My first newsletter! Bringing Clarity to Your Marketing
I read a lot of great articles that come across my various news feeds - articles that resonate with me and the challenges in marketing. I want to share my knowledge and findings, so I’m starting a newsletter.
It’s a place for me to share what I’m seeing across teams, what’s actually working (and what isn’t), and a few of the best articles I come across along the way. Some written by me and some written by others.
All if it is meant to help you take a new idea or interesting point of view and share it or apply it in what you are doing.
My Point of View
After years in tech marketing, one pattern shows up everywhere, emerging tech, open source, startups, and large companies alike, is the lack of clarity in marketing.
Teams will think they don’t have enough pipeline, or they are analyzing individual pieces of content and wondering why they are not performing, or they wonder why the website isn’t converting. The instinct is to do more whether its campaigns, content, more web pages, or whatever sales thinks will bring in leads.
What I found is that they are missing the background work to drive aligned and consistent marketing results. And this starts with messaging, getting the ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) right, and coming up with a shared definition between leadership and sales of what good marketing should be.
Before doing more, step back and get the fundamentals right. Here’s some ideas:
Define your ICP in one paragraph. You don’t need a full messaging document or deep dive into your persona, start with one or two sentences on who you sell to and why you sell to them.
Know what you are not. Write down what you don’t do, who you don’t sell to, and where you don’t compete. Then refer back to this when you feel like you are getting distracted.
Align sales, product, and marketing. Make sure you all agree on who you target, what you do, and why it matters.
Give this a try and let me know how it goes. And anytime, ping me if you want to chat - I’m always happy to brainstorm and share insights.
Worth a Read
Here are a few articles I found interesting.
The 1 second that decides if your video goes viral
By Tom Orbach
People watch videos on mute. That is why captions are so important. But, just adding captions versus captions that are working and not distracting takes a few steps to get it right.
This article has tips. I don’t know if it meets its promise of “The 1 second that decides if your video goes viral”, but there are definitely helpful tips.
As a side note, I will admit that the title of the article prompted me to click - who doesn’t want to know how to make something go viral in 1 second?!
The Certainty Trap
By Wendy Walker
I ran across this article on decisions in B2B environments and the challenges in seeking precise data before a decision is made. I’ve worked in organizations where fellow leaders and team members wanted to know how we can track and prove the marketing results before we make a decision on a spend. As Wendy points out, “the problem is that certainty is often being asked to do a job it was never designed to do”.
Decisions are made with partial information as markets and buyers change, introducing risk that can’t be fully calculated.
Read Wendy’s article for examples and suggestions on bringing the team together and driving consensus in uncertain environments.
Why Demand Generation Gets Expensive Without Brand
By Chris Maundrell
Ah - an article about the importance of Brand Marketing! In this article, Chris outlines what good marketers already know - campaigns do not create demand, they reinforce an existing preference set.
Stuff I wrote
My next steps: Helping founders and marketing teams move faster
For most of my career, I’ve grown into bigger roles with more responsibility. I built teams, led functions, and sat with the leadership team. But, I realized that although I drove results, it got further from the work I enjoy. I am intentionally pivoting. And I wrote a blog about it.
I’ve written a couple of blogs on brand marketing, and I’ll keep coming back to it because too many teams sacrifice brand for growth. (Actually, I won’t write about it forever, but I am an advocate!)
6 Signs Your Brand Marketing Isn’t Working (and What to Do About It)
Why I’m a brand marketing believer
Summary
At this stage in my career, I’m intentionally focusing on working directly with teams advising on marketing, and sharing the tools, processes, and experience I’ve built over the years. If you’re working through challenges or questioning your current approach, feel free to reach out. I’m always happy to chat.
