Marketing isn’t rocket science, right? Right???
One of our clients describes it as “a bit like trying to poke smoke in a room.” It’s there, it’s all around us, but elusive to get to grips with.
So if you are not growing as fast as you’d like, it’s likely you have marketing paralysis:
You don’t know where to start OR
You are too afraid to change OR
You don’t have a simple and actionable plan.
Sound familiar?
And who is responsible for designing and implementing the marketing strategy that fixes your marketing issues? Is it you, the CEO?
If so, it’s a side hustle, so how can you expect your marketing to perform optimally? Even worse it’s taking you away from what you should be doing - running your company.
Many businesses don’t apply structured thinking to their marketing. So the plan and activities are often ill-thought-through, inefficient and even counter-productive.
But don’t worry. Here’s a simple solution and you can get back on track in conformably less than a day:
Gather senior leaders from all parts of the business (ideally no more than 6) in a room. Anyone can do this exercise, they don’t need to be experienced in marketing or regard themselves as creative thinkers. Give everyone a post-it note pad. Buckle up!
Stage 1. Discovery. 45 minutes
Write down every growth-related problem that is holding you back - one per Post-It note.
Stick them on a wall and sort them into groups of similar issues.
Discuss and clarify each problem so you’re all on the same page. If necessary, redefine this problem so you all understand and agree on the fundamental issue.
Agree on which are most relevant and prioritise them. That might be the toughest to solve, the ones that get you moving fastest, or the ones you need to solve before you can do any of the others.
Write a measure of success in solving this problem.
Stage 2. Ideation. 60 minutes
Take your first problem and write all possible solutions you can think of. Again, one per Post-It.
Stick them up on the wall. Cluster into similar ideas and discard duplicates. You should have at least 5 or 6 possible solutions for your first problem.
Move them into a column with the most suitable idea at the top, down to ideas that would work but aren’t as powerful. Get rid of anything you wouldn’t do.
Spend some time clarifying and sense-checking each solution.
Stage 3. Solution. 45 minutes
Agree on which solutions you have the budget and resources to do this year.
Create your action plan with a timeline. Is it realistic?
Agree on who is responsible for implementing each solution. Is it feasible?
Check that this action plan can deliver against the success measures. If not, you’ll need to go back to the ideation phase.
This is your roadmap to success so write it down and take photos of the walls.
If you have time left over, make a start on the next problem. Rinse and repeat.
Just like that, creating an actionable marketing strategy to deliver growth is not rocket science. It's a simple, methodical, rigorous, and speedy process. And nothing like poking smoke in a room, however fun that sounds.
