The Blog
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What makes marketing work?
What most people see of marketing is what goes out into the world. By definition, the visible marketing is what businesses are putting out the get noticed and get people interested. This is Taps in the Watertight Marketing core metaphor (See Chapter 2 & 8). The thing is, if you’re not a marketer, it can be easy to assume that what you see is all there is. If you only actually do the stuff that’s visible, it won’t work! There are underpinning foundation activities under the radar that are essential to seeing a return.
Growth: Do you want lifetime value, margin or volume?
So, you want marketing to grow your business? The first think we’d need to do is work out what kind of growth you want. Do you want to increase customer lifetime value, margin, or the volume of customers. Different marketing will achieve different types of growth, and there’s a specific sequence that can compound the benefit.
Why your direct competitors are often the least important
If I say ‘competitors’ to you, I’m willing to bet that you think of people that offer similar things to you. So, Burger King would be a competitor to McDonalds, and Pepsi a competitor to Coke… right? Absolutely, these are direct competitors. If you want a take away burger, these will come to mind. But, what if you just want a take away, there are many more competitors there. And, what about cooking yourself? Or skipping dinner altogether?
No marketing experience? No problem…
Have you thought about bringing a marketing apprentice into your business? It can be a very cost-effective way to grow your marketing capability. For the role to succeed, for you and for them, it needs to be done with a plan and in context of strategy and support. In this post, Rachael Wheatley explores what you need to have in place to bring an inexperienced person onto a marketing apprentice role successfully. Without these things in place the money you saved on salary and by accessing government finding will be wasted in frustration.
The life of a lonely marketer
When your ‘marketing team’ consists of one person, there are some unique challenges for them to face. Many solo marketers find themselves struggling to be effective and productive in their role, precisely because they’re on their own. This post looks at ten key challenges, and what to do about them.
Kicking the Yo-Yo Marketing Habit
The first diagram you come to in the Watertight Marketing book is of Yo-Yo Marketing. In this post, Bryony explores why this pattern of activity so often emerges in a business, and what to do about it.
Are you suffering from marketing FOMO?
Almost every marketer I’ve ever really got to know has had nagging voices of doubt about what they’re doing. In this post, I take a look at marketing FOMO and other gremlins that hold us back from making the right marketing happen.
Functional, and not too embarrassing
As a recovering perfectionist (a lifetime struggle), I have to remind myself often. And so, ‘functional, and not too embarrassing’ has become a bit of a mantra.
I share this with all my clients, and it’s in the book, as the first bar to aim for with a new marketing tool or technique. That means being ok with putting stuff live that might be just a little bit embarrassing. (I know, hard right?!)
Agency, consultant or employee?
Two MDs have asked me the same question in the last two weeks… ‘We’re at the stage where we need to get more structured with our marketing, should we appoint an agency, retain a consultant or hire an employee?’ This post explores each route and the common pitfalls we see.
Tackling the marketing ‘should do’ list
How do you move those key marketing tasks from your ‘should do’ list to ticked off and delivering for your business? Bryony Thomas gives a rundown of the best ways to get stuff done.
Do you have the tools to match your skills?
You can grow a business on sales skills alone, but why would you make your life harder than it needs to be. Investing in tools to match your skills will get you further faster. In this post, Bryony looks at the difference between tools and skills and why a scaling business needs both.
Marketing in survival mode
I hesitated to share these tips for worry of adding the noise and confusion out there at the moment. We seem to be awash with advice on how to navigate the unknown from people who've never done it before. Now, I've approached this from the perspective of having had...