This week, we welcome Carson Allen, our newest intern rocker, to the team!
1. What is the biggest misconception about marketing today?
That its full of people who want to take advantage of others for a quick cash grab.
2. What advice would you give to someone struggling with creating a brand identity?
To be patient and to play the long game. It takes time to build a brand and you need to be incredibly persistent with growth.
3. One of the biggest lessons you’ve learned throughout your academic career?
That when it comes to marketing you want to apply the “KISS” method. Which is “Keep It Simple & Stupid.” Keeping things simple and easy to understand helps draw in clients.
4. What does good marketing look like?
An agency that respects their clients and knows how to properly execute a plan to get them the results they need. The focus should be on helping the client.
5. If you could describe yourself in three words what would they be?
Persistent, outgoing, and motivated.
6. Tell me about a major milestone in your life?
One major milestone of mine is achieving the rank of Eagle Scout my senior year in High School. It took me 8 years of moving up through the scouting program and completing a service project to achieve it.
7. Your goals for FPM?
My goals at FPM are to be the biggest sponge I can be. I want to absorb as much knowledge as possible from this company in regards to marketing and how it works as a business. I specifically want to dip my toes into Search Engine Optimization.
8. How would you describe the culture at FPM?
So far, the culture seems very warm and welcoming. I love that we get to create our own “rocker” name.
9. How does FPM differentiate itself from other marketing companies?
They put a lot of emphasis on the client and they have an easy to work with atmosphere – which makes them more approachable.
10. If you could be anywhere in the world right now where would it be?
I would love to live in a state up North with mountains. Preferably Colorado. Nature is something I always want to be a part of due to my time spent camping in Boy Scouts.
11. If you could go to dinner with one person living or dead who would it be?
I would love to go to dinner with Bruce Lee. He was such an icon in his time. Not just for his fighting techniques but also his philosophy about the way he looked at life.
12. What is a fun fact about yourself?
I really love to cook!
Conclusion
We are incredibly excited to have Carson Allen on the Front Porch Marketing team. He is going to do fantastic things. We cannot wait to see his creativity shine, through his future endeavors.
It’s graduation season! As thousands of young people across the country don their caps and gowns, I’d like to give some advice to all of the future marketers out there. Here are a few things to remember that have taken me years to learn. And to be honest, I am still learning.
It’s Okay to Ask for Help
There’s a pit in my stomach that forms whenever I need to ask for help. I have to remind myself that I don’t have to do it all myself. One of the wonderful things about working for an agency is that everyone has different skills. Different co-workers can pitch in on different parts of a project when needed. They can also give you advice on how to get things done.
Asking for help doesn’t mean your slacking or not taking your responsibilities seriously. It means you should thank your lucky stars that you have a team backing you. Marketing is a team sport and it works better when you work with others.
Writing Skills are Important – and Rare
At the start of my career, I took my writing skills for granted. I thought everyone can write. No big deal.
After a few more years in the workforce I learned that everyone can write but not everyone can write well. So much of marketing is writing. Or starts with writing – advertising copy, scripts, creative briefs, white papers, taglines, web copy, blog posts, social media and the list goes on. If you can hone your writing skills, you will stand out from the pack.
Stop Worrying So Much
Early in my career, I worried about so many things. I worried about finding my “niche.” It seemed like everyone in my office was good at something I wasn’t. (Which is by design, see “It’s Okay to Ask for Help” above.) I worried that I wouldn’t be able to get to where I wanted to go, which was a title with the word “director” in it.
Its understandable to worry a lot about your career, especially at the beginning of it. In my case, the only antidote that I could find to my constant worrying was time and experience. I stopped caring about having a niche when I figured out that I am interested in many things . My advice: figure out what you’re interested in and what is important to you. Develop your natural talents and stop trying to force yourself into some mold you think you need to fit into.
Your Goals Might Change
Which brings me to that “brass ring” syndrome I had for the longest time. At some point, I figured out that being the director of something was not going to make me happy. Making things, working with great people, moving fast and yes, sometimes breaking things, that makes me happy. A fancy title does not.
In sum, it’s important to think about what makes you happy and fulfilled. I know that’s easy for me to say, especially from my vantage point of having spent many years in this industry. And I know that the first few years in any career are going to feel like you’ve been thrown into the deep end.
Remember, it’s easier to float on a rising tide than to swim against it. You just have to find the right tide. So, go and catch your next wave, and see where it takes you.
You may be wondering, what is R Studio? Is it easy to learn? R Studio is a programming language for statistical computing and graphics. The overall goal of R Studio is to help you summarize and analyze data that will provide insights for making data-driven marketing decisions. While it is not initially easy, like most things, through practice and many trials you can hone your skills just as I have.
This past semester, at Baylor University, I had the pleasure of doing in-depth customer analysis through R Studio and learned how to create data visualizations and perform different statistical analyses using R codes.
Data Science
Data science is the future of business analytics, yet it is often difficult to figure out where to start. The last thing you want to do is waste time and money with the wrong tool or program. Making effective use of your time involves two pieces:
(1) selecting the right tool for the job at hand
(2) efficiently learning how to use the tool to increase value for your business.
This blog focuses on the first part, explaining why R is the right choice in three points.
Reason One: High Return on Value
The first reason for why R may be the right tool for the job is if you are looking to use a statistical programing language that lends itself well to an extensive infrastructure of big data. R covers a wide range of topics such as econometrics, finance, and time series. R has the best-in-class tools for visualization, reporting, and interactivity, which are just as important to business as they are to science. Because of this, R is well-suited for scientists, engineers, and business professionals.
With the analysis of customer analytics through R, business professionals can:
Increase sales to new and existing customers.
Increase response rates and customer loyalty.
Reduce campaign costs by targeting customers most likely to respond.
Increase sales force effectiveness by targeting qualified prospects.
Reduce customer churn by accurately predicting customers most likely to leave and developing the right proactive campaigns to retain them.
Deliver the right message by segmenting customers more effectively and better understanding target populations.
Deliver higher returns on marketing and promotions investments by contacting the right customers with highly relevant offers/messages.
These all important marks for a company and can be drastically improved through R.
Reason Two: Free Open-Source Tool
When downloading R for business use, one of the greatest pros is that it is an open-source program. Therefore, it can be modified and redistributed as per the user’s need. It is great for visualization and has far more capabilities, compared to other tools like Python.
Companies, such as Facebook, Microsoft, and Google, are using R programming as their core platform to make online advertising more effective. They also use R for economic forecasting and Big-Data statistical modeling. Due to the results that the ‘console’ and ‘plots’ provide in R, these big-name brands are able to make dutifully noted decisions.
Reason Three: Easy to Use
What is great about using R Studio is that once you understand the basics, you will be able to transcribe codes to more advanced stages since they have similar frameworks. Although it takes a couple tries to understand the statistical language, through failure comes success. To help create successful codes and interpretations, the RStudio Cheatsheets are a great reference guide for R syntax as well as YouTube videos.
Conclusion
Whether you use R or Python or another program, find out what your customer data strategy is and what your marketing strategy is to find that perfect balance between the two.
It’s time to evaluate your marketing strategy for the second half of the year. With Q1 in the rearview mirror, and thick in the midst of Q2 now is the time to plan what comes next.
Failing to plan is planning to fail
My kids hear Benjamin Franklin’s quote about planning often. They are teenage boys and the simplicity of “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” strikes a chord. In October we talked about 2021 marketing planning – and it is absolutely crazy that the second half of 2021 is right around the corner. May is the perfect time to plus-delta your marketing plan to rock Q3 and Q4.
We wax the marketing plan lyrical often, if you want some additional reading search Marketing Plan right here on Off Your Rocker, because it is a topic we keep coming back to because it is that important. Running through your activities, business, leisure or really anything without a plan to evaluate often leads to a failure.
Who could have planned for 2020!?!
For real. If you had pandemic marketing plan – ROCK ON! Many threw out the 2020 marketing plan and went into crisis or survival mode. Is it safe to say most everyone was scrambling in the unchartered time. Now that we are well into Q2, what lessons can we learn? Should we all write pandemic marketing plans? No! Should you have crisis plan? Maybe. Should you have a stop-gap strategy at-the-ready if everything falls apart? Yes.
Plan to evaluate a pivot
It was easier for teams to pivot from a plan versus starting from scratch in 2020. Existing plans guided and grounded activity for some, for others it gave a communication channel for policy and operation updates. We were reminded of the importance of staying positive in all marketing efforts and staying true to your brand. We celebrated the entrepreneurial spirit of our network and were honored to be a part of several brand launches in the back half of 2020.
Now is the time to look at the 2021 plan to evaluate what stays in, what stops and what needs to be added. Let’s get ready for the second half and move forward with purpose and intention to flourish the rest of the year.
Seamless, sharp, and sophisticated. That is the vision that Front Porch Marketing has for you and your brand as we share why you should style your Instagram highlights.
With the right color scheme, design, and icons, you can drive more views and engagement with your Instagram bio at little to no cost.
If you are looking for a push to execute this vision and wow your audience the next time, they see your page, this is the blog for you!
The Vision
When you open up your company’s Instagram page, what is the first thing you see? Most likely, your eyes go to the colorful posts or maybe a bold profile picture with a strong branding icon, but acting as an overlooked middleman is a row of highlight icons. Currently, there may be as little as 0 or as many as 100 on your page – the sky is the limit.
Truly, the only limit that is regarded is that only up to 100 pictures can be posted within a story highlight, but highlights – much like a reel – should be seamless, sharp, and sophisticated and not fragmented, sloppy, and cluttered. Most importantly, they should be an extension of your brand’s story.
The Highlight
Many take a lot of time and effort to create the perfect “story” to post on Instagram. Whether it includes colorful gifs, a unique poll, engaging videos, or a giveaway you are extending a vision to viewers about your brand and its values. What is disheartening about all that time and effort is that it dwindles in significance alongside the 24-hour frame that stories are set on. Plus it requires the utmost strategic thinking.
Now, with story highlight reels you are able to make the stories on your Instagram stay permanently on your profile for viewers to enjoy at any given moment. By adding this extra step to your Instagram branding strategy, you are able to strategically use a prime location on your bio and create an immediate place of engagement with users.
Step 1: Be Seamless
What is great about engagement is that you can cast the vision for what viewers see and find different ways to resonate with them. For example, aesthetics are incredibly favored amongst millennials and are a growing target market for many companies. Thus, considering aesthetics on all social media platforms allows you to connect with this audience and others like it.
To create a seamless experience for users, use highlights to promote content that can showcase your products or services, express your brand, drive traffic and market your business. If your profile has bold colors, seamlessly transition the same color palette to your story highlights while also extending a nod to your brand as a whole. If your posts have a color scheme, extend it to your highlight to establish immediate brand recognition or go with a splash of color to draw in your audience with a double look. No matter what you choose, think about your brand as a whole and embody that within your highlight story covers – the first picture that viewers see on a highlight reel.
Step 2: Be Sharp
When it comes to your story highlight covers, always use high-definition content and think “succinct” when it comes to titles. There is a 10–11 character count rule of thumb when it comes to highlight covers. The more characters you use, the higher the chance that your highlight title will end up with an ellipsis instead of the word you were trying to promote. Whether you use CTA words like “events,” “promotions,” “sales,” or “giveaways,” be consistent and above all, do not be misleading in any way.
Step 3: Be Sophisticated
Last but not least, when it comes to Instagram story highlights create a look of sophistication. By using sites like Canva, Unsplash, and/or Pinterest, there are 100’s of highlight cover designs that are pre-made and ready to go at a moments notice for you and your company. No matter if you choose icons, HD pictures, graphic designs or a color palette, always keep your brand at the forefront.
In Conclusion
First, to bring your Instagram to the next level, revamp the look of your Instagram’s aesthetics with a seamless, sharp, and sophisticated look. Second, when it comes to highlight covers think about what story you want your viewers to plug into. Third, see your platform through the viewers eyes to see which highlights you want them to engage with first. In summary, bring the middleman to the forefront.
Chances are you have seen a post or two about what days and what times are the best for posting on social media. And in fact, they are all probably right, and probably wrong. You see, the best time and place for YOUR social media is totally dependent upon your followers.
Short Cuts to an Optimal Social Media Time and Place Posting Schedule
What people want is a quick fix to their social media. A set-it-and-forget it system that they can follow that requires the least amount of work. But social media is not a broadcast channel like television, radio, or a print ad. Social media is supposed to be SOCIAL. Your social media channels are the place where you can actually have one-on-one conversations with people who love your brand already. How do you know they love you already? They’ve chosen to follow you, haven’t they? So talk with them when they are sitting there ready to have that conversation.
Sure, there are general guidelines for posting on social media channels, many of which have to do with putting yourself in someone else’s shoes for a moment. When are people most likely scrolling thru Instagram? What are people doing on their lunch break besides eating? (hint: scrolling thru Instagram) What’s the last thing that people do before they go to sleep at night, while they’re laying in bed? (another hint: scrolling thru Instagram) You get the picture. So how do you determine what social media channels and times are the best for your brand? When can you maximize a conversation with your followers going forward? The short answer is “the past”.
The Right Channel for Your Social Media
Each social media platform has a specific and different purpose. By offering a little bit different perspective and content on each channel of social media (instead of using the channels to broadcast like a tv or radio station) a company can show their many sides and offer a more nuanced look at their company, much like you would develop a friendship with a real person and grow to appreciate the many facets of their personality. So after you’ve given your social media channels a spring cleaning, start looking at your analytics.
Social Media Analytics
Every platform you post on for your brand has some form of analytics. You can see a surprising amount of information about your followers in the insights part of your dashboard, whatever the platform. One of the most valuable pieces of information in there is when your followers are on the platform. Start there. Your followers might be the breakfast crowd, in which case 6:15 – 8:30am is a good time for you. Maybe your followers are night owls in which case, program your posts (or manually post them) after 9:00pm.
With 63% of American users checking Instagram at least once a day, and 74% of American users checking Facebook once a day – according to Hootsuite – , you’re sure to find at least one and probably more than one heavy use time in your follower insights.
Scheduling platforms like Hootsuite, Buffer and Planoly make it even easier – they look at the analytics of your followers and tell you the best times to post without the research. Taking advantage of these low-cost automation platforms can save you valuable time, so you can concentrate your efforts on content creation.
Past Performance
Look at your social media feed on any channel as an indicator of what to post in the future. Which posts did well? What type of content got the most likes or comments? Do more of that. Look to your past performance to guide your future endeavors.
What are your competitors doing?
Competitive research is not just for branding and creative. Take a look at what your competitors are posting – what, when and where – when you’re setting up your optimal schedule. Look for patterns in not just your own feed, but in the similar feeds of your competitors and do more of what they are doing the best.
Post, Rinse, Repeat
Testing your content in different forms and at different times will also provide key insights when scheduling the best times and places for your social media as part of your content marketing plan. There is no one-size-fits-all best time solution that will fit every grand, as your brand’s best time and best platform are just as unique as your branding.
With a little effort upfront, you can glean insights into your audience that will not only increase your engagement, but actually help your followers even more. They have questions they want answered and you have the answer – so use the information that is readily available and answer that question sooner.
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.
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.
