The main cause of most marketing flops is not budget, and it’s not the strategy. It comes from a misunderstanding of where the marketing journey starts.
Before bushwhacking through another marketing campaign, take the time to understand what order your activities should follow. There’s a proven path that can help most companies follow through on their marketing initiatives and master success and return.
At New North, we talk about the three journeys of marketing success that all companies have to take. The challenge is that while you may want to run headfirst into all of the journeys at once, some are sequential. The order of the journeys and the effort you should expend on each are balanced like the spokes of a wheel. Let’s elaborate.
Trying to Grow before you Align
If you are trying to grow with aggressive marketing tactics, but you have not aligned to your company vision, mission and purpose, you’re going to fail or grow against the grain of your company. You might take work that is not aligned to your core offering, just for the sake of growth. Or, you’ll shift like the sands as opportunities and positioning as needed.
Trying to Align before you’re Known
Sometimes you might spend too much time getting a “brand” in place before you really understand if the market for your brand even exists. I’ve had many conversations with businesses that have a grand plan, but very little thought out when it comes to how they are going to tactically make it happen. Sometimes you just need a sale, or in fact a couple 100K in sales before you really start to understand the impact you will and need to have on your customer. Lofty presentations on brand might be lost if you really don’t know your customer well enough.
Trying to be Known without Growing
You might also be trying to go the cheapskate route on your marketing and not get the impact you need. You can’t reach an audience without the right tools. You need to think about what tools and budget you really need to reach your audience to be known in the marketplace. You can pound pavement, but it’s all going to be a hard fought journey if you are not able to grow into the right tools and resources for your campaign.
Trying to Grow before you Align
This is the most common of all the challenges. This is evident when there is more money than time to think, and thousands are spent on marketing without a thought-out rationale for why what’s being done is actually being done. What is the grand plan? Does this make us the company we want to be? Growth for growth’s sake is a path to ultimate complexity – and discontentment. Businesses that align around the “why” of the business will be able to grow exponentially over the businesses who don’t.
Where are you?
Do you see yourself in a few of these categories? Don’t fret, we’ve helped hundreds of businesses like yours get aligned on the right items they need to pursue in their businesses. If you’re not sure where you are on your journey, take our free assessment. Or, better yet – contact us for a no-commitment conversation around where you are in your journey. We live to see all businesses reach the summit. Let us help you.
