you.
Your Logo Looks Dated – Burger King Edition
All design reflects its time and if your logo reflects the last century, then perhaps it’s time to give your logo a second look.
Let’s take a look at the recent Burger King rebrand. Their logo was designed in 1999 and it looks like it. Their old logo reminds me of ‘90s sports team logos – modern, lots of dynamic movement and some sharp edges. You know, everything you want in your food. 🤷♀️
Their new logo is simpler, puts the burger front and center and it looks friendlier. Plus, it looks great on a small screen. Brands must think about where their logo is going to live and if that logo doesn’t look good blown up on a billboard or shrunk down to the size of an app icon, then it might be time for a change.
Your Logo Looks Dated and it No Longer Works with Your Products – Instagram Edition
Remember when app icons used to be skeuomorphic? That is, they were designed to look like the thing they represent. i.e. The recycling bin icon on your desktop that looks like an actual recycling bin. Software designers used skeuomorphism as a shorthand way to get people acclimated to using computers and other digital devices. Picture what the old iPhone icons and interface used to look like – if you wanted to look at your contacts, you tapped on the icon that looked like an address book. When you opened your notes, the screen looked like a yellow notepad.
But there are times when skeuomorphic design can go off the rails a little. What happens when users no longer use the things these icons are meant to represent? Exhibit A, the “Save” icon in Word – it looks like a disk that I used to tote around in high school. How are users supposed to know to click on that icon to save their document? Answer: users just learn over time that’s what you need to click on, but I wouldn’t call that very user-friendly or intuitive.
Skeuomorphic design can also look messy and cluttered. Users could see more of their contacts if the interface did not look like a literal address book
There is a reason why app icons became more and more “flat” and minimalist over time – its easier to see them on a mobile device. Which brings me to Instagram.
In 2016, Instagram changed their logo from an icon that looked reminiscent of an old Polaroid camera to what it is today, a minimalist representation of a camera with a colorful gradient background. And the internet, of course, had some thoughts:
“The new Instagram logo looks like a rejected starburst flavor.”
@trecoast
Okay, so the new logo was not universally loved. But, in the end, things turned out alright for Instagram. One, because its Instagram, a photo-taking juggernaut of an app that managed to tap into humanity’s need to take selfies and shill vitamin gummies. And, because their new logo:
Made them stand out from the rest of the apps on your phone.
Have you ever noticed that a lot of app icons are blue? Don’t believe me? Take a look at this:
So. Many. Blue. App Icons.
Gave them a unifying design language they could use across their app, creating a better user-experience.
Instead of making each function of the app a literal representation, i.e. a boomerang icon in the shape of a boomerang, they could now be designed to represent their use. Which is why the boomerang function in Instagram looks like an infinity symbol because it replays a short video over and over again. A good logo gives a company different ways to talk about itself visually.
A bad logo can limit a company’s design choices. For instance, if your company’s logo features a gradient, its going to be difficult to embroider that logo on a shirt. If you can’t reverse your logo i.e. it looks the same in black-on-white as it does in white-on-black, then that really limits your design options.
You might find that you can only put your logo on a light background. Which isn’t the end of the world. But if you want to put your logo on say, a photo of a manufacturing facility in motion, then that photo had better be light and bright or it will get lost in the darkness.
Plays well in all sorts of uses.
For example, if you want people to use your app, it would be best to create a simple logo that can be slapped onto a flier, a business card, a website etc, and still look good. Imagine if Instagram still used their old logo and how that little brown polaroid would look on a business card or the bottom of a flier. Which is easier to for the average person to identify, that camera or the “rejected starburst flavor?”
Most companies do not fail or succeed based on their logo. Quality design is an investment, one that you might not have the resources for right now. But a logo can communicate more to your customers than a thousand commercials ever will.
What does your logo communicate to your current and potential customers? Is that the message you want to send? Or is it time for a refresh?
We have put together a must-read list of ’10 marketing books for 10 years’. Front Porch Marketing turns 10-years-old this month! Marketing has been constantly evolving over the past decade. As an all-remote, agile marketing company, we’ve evolved right along with it. But sometimes it can get hard to stay on top of all the changes.
That’s why we turn time and time again to the experts in our marketing books. In honor of our 10th anniversary, we rounded up 10 must-read marketing books that we think demonstrate positive perspectives and practical advice.
Books are one of the easiest ways we know to dive into new marketing topics. Then we can grow our practice and application of that knowledge. We hope these suggestions offer you some inspiring new perspectives on the ever-evolving world of marketing and help you stay on top of all the changes. If we can help you with your marketing challenges in any way, please ask!
Must Reads: 10 Marketing Books for 10 Years – our marketing reading list for 2021
This is one of our favorites. Seth teaches you how to frame your marketing messages so that your customers will willingly accept them. Permission marketing enables brands to cultivate long-term relationships with customers. This builds trust and ultimately increases the likelihood of making a sale. Seth challenges you to only talk to people who are already raising their hand asking to speak with you. Then he shows how this customer is your most valuable one.
This one is near and dear to our own Front Porch Marketing mantra. Adam – an award-winning researcher and professor – says that the key to success is not ambition or greed, but thoughtfulness. Good guys will indeed finish first in Adam’s worldview. And he gives ample evidence and example to prove it.
Karen leads with proven and practical digital strategies to boost client leads. She shows you how to increase email click-through rates and generate higher opt-in rates. She shares how to assess your current digital marketing channels like SEO, email and PPC and optimize them for better results. And with an emphasis on small business, this book serves as a handbook to make the most of every marketing dollar.
Tyrona, a Google marketing alum, offers valuable information on attracting and converting customers using inbound marketing. With SEO, blogging, social media and email marketing as your toolkit, follow Tyrona’s step-by-step system to set up and deliver an inbound marketing plan. Turn strangers into visitors, visitors into leads, leads into customers and customers into loyalists using minimal resources.
The authors of this book base their thinking on a study of 150 strategic marketing moves spanning more than 100 years and 30 industries. They show you how to build lasting success from creating a new market space (a blue ocean) in which there are no competitors. This book represents a ground-breaking new perspective because dominant marketing thinking for the past 25 years has been concerned with creating revenue by taking market share away from a competitor.
Miri helps brands understand the why and how of infusing their marketing strategies and tactics with an authentic voice that will resonate with consumers. This book serves as a template for helping brands discover that voice, and their story, and structuring them to share insights with their customers.
Joe and Robert – the founder and the Chief Strategy Advisor for the Content Marketing Institute – share bold thinking putting content at the forefront of marketing. They’ll help you create value for consumers and instill loyalty in your followers. This book outlines how to look at marketing as a profit center instead of a cost center. Content marketing helps brands own media instead of purchasing it.
Joe, the former head of strategy at social media giant Reddit, offers effective engagement strategies on social media through the lens of human psychology, neuroanatomy, biology and anthropology. Using more than a decade of experience, he explains consumer behavior in social media in terms of how the different social platforms each represent different mindsets: the Id, the Ego, and the Superego.
From the MIT Press, Anindya draws from his extensive research in the US, Europe and Asia using real-world examples from global companies to explain consumer behavior in the mobile realm. He identifies nine forces that shape consumer behavior and how to tap into those forces to influence shoppers and maximize brand opportunities.
Before jumping into content marketing, step back and assess what the core business problems are that content marketing can solve. Steve offers a guide to identify and define those problems. Then he helps you understand where content marketing can add the most value for your brand. Content marketing is more than just writing and design, and Steve teaches better techniques for distribution, measurement and optimization.
Let us know if you’ve read some of these, or have others that are your favorites! Please share your favorite marketing books in the comments to make our list more complete.
Empathy. Understand and share the feelings of another. More relevant in our country now more than ever.
Like many, last week on the Porch was spent defrosting from the massive winter storm.
Natural disasters occur. Business owners and leaders lead with empathy.
Heed these marketing and communication 101s:
Safety first. Focus on the wellbeing of your team, then your clients. Reach out to check on them, their families and business. Focus only on their immediate needs and any help you may be able to offer. Show genuine empathy for those in crisis. Everything else waits.
Teamwork makes the dream work. Thanks to one of our amazing team members, we had two co-working spaces. We were able to use that to communicate with our clients and to help them manage their internal and external business messages. In turn, it was easier for our clients to focus on their own team’s needs. Rally the troops that are available and get to work focusing on others’ needs.
In addition, dedicate to serving who, how and where you can. We know from our own experience that the smallest gesture can make a powerful impact. This time, the Porch had power so we were able to offer our space and internet, and laundry room, to our Clients and friends who did not. Other clients had water their neighbors did not and eagerly gave of their own resources. Others may simply need an ear to listen. Make it a point to let your clients know you are there to help them in any way you can, not only with the needs that earn you income.
Email marketing: Your communication can wait when other people are in crisis.
Social media posts: Meet your customer or Client where they are. During these times, emotions are highly-charged. Be authentic and empathetic.
Press releases: Don’t send press releases during times when a portion of the country is going through damaging events. Timing is everything.
Most importantly, extend empathy. There will come a time when you are facing your own unexpected storm and will need someone else to freely offer it to you.
In conclusion, we hope you and yours are safe, warm and damage-free. Client service is not simply our job; it is our heart.
You are trying to save resources and graphic design seems like something you, a team member or a marketing / communications professional can do.
You’ve worked hard to make your dream a reality. Of course, you want to ensure it is recognizable. The first rule of thumb? Build trust in your brand.
Building that trust requires a connection with your target audience. To achieve it, your creative execution must be constantly consistent. It is crucial to get it right.
Here are four tips:
Know what you need before you begin. Define your brand pillars to create a strong foundation. What is your brand vision, personality, positioning and affiliation?
Next, have a creative professional define brand colors, fonts and creative execution guidelines. Mind the brand.
Don’t settle. There are many programs that allow anyone to try their hand at graphic design. Use caution. Layout, font and colors are just a few of the key elements of graphic design.
Take your time. If you choose to DIY your brand creation, understand it will be a time-consuming process to get it right. Take the time necessary to not only learn what you want, but what you need. Learn the art of design.
Experience pays. In the end, it will save you time and money to hire a professional graphic designer. They have the programs and experience to communicate your brand. They will give you the exact guidelines to follow to easily remain consistent and help distinguish your brand from the competition.
Own it. Once you have chosen your brand architecture and standards, own them. Use them religiously. Don’t use your logo in one color scheme on one social media post, then alter it for another. Instead of a random mixture of colors, know and use complementary colors. Keep all of your design elements consistent – Every. Single. Time.
There is value in creative and graphic design. Be consistent and follow brand guidelines. If you don’t have consistency, you won’t build connection. Without them, you may as well do nothing at all.
In conclusion, have a partner or team with the experience and know-how to help you stay consistent. We’re ready to rock when you are.
With Valentine’s Day fresh on our minds, let’s talk about how we can love upon our C.E.O.S. (Customers, Employees, Owners, and Suppliers). Most people shy away at the idea of expressing love in a professional context. However, by the end of this article, I hope that I’ll be able to reframe your mindset.
My own mindset shifted when I recently read The Servant by James C. Hunter. I was humbled, enlightened, and awe-struck at how simple yet empowering loving others can be. I started looking inward at how I express love and what that kind of love looks like outwardly.
If I were to ask you who you love in your life and how you show that love what would you say? Family? Friends? Hugs? Kisses? The answers are endless and the thought of being that personal and intimate with C.E.O.S. seems like a bizarre notion – which is completely understandable. Yet, when I talk about love I am not referring to the feeling of love. Instead, I am referring to the act of love.
The type of love that I want to focus on is agapé love. This type of love is shown through actions of service for others. Extend yourself for the needs of others. Become an active listener. Be present. It’s being intentional. Most importantly, it’s being a leader that embodies a servant heart.
The First Step
The first step towards embodying a servant heart is to think about other’s needs before your own. For our C.E.O.S. what does that look like? Would you be able to recount their needs and have them agree with what you said? There is a huge difference between wants and needs, yet in the business world, that gap becomes greatly nuanced. If you are constantly trying to meet the wants of everyone, that can quickly become a tiring and daunting task. “Wants” are grandiose and greedy in nature and as quickly as they’re met, more take their place.
On the other hand, if you are intentionally seeking to meet the needs of the C.E.O.S. and devoting time to understanding why those needs should be met, I assure you that both parties will come out victorious. A solid foundation, a blooming partnership, and a deposit in the emotional bank account will be the fruits of servicing your C.E.O.S. In other words, meeting a want can be a fleeting win but meeting a need can become a foundational victory.
The Second Step:
Being an active listener is the second step to loving upon your C.E.O.S. Who loves being ignored? No one. We live in a culture where being silenced is stifling and being expressive is stimulating. Communication thrives through the multitude of platforms that technology has given us: Facebook, FaceTime, instant messaging, Snapchat, Twitter – you name it – yet, these platforms have hindered us. We have become so reliant on being heard that the moment others try to speak, we are quick to counter or revert the attention back to the point we were making. In other words, it has become a norm to listen with the intent to speak instead of listening with the intent to listen.
If we take the time to practice active listening with our C.E.O.S. without a doubt, we will gain much more than just a business contract. For example, trust becomes fostered, patience is cultivated and respect is rewarded. In the words of James C. Hunter, “listening is probably our greatest opportunity to give attention to others on a daily basis and convey how much we value them,” (The Servant, pg. 106). This act of love is transformative in relationships. As a result, your C.E.O.S. truly sees that you value them.
The Third Step:
Being intentional is the third step to loving upon your C.E.O.S. Showing that you intentionally value others is a beautiful thing. You are letting them know that no matter what their title is, that you see them for who they are as a person. Moreover, by taking the time to understand who they are no matter where they are on the totem pole, you are making deposits into their emotional bank account and garnering respect.
Being intentional can start with small actions. For example, if you praise someone for doing something, be sure to be sincere and specific. Additionally, when you need to fix a problem, be sure to make the problem the focus, not the person. Lastly, if you’re having a conflict with a team member, try to see the conflict from their point of view. By incorporating intentional gestures into your everyday manner you will not only see a world of a difference in the people around you but you will feel it.
In Conclusion:
I urge you to love upon the C.E.O.S. in your life with these three steps in mind. In conclusion, go the extra mile to serve others, practice active listening, and be intentional with all that you do. If you have a favorite way to show love to those in your life, please share them with us in the comments below. We would love to get to know you and your heart for others! Above all, my hope for you today and every day is that you are shown love and empowered by the notion that to give is to receive.
What is Content Marketing, and how do you win at doing it? How do you know what steps you need to take? Last month, we talked about doubling down on your brand – envisioning what your brand stands for, evolving your brand to meet your company’s needs today and emerging stronger in 2021.
This month, we’ll give you some pointers on taking your shiny new branding out into the world – with Content Marketing – for the win. What are the places that consumers will see your brand and interact with it? You’ll want to read thru to the end, because we’re going to tell you exactly what steps to take in this month’s extension of our Marketing 101.
Once your company has been thru a branding exercise, you’ll leave with your game plan and you’ll know what to do next. You’ll have your target nailed down, your brand’s personality defined and know exactly what category of business you can excel within. The first step once you’ve done this important branding work is your visual identity.
Ready, Set, Marketing – Your Brand’s New Logo
Commission an easy-to-use logo that works in many places. Your logo will be on your website, your social channels, your advertising and even on print work like business cards and brochures. Your logo should be simple, look good large or small. It should be easily used in black, white, and any brand colors you designate.
We’ve designed half a dozen new logo systems this past year, and while they are all quite unique to the company they’re designed for, they all have one thing in common – flexibility.
Your Brand’s New Website
If your company has a website, is it responsive, meaning does it work first and best on mobile but also on tablet and desktop devices? Modern websites need to be built with functionality for users top-of-mind.
This is called User Experience, or UX. How your customer goes thru their journey on your website should be carefully considered to make their experience as simple and rewarding as possible.
Next, your website should incorporate other important factors like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which helps search engines like Google find your website easily. Google can then present it as a choice when consumers are searching for a business like yours. Using keywords and key phrases can help search engines determine how helpful your site is answering their questions.
Location is also a very highly weighted factor for search engines as well. If you are, for instance, a local restaurant trying to attract customers in the surrounding area, then this type of information should be of utmost importance when designing your new site.
Your Brand’s New Blog – the Starting Line of Your Content Marketing
Once you’ve built your website, keep your site content fresh. One of the most important parts of a new website is the blog. This is the place where the Content Marketing race starts. Regularly updating your blog means Google will keep revisiting your site to catalog the new helpful information you are sharing to “index” it for customers to find in search.
Blog posts are like a regular newspaper column for readers. They can subscribe to receive your news. They can make comments on your article at the end of the article. We write blog posts on topics relevant to our customers’ businesses for their website. This helps them to both build relationships with current customers as well as attract new potential customers.
Help solve people’s problems. Make this key in your blog content. Also, posting on a regular basis is equally important.
Your Brand’s Content Marketing Outreach
Think of your new site as your business’ virtual storefront. It’s your home base. Your social channels – like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn – and other tactics like email marketing, Text Message Marketing are in essence, not just your advertising, but your chance to talk to your customers 1-on-1. An opportunity to develop a relationship with them. Each of these tactics has a specific use for a small business – every channel is not appropriate for every small business.
Winning in Email Marketing
Content marketing’s main ingredient is email. First, email marketing shares insider information with your best customers. After all, they opted in to receive this email newsletter from you. For instance, retail stores could offer special discounts, special not-on-the-website items, and special gifts-with-purchase to their favorite customers – which in the digital world would be their email subscribers.
For a restaurant, email marketing can announce a dining event, or a big menu change. Or a business service could announce open jobs, industry news that would affect their customers or tips and tricks to get the most out of their service.
Winning in Social Media
Social media, as a content marketing winning tactic, promotes blog posts, events, promotions, products or simply build conversation and relationships with different customers.
Our restaurant example, for instance, would want to rely heavily on Facebook, as that is the place to grow a local community – interacting with actual people who rely on their business, garnering reviews from customers, and posting events that their businesses is hosting.
But, an interior designer however, would focus on Instagram, as their clients might be all over the country, and consumers on Instagram are interested in all things beautiful. Hashtags #likethisone at the end of an Instagram post help customers find your business, much like the old card catalog at the library could help you find books on a specific topic.
Use Twitter for getting and sharing news with industry peers to establish your voice of authority. Are you an expert real estate broker? Then, share industry news in your category and give your take on any particular article. Follow reporters who work on your segment of business and interact with them when appropriate to demonstrate your expertise, making you a viable option for quotes in articles in the future.
Further, on LinkedIn, a non-profit foundation could share their quarterly goals, fundraising efforts and events, and results to a business audience of potential donors and board members.
Your Brand’s Content Marketing Win
Start with your brand. Establish a strategy for your content marketing for the win. Implement your tactics. Understand that marketing, and especially digital marketing, is a marathon with no finish line. How you run that marathon matters. Keep at it, perfecting the steps you take a little at a time. But start by taking that first step in content marketing for the win.
Most business leaders know successful marketers when they meet them. These marketers are focused on the same things they are. Building enterprise and customer or client value.
Marketers must mobilize all the people inside and outside the organization. They are focused on return. Do less, more consistently and effectively.
Therefore, hate to tell you, just because your bestie is on Instagram, doesn’t mean she is a marketer. Newsflash. Sorry to disappoint.
Moreover, our team is filled with seasoned marketers. We have fabulous, cream of the crop interns. They keep up with multiple clients, projects, deadlines, industries and trends. These folks are skilled enough to have conversations with CEOs. Front Porch Marketing is not a teaching hospital. For instance, we are triage surgeons on most days.
Technology and consumer attitudes have and will continue to change drastically. Marketing professionals must stay flexible. Know a bit of everything that is going on in the company. Some days are filled with customer service and distribution. Meanwhile, other are sales management and internal communication.
However, despite the varying roles, these qualities are at these professionals’ core. Super powers they have in common.
The Super Powers of Successful Marketers
Adaptable. In other words, with all technology changing at light speed, know how to evolve with it.
Analytical. Marketing is data driven. Some don’t know what to do with all the data being generated. Therefore, if you can sort through it, and find the relevant. You will be indispensable part of any organization.
Collaboration. Must be an extraordinary team player. Seek input. Solve issues. Foster cooperation. Similarly, often the CMO is the company’s glue. The entire team rallies around the company’s vision because of this person. Illustrate how collaboration creates more value.
Excellent communicators. Words have power. The right words break down barriers and rally the troops. Inside and outside the organization.
Creative. Marketers value innovation. Take risks to facilitate it. They vigorously seek solutions. Explore new approaches. In conclusion, continuously.
Inquisitive. The best marketers are a cross between a detective and a scientist. Therefore, they ask the questions.
Strategic. Start with why. Strategy is the key to successful businesses. Obsessed is a strategic thinker. Constant eye on the market. Diligently studying consumer behavior. In addition, watch the competitors’ every move.
In conclusion, marketing is a marathon not a sprint. Have the right people on your team. Boulders move up the hill with smart people pushing them. Above all, right now, everyone could use a few less boulders. Therefore, pick the marketers that demonstrate super powers.
Have an internal marketing team? Outsourced function? Freelance consultant?
It doesn’t matter what your marketing team looks like. Or what the project looks like. If you’re B2B or B2C. Ask the questions.
It is the last week of the first month of a new year. Therefore, one third the way through first quarter.
Our world looks different than it did even a month ago. With the constant changes, it is critical to focus on the “why.” Make sure the entire organization is aligned. After that, measure initiatives and report results and data.
Business leaders and their marketing team share the responsibility for growth. In other words, work together to achieve collective outcomes to improve enterprise value. Reframe conversations. Arrive at common language. In conclusion, ask and answer the questions.
Marketing Team: Ask These Questions
Do we remember why we are here? The first step to create alignment, excitement and positive team energy cross-functionally.
Have our business goals, objectives and strategies changed? Similarly, need to be tweaked?
Who are our customers / clients? Are the same as last year? How have our existing clients’ mindsets, decision drivers, perceptions changed in the last month?
Are we doing enough to add value and fully leverage our relationship with them?
Where are we falling down? A positive discussion with constructive criticism and actable outputs.
What could limit or impact our strategy, direction or execution?
What has been our biggest marketing success this month?
Are there new key relationships and milestones or events coming up we should be aware of?
Marketing contributes more than 50% of firm value when brand, customer and digital assets are properly valued. And, the impact of marketing performance, collaboration and perceptions are measured. Marketing is an asset, rather than a cost center or risk mitigator.
We are grateful to work as a marketing team for our clients. Front Porch Marketing asks the questions. We can work as fractional CMOs and outsourced marketing department. In addition, we help write marketing plans and execute marketing initiatives on a retainer or project basis.
