Posts on the Flow Foundations
Fancy a regular dose of marketing clarity by email?
First Flow Foundation – The Right Work
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?
How do you find clients that sustain you energetically and financially?
< Back to the BlogThis post is also available over on our PodBlogFor many of our clients, it's not necessarily that they need more clients, it's that they need more of the right clients. And, in many more cases, once this has been clearly defined and a strategy put in place to reflect it, they...
What are sustainable sales results?
We talk about marketing that underpins sustainable sales results. So, let's explore exactly what we mean by that, and why it's so important to get to a point where your sales really do meet these criteria. There are three ways in which sales need to be sustainable if you're going to seriously step...
8 signs that you need to get more strategic about marketing
As the MD or CEO of a growing business, it is up to you to lead the marketing. It’s on you to understand it enough to make sound decisions. In this first of three checklists, Bryony Thomas runs through 8 signs that she looks for that marketing is the area a business needs to focus on next. Grab yourself a cup of tea and get ready to ask yourself 8 key questions.
Second Flow Foundation – Balanced Routine
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.
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.
Is it time to Validate Concerns rather than Overcome Objections?
If we take the perspective that 1) Most third parties who have an opinion about a purchase decision at this stage in the process have the best interests of the buyer in mind; 2)Their opinion makes complete sense from their perspective; and that, 3)Nobody likes being told that they’re wrong… then looking again at the wisdom of Objection Handling can turn your thinking inside out.
Third Flow Foundation – Baseline Rhythm
From Marketing Manager to Marketing Director – what does it take?
When planning a career path, it’s natural that a marketing manager might want to move on to being a marketing director or head of marketing at some stage. We asked Master Practitioner, Rachael Wheatley, to put down some thoughts.
The questions to ask when interviewing a Marketing Manager
You can use the Watertight Marketing book to plan your activity, and decide on the tweaky ou need to your marketing leaks – but who will you get to do the work? We regularly support in recruiting marketers into their teams. In this post, Cheryl Crichton picks out here two favourite interview questions from amongst a handy list of things you could ask.
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.
Why should you invest in marketing when sales are soaring anyway?
10 reasons to invest in a marketing operation when times are good…
“Most of the businesses that we work with on a marketing transformation have a sales team. In fact, most have an excellent sales team on whom the growth to that point can be credited. Further to this, in many of our most committed clients, the sales are already soaring. In working with CEOs, MDs, and Sales Directors in this context, it’s natural to question why they need marketing at all.” ~ Bryony Thomas, Author | Watertight Marketing
Can you grow a business without spending money on marketing?
We help people to out-think, rather than out-spend, their competition. In fact, a number of business owners come to us saying that they spend no money on marketing at all. This is either because business comes to them via referral, or because they do it themselves and haven’t counted their time as a cost to the business. So, here’s the question… can you, and should you, grow a business on free marketing?
What shape is your marketing budget?
< Back to the Blog Knowing the shape of your marketing budget, that is how much you're spending in supporting each step of a buying decision, puts you in a powerful place. Yesterday, I walked you through a six-step process to get visual snapshot of your marketing budget. Today, I'm running you...
Fourth Flow Foundation – Maintain Momentum
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.