This answers the “Who are you talking to?” question. I break these down:
Primary audience – Decision makers and those who receive your messaging directly.
Secondary audience – Influencers or users who do not have decision making responsibilities. These are people that may receive your messaging.
Each primary and secondary target audience must be broken down into a persona. What they think, how they use your product or service, what challenges do they face daily or annually? What attitudes, concerns or criteria drives customers to choose your product or service?
This also includes where they get their information? What do they read, listen to or watch? Where do they go or hang out? Do they use any buzzwords or industry speak? What are their professional goals?
Outlining your primary and secondary audiences will provide valuable insight into who you’re marketing to.
The persona development process can help you assess your target audience persona development much easier. This helps you identify the specific group of people that represent your target audience, and guide marketing and business to design experiences that are relevant for specific persona.
Each persona is a type of person represents, or a representation of, your ideal customer. This typically is based on real data from your existing customers.
When creating personas include demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, goals, and values. The more detailed, the better. This can is the foundations for your marketing tactics and programs. Your messaging and imagery should trigger emotions and actions in these personas. That will ensure an on-strategy tactic. Also look at your SWOT analysis and work the strengths and opportunities into your messaging if appropriate.
Essential information for persona development includes:
Gender
Age range
Job title
Job function
Industry or market
Preferred communication channels
Customer needs and desires
Persona development can also relate to other areas of business-like product design, branding, marketing, and sales. By understanding persona this way, you will be able to focus on the needs of your persona development which results in them returning to buy products or services from you over time.
Keep in mind that messaging and creative development need to support your brand assets. The brand assets are your checks and balances. If your tactics don’t support some or all the brand assets, then your tactic is off strategy. Consistency and repetition are key.
The primary goal of marketing is to communicate with your audience, and you must do this in a way that reinforces the values, tones, style, and strategy that your brand represents. The ultimate outcome should be an effective message that moves them to action.
Messaging (and every interaction) must support the overall brand. For this to happen consistently, there needs to be some framework or foundation from which you build everything on top of. These are the brand assets we discussed earlier in the book. Strong messaging comes from a strong branding foundation. Strong branding requires consistency so use brand asset checks and balances when implementing individual marketing tactics. Your brand assets are powerful tools at your disposal, and they need to be honored in every piece of communication.
You may remember seeing a box when you were writing an essay for school; we’re going to use the same idea in our marketing. Every time we launch a new campaign or message, we’ll check it against these brand asset questions:
Does this message support the tone and strategy that I’ve built around my brand?
Does this message fit into the overall feel for my brand?
Does this align with what I’m communicating on all other channels?
If your answer is yes, then you can proceed confidently knowing that your messaging is not only on strategy but also reinforcing the branding foundation that’s already there.
If the answer is no, then you need to go back to the drawing board and ask yourself why. It will help you rebuild your branding foundation so that it’s stronger next time. Remember, you’re building this over time. Don’t give up!
By taking a holistic approach, messaging and creative will reinforce your brand values for marketing to be effective.
In marketing, it seems that teams lack creativity and motivation. It’s not enough to have a great product or service. You also need people who are inspired and empowered to do their best work.
The main cause of low team creativity is when teams feel unempowered to do their best work and let their ideas soar. They often feel like they’re just cogs in a machine, rather than valued members of a team who can make an impact on company goals and culture.
This post is to encourage more creative thinking by your marketing teams through exercises and activities that help them build skills in areas such as ideation, brainstorming, critical thinking, collaboration and much more!
In marketing, creativity is a key skill in your team. But creativity takes time and energy to develop, and it’s often lost in the fast-paced environment of many organizations today.
The best way to encourage creativity is by empowering your team members through exercises that will help them build skills in areas such as ideation, brainstorming, critical thinking, collaboration and much more! This post shares some ideas for how you can do this with your own team. If you have any other creative techniques or activities for boosting creativity at work, please share them here! The more we all know about what works well for others on our teams – the better off we’ll be.
Ways to make your team feel more empowered or creative
Field trips to local museums, art exhibits, zoos, and other creativity enhancers. If the team is across country or even in a different city – Skype, Teams or HangOuts are great for this purpose.
Organized team outings that build creativity – such as seminars on creativity training, workshops on creativity techniques, etc.
Less deadlines and more creative opportunities with time to work out ideas within a reasonable time frame without external pressure from upper management or clients.
Invite guest speakers who can inspire creativity among your teams via conversations or presentations about creativity in their lives and careers. So much inspiration comes from just being around those who excel at something we want to learn!
Get out of the office – Park, lunch at a new restaurant, walking dogs, nature hikes. Any activity that gets your team out of their normal routine and opens their creativity.
Team Growth. Teams need time to grow beyond what they already know or are comfortable with to change the status quo. This doesn’t happen overnight, but creativity comes by learning new things!
Team activities outside of work hours help build creativity through common interests such as sports, hobbies, etc.
Encourage fun events such as picnics/potlucks for teams during office hours so creativity can be developed while socializing and building relationships within the company culture.
Creative environment – encourage creativity in any way you can with creativity posters and creativity in the office. Maybe even creativity breaks in the form of a coloring book or Wiki-Stix in your workspace.
Involve creativity when brainstorming company goals and strategies so everyone is on board with what’s expected of them and why they’re doing it. This adds creativity to training new processes, systems, etc., which helps more people become creative out of necessity if this is something they need to learn/accomplish within their role.
VOTE for creativity! Make it a part of your culture from the get-go by encouraging funny, yet relevant pictures that support creativity! These can be posted on a whiteboard or in a prominent location.
Reward creativity! Show that creativity matters by rewarding creativity with creativity awards. Give your team creative trophies to add a playful element of creativity to their work environment.
Encourage the practice of creativity in front of others for new presenters, giving presentations, and engaging in any public speaking opportunities. Whether it’s practice time or participation time – creativity shines when we do these things in front of others and get feedback!
Encourage brainstorming sessions and exercises at lunch with co-workers or even clients/customers during off hours either onsite or remotely through phone/video chats.
These ideas allow creativity to flourish while also exposing your team members to new creativity inspirations, which is always a plus! There are so many more ways to encourage creativity, but these ideas will get you started thinking about creativity in different ways that may be completely counter-intuitive to your team’s current mindset.
Encouraging creativity is always an uphill battle when you’re dealing with people who believe creativity isn’t what they do or creativity doesn’t apply to them, but creativity is ALWAYS intertwined in everything we do so creativity needs to be addressed at some point. Creativity can come in many forms even if the result doesn’t turn out how your team might think of creativity because creativity comes in all shapes and sizes!
So, encourage creativity simply by allowing opportunities for creativity, starting creative conversations around business no matter how irrelevant it might seem to some, and encouraging creative thinking whenever you can! We don’t have a choice about whether our work will require creativity, so let’s embrace creativity today and all throughout our lives to continuously grow!
Some creativity examples to reference when encouraging creativity in your team:
“Creativity is the essence of change, and change agents are almost always seen as suspect. In business circles you can be labeled a “creative,” which often means that creativity is something you do late at night on weekends. Or it’s something that’s forced on us— like creativity crises.” (Wired for Thought)
“The consumer is not only pulling the strings of creativity; he or she has become its driving force.” (How Brands Grow)
One creativity book that I recently read was The Creative Curve by Allen Gannett (good read if anyone wants to read more about creativity). “Creativity is the essence of change, and creativity can be found in everything we do.” Whether you’re a marketing manager or not, creativity should always be encouraged to help your team grow!
Get creative whenever you can! Take new paths and be open minded because there are no rules when it comes to creativity. If anything, having too many rules about creativity. Creativity and curiosity go hand in hand so encourage your team to be curious about everything they do, no matter how mundane it might seem. Curiosity is creativity’s best friend because if someone is curious enough, they will find a creative way to solve the problem at hand. Never stop learning! Never stop experimenting! Never stop pushing boundaries! Never stop being crazy or weird even when people think you’re nuts for thinking outside the box! A “perfect” solution doesn’t exist, so experiment with anything you can to learn more about your industry/field of work because every action counts as an experience which equals knowledge which equals growth.
I want you to understand that fostering creativity isn’t just for creativity’s sake… creativity’s benefits are far-reaching, and growth can benefit everyone and everything within a company culture. Creativity thrives on anything, and everything so experiment with new ideas on creativity growth! Play games! Draw sketches! Take a painting class you always wanted to take! Never stop exploring your creative side because creativity costs nothing but pays dividends exponentially.
Thank you for reading! I hope that you enjoyed it and that it has given you inspiration for creativity growth within your team. Please feel free to add in anything that I may have forgotten or overlooked (although creativity is creativity and creative growth requires creativity so don’t limit yourself). The point is to inspire creativity growth everywhere and anywhere… do what inspires creativity within your company culture!
As marketing evolves and changes, so does the future of marketing.
I should also mention that I am a marketer for small to medium-sized businesses as well as a global organization, thus I need to stay on top of current and future marketing trends and/or technologies as they relate specifically to B2B marketers like myself.
These are the top five marketing trends that I believe will impact B2B marketing moving forward.
Emphasis on marketing automation platforms and use of new technologies like AI, Machine Learning, Voice Search etc. It’s not just about having an email marketing platform but rather how you can optimize your emails for higher open rates through personalization and segmentation.
Content marketing is not going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, it’s become even more important in 2022 and beyond as we see that less people are engaging with ads like they did before (think Facebook Ads for example). This doesn’t mean you can just produce random content but rather think about how your B2B marketing strategy can incorporate content marketing.
Social media is still extremely important and will continue to be although not for the sake of driving traffic or leads but rather to engage with your audience on B2B social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter etc.
Higher focus on video marketing (both live streaming and prerecorded) because people like to see and hear what you have to say instead of just reading words.
The line between marketing and customer service is starting to blur as marketing starts taking on more responsibilities when it comes down to overall brand satisfaction, retention etc. This means that a marketer’s role will start becoming even more important in the B2B world going forward.
There you have it; these are the top marketing trends coming up for B2B marketing in 2022. Stay tuned as I will be writing more about important aspects of marketing to help move organizations forward.
The problem with today’s marketing is that it very rarely touches the recipient where it counts – the heart. Too many marketing programs are features/benefits focused without really showing how a product or service truly impacts someone or an organization.
As marketing continues to be more and more data-driven, marketing professionals need to find ways to insert their own personal experiences into marketing programs.
If you’re struggling with how to do this, empathy might be the secret weapon marketing needs to improve performance.
Empathy is defined as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner” by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary.
The marketing profession demands that marketing professionals’ step into consumer’s lives. We must be able to imagine ourselves in the shoes of our audience. Empathy is not sympathy, but rather it’s being able to see through others’ eyes.
This key skill allows us to craft emotionally compelling messages that make our audience feel like they matter, and we really understand them and their circumstances.
Marketing with empathy is an effective way of developing bonds between us and our audience. Research shows that marketing tactics such as personalization, storytelling, self-relevant advertising, less emphasis on features/benefits, and social responsibility can also help marketers improve performance when they include an emotional trigger in promotional content.
Emotional triggers show consumers how a product or service will create value.
What do you think? Have empathy marketing tactics worked for your organization? Leave a comment below.
One incident that happened this week I’d like to address is that I am leading a product launch from a marketing communications standpoint. The plan is outlined with all of the necessary marketing elements including due dates in accordance to the training of internal sales and distribution and the public launch. This is a launch, like a lot of products, are delayed due to component shortages and delays. No problem, we are methodically moving forward with what we can for now. At this point the public launch is in March 2022. Plenty of time.
So last week a member of senior leadership decided to circumvent my process by going directly to the web team for some Adword ads leading to a specific landing page for a download. Pretty standard stuff, but the process in which it was engaged was out of line. If this senior leadership person had a question, why would they not come directly to me, the leader of the launch? Instead, by engaging the web team directly and “lighting a fire” caused unnecessary stress, anxiety and a shift in their priorities. I immediately reached out to them and defused the situation by providing them the actual timeline for getting things done as well as they final content they would need to complete their tasks.
That was some background on the situation that prompted this post.
Stay in Your Lane, and Dealing with Others Who Don’t
Something I stress is the importance of staying in your lane. Boundaries are there for a reason and more than likely, if you swerve into someone else’s lane, you’re going wind up causing an accident or getting into one out of their own poor judgement. With my Integrative Marketing Fusion model and process, I always value input and engage empowerment throughout every member of the team. I set the stage and guide the work but always gather input from others. Not only do they feel valued for their expertise, but they are given a safe environment to voice their opinions and recommendations. This is extremely important, and when this process is circumvented it not only weakens the project, but it weakens the team and organization.
In this case, I had to step in and explain the process of process. A bit of a project “reset.” Processes are set for a reason.
The other takeaway is how to deal with others who don’t follow the process. I hate to call this out in public, but I have seen an uptick recently in senior-level people who are impatient and not willing to follow the process or show patience. Or perhaps they’re just bored or have read the latest article on XYZ and need to ‘get things done now.’ That’s just something that I have had to learn over time about dealing with people higher up on the org chart. I think of it as process engineering, where process engineering has to process process.
Process is important for getting work done efficiently with quality end results. So set or know the process and know your lane! That’s all for now… back to the Integrative Marketing Fusion lab… the next topic coming soon.
Marketing has changed drastically in the past few years. It’s more important than ever to be on top of your game and incorporate new strategies that will help you stay ahead, but it can feel like there are too many different things happening all at once! Join me as I provide insights into best practices and 5 steps to get your marketing focused and back on track. I also use my Integrative Marketing Fusion model which is a traditional model but with the added elements of evolve, connect, inspire and empowerment for increased value.
To do things right, here are the five steps to take:
Get your brand sorted out
Do a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)
Develop/update your marketing strategy
Program & campaign planning & development
Measure, measure, measure! And adjust as needed
BONUS – My Integrative Marketing Fusion (IMF) model
1. Get your brand sorted out
A brand identity, or how it is identified, is a set of tools or elements used by a company to create a brand image. A brand image is a customer’s perception of the brand consisting of various associations related to it and memories about interacting with it. Brand identity and its elements stem from a company’s mission, brand value proposition, long-term goals, competitive position on the market, and relevance to the values and interests of its target audience. These factors have a foundational nature and in the branding process, describe what a company wants to communicate.
Meanwhile, a brand identity describes how these foundational elements are communicated. The most agreed-upon elements of a brand identity usually include:
A brand name
A tagline or a slogan
Colors and graphic styles
A logo and a wordmark and their variations
A voice and a tone
A style and a typeface
Basically, all communications in any form from your organization. A consistent and repetitive nature of these items maintains a unified and consistent brand overall internal and external touchpoints – your brand checklist.
2. Do a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)
You’ve all heard of this but take the time and map this out. It will help identify key elements that you can leverage. This is also a way to monitor the internal and external marketing environment.
3. Develop/update your marketing strategy
While goals indicate what you want to achieve, a strategy is the plan to meet those goals.
This is where we can map out several integral elements in one, concise document to act as checks and balances against your communications activities. Reviewing your activities against this document will quickly identify if you are on strategy with your mix and tactics.
4. Program & campaign planning & development
This takes the above strategy and goals, with actionable items in place to address how you’re going to meet those goals and support the strategy.
I use an Integrative Marketing Fusion approach, which means that all tactics incorporate consistent messaging, graphics, and tone. This also incorporates evolve, connect, inspire, and empowerment elements for optimal results. More on that later.
For example, from the “integrative” part if you’re unfamiliar with that term – a social media campaign, email campaign, and a print ad are all consistent with the headline, call to action, and imagery.
5. Measure, measure, measure! And adjust as needed
If you don’t measure the performance, how do you know if it’s working or if you should continue doing it?
Measure the success of marketing campaigns and show how well campaigns are tracking toward key performance indicators (KPIs). They are one of the most important elements of any campaign, and without them, you wouldn’t have a clear picture of whether their marketing strategy is a success.
Metrics will also notify you that something needs some adjusting for better results.
What makes sense for your business?
BONUS. My Integrative Marketing Fusion (IMF) model
One important aspect is to review your programs and confirm that they support an IMF approach.
Is creativity and innovation encouraged?
Is change management incorporated throughout?
How do these empower internal and external stakeholders?
Does this allow for leadership?
Do these create brand ambassadors?
If some adjustments need to be made, be sure to address them at both the messaging and program/tactic levels. By doing that will ensure you’re on strategy and following the IMF framework and direction.
Conclusion
In this blog post, we covered several topics in your marketing and a roadmap to get you back on track. Whether you’re selling a digital product online or running a brick-and-mortar business, these principles will work for you. They’ll help you drive more visitors into your marketing funnel and convert casual visits into sales. To do that successfully, marketers must get their marketing house in order and focused prior to planning and implementing tactics. It is also important for marketers to know which factors should be considered before starting the branding process, from positioning themselves on the market through developing their brand identity with consistent messaging across any touchpoints including voice, tone, and visuals – for a more solid foundation.
As always, I welcome your comments here or via my contact form here. Drop me a line with any topic you’re interested in discussing as well as all things marketing-related. I’m looking forward to the discussion.
Be sure to drop your email in the pop-up form on babacita.com for more tips, tricks, and IMF best practices.
Marketing has been evolving for decades. In the old days, marketing was about advertising and telling people what you had to offer. Nowadays, it is about relationships and solving customer problems in a way that brings value to your organization’s brand. If you are looking for more success and greater value than ever before, take these five steps:
Focus on Customer Value
Establish Relationships with Customers
Provide Solutions through Marketing Activities
Deliver Personalized Experiences
Measure Results
Focusing on customer value means that you are putting your customers first. You will be solving their problems and doing what is right for them before thinking about concerns related to the brand or the company. It does not mean giving something away for free, but rather finding creative ways of helping people without taking anything in return. The better you can help people, the more they will trust you and gravitate to your products and services.
Creating marketing relationships doesn’t mean that you must become someone’s best friend or wait for them to come ask questions about your products. Instead, it means finding ways of building stronger connections with people by sharing helpful information through blog posts or social media updates regularly.
When customers know that you are there to help them solve their problems, they will start looking for solutions from your organization.
Establishing solutions through marketing activities means providing solutions rather than just trying to tell people about the benefits of buying products or subscribing to services. You can do this by hosting classes and offering free trial periods so that customers have every opportunity to try things out before they buy. You can also take advantage of email marketing campaigns and social media solutions that allow you to interact with people who are interested in learning more about your solutions but have not yet committed to a purchase.
Delivering personalized experiences means going the extra mile for customers by doing whatever you can do meet their needs. It is not enough to just offer solutions; you must go beyond their expectations. The more people can rely on your solutions, the more they will feel confident in your organization’s ability to meet all their needs over time.
Measuring results means analyzing what marketing solutions are working and which ones aren’t so that you know when it makes sense to change things up. If you are not getting the results that you want, there is a good chance that it has something to do with your solutions or marketing activities. You should never be afraid of making changes if necessary; otherwise, you will end up stuck in the same place for much longer than expected.
So, what can you do to get on the path of marketing success? Focus on customer value and establish relationships with customers. Provide solutions through marketing activities while delivering personalized experiences that are tailored to your customer’s needs. Measure results so you know which strategies work best for your business and then continue to iterate until your organization achieves its goals. If this sounds like a lot of hard work, we have some great resources that will help guide you in the right direction!
Sign up today for our newsletter where we offer insightful blog posts about marketing trends as well as helpful tips from marketing experts who understand how modern consumers think, feel, and behave when it comes time to purchase products or services online using our Integrative Marketing Fusion model.
Being in marketing or leadership can sometimes be challenging and difficult. When things are a mess, and you have no idea where to start. I’m writing a book to make life easier for marketers and business leaders.
I think it came about when I was mentoring on my branding process, and I realized that I have all this great information from 25+ years marketing experience. I have a ton of content, both written down and, in my head, so why not get all of this down into a concise and to-the-point document. I base my thinking and work on an integrative marketing model, but I also bring in several change disciplines around evolve, connect, and inspire. That’s my secret sauce and something I’ve coined Integrative Marketing Fusion. More on that as the book progresses.
Originally, I was thinking a practical workbook but then quickly it jumped up in page numbers. As of now I’m at 52 pages with at least that amount to go. One thing I want this to be is something that is useful now. It has some theory in it but basically, it’s a down and dirty how-to guide with templates that can be downloaded and used by anyone in any industry at any level – students, leadership, people interested in learning marketing, and marketing professionals.
The current outline (as of today) is:
Introduction
Marketing Defined
Integrative Marketing Fusion (IMF)
A Brand
Building a Personal Brand
Marketing Strategy
Marketing Communications Program Management
Marketing Functions
Resources and Tools
Each of these major sections have several sub-sections.
I’m posting parts, pieces, and downloads on my Patreon page as I go through this initial drafting phase if you’d like to check that out.
I just wanted to get you all a quick update on what I’ve been up to lately and will be for a while. Stay tuned for more updates.
As I kept rolling with my guidebook it has grown immensely. I made some great progress this past weekend and am currently just over 40 pages with new additions and ideas coming every day. Not sure where this will end up but just as I tell graphic designers, let the content dictate the design, not the other way around.
I’m really going in-depth on not only Integrated Marketing but my “special sauce” philosophies, tactics, and ready-to-use templates.
Anyway, just a brief update and if inclined, you can support this project via Patreon.
