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 10^th 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

Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers by Seth Godin

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.

Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant

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.

The Results Obsession: ROI-Focused Digital Strategies to Transform Your Marketing, by Karen J Marchetti

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.

Marketers of Tomorrow: A Step by Step Toolkit for Inbound Marketing by Tyrona Heath

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.

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

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.

Brand Storytelling: Put Customers at the Heart of Your Brand Story, by Miri Rodriguez

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.

Killing Marketing: How Innovative Businesses are Turning Marketing Cost Into Profit by Joe Pulizzi & Robert Rose

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.

The Hidden Psychology of Social Networks: How Brands Create Authentic Engagement by Understanding What Motivates Us, by Joe Federer

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.

Tap: Unlocking the Mobile Economy by Anindya Ghose

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.

What’s Your Problem? Become a Better B2B Marketer by Enhancing Your Problem-Solving Skills by Steve Goldhaber

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

1. Adaptable. In other words, with all technology changing at light speed, know how to evolve with it.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Excellent communicators. Words have power. The right words break down barriers and rally the troops. Inside and outside the organization.
5. Creative. Marketers value innovation. Take risks to facilitate it. They vigorously seek solutions. Explore new approaches. In conclusion, continuously.
6. Inquisitive. The best marketers are a cross between a detective and a scientist. Therefore, they ask the questions.
7. 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

1. Do we remember why we are here? The first step to create alignment, excitement and positive team energy cross-functionally.
2. Have our business goals, objectives and strategies changed? Similarly, need to be tweaked?
3. 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?
4. Are we doing enough to add value and fully leverage our relationship with them?
5. Where are we falling down? A positive discussion with constructive criticism and actable outputs.
6. What could limit or impact our strategy, direction or execution?
7. What has been our biggest marketing success this month?
8. 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.

Your Brand in 2021: Front Porch Marketing has seen an interesting client trend this past year, especially in the second half. Many entrepreneurial brand companies have decided that 2020 – and indeed 2021 – is a good time to double down their brand. They want to really dig in, define their brand and differentiate themselves from their competition. Even big corporate companies, like Burger King, have rebranded, seeking to better define their mission and vision going forward.

If you step back and take a look at your brand with the fresh eyes of 2021, does it look like the company you envisioned when you started? Likely, your brand has evolved and so have you. Does your current branding reflect where you want to be in 5 years with your company or even where you are now, or is it trapped in the past? Maybe it’s time to graduate your branding.

Your Brand in 2021: Envision, Evolve, Emerge

Are you adequately featuring your new products or services? Are you communicating your most compelling benefit? Does your brand look legit, grown-up, like a serious brand that does serious business? Don’t get the veto vote from a customer or a partner business because your brand is not getting taken seriously. You know you can do the job…make sure your branding speaks that truth this year.

Branding – and the digital marketing that embodies branding – has become more important than ever. Your customers and clients are getting bombarded with texts and emails from business service providers to retailers. Ask yourself “why should they read mine?”

What do you stand for?

Do you know what your company’s biggest benefit to your customer is? Do you know how each of your products or services add value to their lives, make their lives easier or answer their questions? Does the tone of voice you use resonate with your customer, and instill loyalty to your brand?

If you don’t know the answers to some of these questions, 2021 might be the year you think about doubling down on your brand. What DO you stand for? What is your mission? As part of your Marketing for 2021, branding can help you answer all of these questions and more, leaving you with a clear map of where to take your business next and how to get there. Branding gives you the platform and parameters to deliver tangible solutions to your customer. We’ve seen the excitement and commitment of more than half a dozen of our own clients rebranding for the future, in just the past six months.

Don’t just work IN your business, work ON your business.

Branding is not just about looks though, it is also about strategy and tactics. What are you going to say, and where are you going to say it are key. You need to be cohesive and coherent in your messaging, as well as look professional. Small businesses often fall down thinking they can “do it themselves” with marketing but without a marketing background – from logo design to social media to PR. Often, they are holding themselves back because they are too busy working IN their business and to work ON their business.

So double down on your brand this year – strengthen your commitment to your particular strategy or course of action. Become more tenacious and resolute in your bringing your brand vision into 2021 and beyond.

Reflecting on the past year, we are so grateful for courageous, fearless business leaders. We continue to be inspired by those who bravely carried on in 2020. Grit and gumption.

Cheers to those leaders who showed up. Those who made the most out homeschool, while working or not, closures, pivots, business opportunities and personal and professional loss.

Earlier in the year, I watched no TV. I read only the daily work related briefs and blogs.

However, in the later part of the year, I read a good chunk of mindless trash. This is how I escape. Reading fiction, mostly murder mysteries and romance novels.

The two personal and professional development books I did read were life changing for me. Leaders must read. One was this. The other was Brene Brown’s Braving the Wilderness. I read it twice in the past two months.

Leaders will brave the new year.

How?

Do you. Brown talks about praying and cussing. Those who know me will not be surprised I love this. She talks about not being moved. Doing work in an honest way that is true to yourself. Leaders, time to truly support each other. I let others “do you.” And, I do me. Belong to yourself. ” … brave the wilderness of uncertainty, vulnerability and criticism.”

Speak truth to bullshit. Do not shut down. In other words, that is the easy road. Leaders do not avoid communication. Learn more about others. Even if we still disagree, at least we engaged in meaningful conversation. We have a deepened mutual understanding. However, at all costs, be civil.

Strong back. Soft front. The latter is most challenging for me. No more armored front. I will stay open. Leaders are comfortable with vulnerability. “A soft and open front is not being weak; it’s being brave, it’s being the wilderness.” Eeeek … here goes. I can do it.

Be fearless. I am a Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program alum. The experience was life changing. My co-hort continues to inspire me. My growth group was named, “The Fearless Five.” Coincidence? “Fear is how we got here.” Fear and blame. Own your pain. Do not inflict pain on others. Be fucking fearless.

Read the book. It is worth your time.

And, in conclusion, I am driven to make this my best year, for me and my family, business, team, clients, community, country and world.

2021 is your chance to start fresh in marketing your business – so here’s your Marketing 101 for 2021

In the sea of marketing possibilities: programs, platforms, practices, what is the best course of action? It can be overwhelming. And with the promising new year of 2021 approaching, how do you decide what to focus or re-focus on? Marketing 101. Back to basics.

We are finding that many of our clients are spending this quarter reflecting and refocusing. They are homing in on what makes their business better, and then doing more of that for their Marketing 101. They are taking this opportunity – when much of the world is operating under an umbrella of The Great Unknown – to really get to know themselves, and know themselves well. And then take the necessary steps to take their company to the next level.

How did we get here? Pandemic. Panic. And from both of these we are seeing a renewed sense of Purpose. How has that manifested itself? We have all gotten more digitally focused, learning new platforms that keep work working when we can’t be together. We have all learned how to be more efficient with our precious time – doing more with less because we have to. We’ve all become experts at continuing to reach our customers with fewer resources. We have all learned how to focus on what’s important in our daily lives. So we propose Marketing 101: focusing on doing fewer important things for your business in 2021 – and doing them better.

Be the brand of your dreams.

Your brand is the foundation of your business and everything else builds up and out from there. So this is where we recommend starting. Right now is the best time to step back and reflect. Do you know what your mission is? Do you know exactly what kind of people find value in your company’s product or service? Is your brand working as hard as it could for you? Your branding should really represent and reflect your business as it stands now – because like it or not mostly everyone’s business has pivoted to an extent in the past three quarters.

We’ve rebranded a good number of our clients in the past 6 months – helping them really understand who they are, what they stand for, who their core audience is, and how they want to do business going forward. With a detailed Brand Elaborative in hand, business owners can easily discern where to focus their efforts and how to effectively market to their audience. It’s a map that leads them in the right direction for marketing in 2021.

Visual Marketing 101: Refresh your logo to reflect your brand’s mission.

A logo refresh is honestly a great place to start the new year as a Marketing 101 first step. New Year’s resolutions shouldn’t just be limited to a new diet, exercise routine or haircut. Your business can experience the same shot-in-the-arm – with a new logo – that a new haircut gives you. Armed with a strong visual presence, a lively color palette and versatile modern typefaces your brand now has new tools and a new voice to build community with your customers.

When you update your logo, you’ve created a reason to talk about your business, just as you would personally with a new haircut or new exercise routine. Keep your customers excited about the future. People want to hear good news, and celebrate success – since it seems in short supply recently – and with your new look and confident voice you can connect with them and bring them along to share in the journey.

If your brand was a person, would people want to hang out with them?

With your new branding and logo in hand, extend your voice and visuals to your social media and your website with a powerful Content Marketing plan. Make your customers feel like a community. Make them feel valued and a sense of belonging by helping them, educating them, solving their problems and being there when they need you. Your brand can have a definite personality and power. And your brand can use those powers for good. That’s a brand that people want to hang around with – the one that makes them feel important and smart.

Got limited resources? Marketing 101 says use what you have.

We hear you. One super efficient thing that brands can do is repurpose their existing content across channels. One way we maximize our client’s effectiveness is to take a look at what they have already done well and double down.

A great company brochure can be turned into 20 Facebook social media posts and most likely a blog post or two, with relevant bits of information and helpful graphics. Every company’s website is a treasure trove of social media content that’s already been written, just waiting to be broken into little pieces and shared as social media. Sometimes just having a fresh outside eye look at your company’s assets can help you see that you have more than you thought you did!

Be the best version of yourself for 2021.

Overall, when we’re looking at what to recommend to our small and medium-sized businesses for 2021, we keep coming back to these important things. Remind yourself of who you are and why you do what you do (branding), show your audience you mean it (logo) and bring them into your brand’s community (website, social, content marketing).  A brand is a promise, and 2021 can be the year your brand makes a promise to be the best version of themselves.

Using Text Messaging Marketing in your Marketing Plan

Is your brand using text messaging to connect with customers? Consumer preference to shop and connect with brands continues to increase steadily. Because of the pandemic, the mobile ecommerce growth that was expected to occur over the next 2 to 3 years, happened in mere months in 2020.

In addition to email marketing and social media marketing, text message marketing is an opportunity to speak with your customers in real-time. As a result, you can have real conversations with them throughout their customer journey. And, build brand loyalty. Use the space where they spend the most time – on their phone – to reach them.

Start with your business goals.

First, define your business goals before you incorporate a new marketing strategy. Next, select key performance indicators (KPIs) that will support those goals. These can be simple quantifiable measurements like subscriber growth or they can be revenue driven. Then with a clear plan for your text marketing program, you can set your company up for success.

Brands who text message can engage customers, increase loyalty and even drive revenue. Now more than ever, as consumers and brands are both feeling the effects of COVID-19, it’s important to be able to connect with your customer directly.

Last holiday season, 61% of all ecommerce sales were made on a smartphone. That represents a 27% increase from 2018. Mobile ecommerce will continue to hold a top spot as a customer preferred method of shopping. Capitalize on this shopping trend with text messaging.

Simple reasons to think about using text messaging.

Texting could be a helpful addition to your marketing mix depending on your type of business. With texting you can build the type of relationships with customers that they crave. There are many different ways to use SMS. So, here are a few ideas to get you started.

Welcome new customers

• Create a welcome offer to new subscribers. Then, build a drip campaign (a series of texts) for these new subscribers. This welcomes them to the brand and give them a reason to stick around.

• Offer your text message subscribers extra perks for being a subscriber. Make offers ones that aren’t given in your other digital venues. Share early access to shop new items, access to a member’s only special sale or VIP access to products.

Share new products or sales

• Excite your customers about a new service. Send them a text with a link to your website. Then they can easily sign up for your company’s newest yoga class or hot stone massage.

• Encourage quick action. Share limited-time deals in your shop, best-selling items running out of stock and Buy One Get One Free offers. Texting helps you highlight the time-sensitive nature of an offer.

Alert and remind

• Keep your customers up-to-date about steps in a service process. Don’t make them guess or wait or have to track you down. Text them when their tax return is ready. Show them pictures of their new kitchen being built. Keep them aware of when your serviceman is coming to repair their refrigerator.

• Remind your subscribers about their abandoned shopping carts with a link directly to their cart to finish their shopping journey. As a result, it’s easy for them to finish checking out. Thank them for their purchase. Reward them with a bounceback offer after the completion of their purchase.

• Share important or timely information to your text message subscribers. If you’re a restaurant, share news like COVID-19 safety precautions, new menu items or dining options.

Your customers rely heavily on their smartphones to connect to the outside world right now. Reach out to them using text messaging. Having real-time conversation with your customers lets them know that you hear them, you understand their needs and you are ready to add value to their lives.

How is your 2020 marketing plan holding up?

If you’re like a lot of businesses this year, you threw out your 2020 marketing plan and have been in triage mode for six months. Q4 is the perfect time to re-evaluate your company’s marketing plan to include a good marketing planning outline and process, messaging, strategies and brand.

This year’s best laid marketing plans were most likely laid to waste in the second quarter. It’s now Q4 of a very weird year – speaking from, well, every point of view – and everyone is working under the guise of not knowing what is coming next or when. Some businesses are continuing to just execute 2020 marketing strategies with messaging that is not currently relevant to growing their top line or their bottom line. Stop reacting and get proactive with your brand.

Typically, clients reflect and plan ahead this time of year, and this Q4 should be no exception.

In fact, we recommend doubling down on the planning. This year though, planning may look a lot like pivoting for most businesses. There is very little business-as-usual going on, and your company’s business plan should reflect that fact.

We are working with clients that are facing different year end results – from more than 75% decline in sales, to flat, to having the best year ever. We have clients who’s marketing plan has them pivoting completely and launching new brands, born of the new normal or a long-held dream. But the one thing all of our clients have in common right now is that they are planning in order to be able to continue to pivot if need be. They are ensuring that their future strategies will be on-brand even if the content has to change.

Now is the perfect time to step back from your business plan and take an objective perspective on your company’s state of affairs.

Is your brand’s marketing plan going in the right direction? Do you need a more focused or broader message? Are your communication strategies getting you in front of the right customers on the right social media channel? Is your brand voice in tune with the state of the world? Know who you are, what you stand for and how to communicate that mission to your customers. What is your highest and best use? When you have a plan, this is how you can frame all of your future content – even if it keeps changing.

Plan ahead to pivot.

Planning a marketing infrastructure to put in place now and building on it through Q1 and Q2 of next year can help pivot your brand toward a new goal, refine your mission and elevate your relevancy. Have a plan in place to be able to address the unknown needs of your customers as they arise in 2021. You don’t necessarily need the answers now, but you need to have a plan to be able to answer the questions your customers will have. Your marketing plan for next year should include key messages, strategies, a budget, timeline and content calendar through Q2 of 2021 to carry your company into Q3. Spend your marketing time wisely this quarter to build the brand you’ve always wanted to become next quarter and beyond.

A popular phrase in the marketing world states, “always be one step ahead of your competition.” But, how do you accomplish that? Develop a competitive analysis.

Why are your competitors outranking you? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What are their marketing strategies? All of these questions are answered through a competitor analysis.

What is a competitive analysis?

A competitive analysis identifies and evaluates your competitors in comparison to your business. More specifically, your analysis should include the following:

• Identifying your competitors and highlighting those that pose the biggest challenge
• Researching information about your competitors
  • i.e. pricing, financials, marketing campaigns and social media, company history, their marketed demographic, and locations they cover
• Evaluating their strategies
  • Determine their strengths and weaknesses to your brand’s

Why do competitive analysis?

Competitive research is crucial to your success as a business because it helps you create better marketing strategies. Moreover, it allows you to make educated decisions about your strategy and guarantees you can create competitive advantages. A competitive analysis gives you the ability to quickly identify industry trends and adapt to other marketing campaigns. As a result, all of these enable you to stay ahead of your competitors.

Conclusion

It cannot be a one-time thing. In short, frequently completing a competitor analysis gives your business the advantage to outsmart the competition.