5 NEW MARKETING HABITS FOR 2023.
What if just five new principles could change the way you approach your marketing? Whatever you want to call them, five new attitudes to adopt or five rules against which to acid-test your strategic and creative ideas. What if, just what if, they changed everything?
Earlier this week, we considered how we could sum up what we think are the top five approaches most businesses could adopt quickly, resulting in the highest impact. These are the low-hanging fruits and the mindset shifts that can make or break the effectiveness of your marketing and what it means. They're simple; they're pretty straightforward, but the impact they will have is enormous.
Sometimes, you struggle to see the wood from the trees in the trenches. We're here to give you five new marketing habits for 2023 which might just change the game. Write them down, apply them, keep coming back to them for a short while, and see what happens.
Here they are.
1. REACT FASTER.
And by faster, we mean more agility.
Look, bouncing off the walls and changing with the tide whenever the wind blows is not a good idea. But also, it's equally nonsensical to ignore clear evidence in front of you that what you're doing needs to be corrected and adapted or pivoted accordingly. So, let's talk about being more fluid in your approach to your strategy.
Your marketing strategy is a thought-through, well-considered, deliberate and bottomed-out plan. It's a set of pre-planned activities, a rulebook, and a carved-out path to success. You create it with intention and then deliver. First, you say it; then, you do it without deviation. Simple?
Well, in theory. But the fact is, shit happens.
If you've ever delivered actual strategic work, you know that a curveball always hits, positive or negative. Something outside your control hits you, bang, smack out of nowhere, or perhaps an unexpected opportunity presents itself, the competitive landscape changes, or maybe, your strategy wasn't right, to begin with, and that's okay. It isn't about that.
It's about carving out a culture where you can be reactive and mouldable, seize opportunities as they come along, and adapt your strategy when something isn't quite right, allowing your plan to emerge and get stronger over time. As a small business, you have an advantage that more prominent brands could only dream of, the ability to constantly refine, test, turn the wheel, and refine some more. So don’t throw that opportunity by the wayside.
Where does agility also help? Well, it helps to cut out unnecessary sign-off processes to catch onto trends, act quickly, and be out there when the time is right. It helps to be first when you need to be and mitigate the risk of being too late to the party. It helps to catch opportunities when they're new and fresh rather than when they're yesterday's news, and it helps to seize attention when the iron strikes hot, which we're getting to now.
2. GO FOR ATTENTION, AND EYEBALLS.
You'll often hear marketers talk about purpose, vision, mission, values, meaningfulness, and other buzzwords that theoretically mean the same thing. Yes, it's essential to understand what you do and don't stand for, what you're going after, what you're not, who you are talking to, and who you're not. That's all part of a strategy.
But, and it's a big but, most of this is all self-serving tripe, and the consumer doesn't care more often than not.
So, instead of focusing on creating meaningful, purposeful, mission-driven messaging, why not try going after attention?
Because in a world where everyone is screaming about everything, and the noise pumping out from brands and businesses is so saturated from the consumers' perspective, just cutting through and getting a word in is a massively underrated achievement. However, you have to have your finger on the pulse and keep sight of this simple rule: Get your brand front of mind, amongst as many people as often as possible, and you will see results. Better yet, if you can do it positively and engage with your audience meaningfully, even better. Still, it's about making noise in front of as many people as possible, as often as possible.
Brewdog does this incredibly effectively, and we'll say that even though most of the marketing world hates Brewdog.
Their number one strategy is getting all eyeballs on them; that much is clear, and we call this brand salience. Yes, they're a bottomless bucket of meaningless advertising, guerilla stunts, empty messaging and PR 'scandals', but this is their strategy, and it's very tight, well-considered, and (sorry), it works.
They're louder than any other brewer and reignite awareness of their brand so often and consistently that how could they not be absolutely front of mind? As a result, they're garnering attention like rocket fuel and ultimately building a brand, which is pretty damn impressive.
Take a leaf out of Brewdogs book, and try an exercise where you forget about purpose, meaning and all that tripe. Instead, focus on how you can get as many eyeballs on you as possible.
3. GET CLOSE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS.
We spoke a little about this in last week's blog, but this is a game-changing attitude to adopt, especially when you're a small business and have the opportunity to get so close and personal with your customers.
In our experience, there are two pivotal mistakes that many small businesses make day in and day out. Firstly, they don't talk to their customers. We can't stress how invaluable, business-changing, and eye-opening just a few intimate and frank discussions with your customers can be. Let's be clear; it doesn't have to be a panel discussion, a sit-down interview, or an email survey; they just aren't as effective. What we're talking about is just striking up a conversation with them. If you have a business challenge or a question you're sitting on, trust me, your customers have the answers, and they're dying to tell you about them.
Put yourself in places where your ideal customer or target audience is, and find out from them what you want to know.
So, what's the second biggest mistake? A lot of small businesses act as dictators of their brands. They guard it at all costs and love to tell their customers what their brand is, not allowing the brand to move, flow, evolve or adapt: there is a better way to do it, so try this. Let your customers tell you what your brand is, get obsessive about a constant feedback loop, and let your brand go where your customers want it to go, and this can only come from talking to them regularly and intently.
4. DIVERSIFY YOUR CHANNELS
You can't and shouldn't rely on only one channel to distribute your messaging or campaigns, and the most common offender here is Facebook ads. You can read more here about why focusing on short-term activations or ROI-driven tactics alone is a strategic error, but we're talking about something else here. Instead, the point today is that you must diversify your channels and select 4, 5, or even six channels to distribute your message.
This is called multi-channel integration.
There's a reason why the big brands don't only rely on one channel, and it's because they know it isn't the most effective. There are indeed streams of research indicating that the more channels, the more impact, and it's worth keeping in the back pocket for small businesses. So please look at how you can spread across multiple channels, and they don't have to be television, out-of-home, or radio. Many small companies opt for more digital-led channels, which is why you often hear marketers speak loud and proud about content, social media, video and founder-led stories because they're levers that are accessible and affordable no matter what your size or stage.
There is always a way, a creative angle, or an exciting hook to grab that attention and seize momentum across a diverse range of channels, whether they be more traditional forms of media, owned channels, social platforms, or a combination. Make use of what you have, and be bold in your approach, and you can find a way to spread more evenly and layer on that all too valuable attention.
5. JUST LOOSEN UP
Finally, have some fun, and loosen up a bit. Yes, you should take your marketing seriously and lay the groundwork with some thorough and effective diagnosis and discovery to create an intentional and robust strategy. But don't take yourself or your brand too seriously, especially in the early days; by that, I mean the first few years at least. These are the days to cement yourself in the hearts and minds of consumers and establish a loyal base of superfans, the people who connect with you, agree with you, and stand for what you stand for.
That's important, and you must understand that you must stand for something. So have an opinion, and be bold in your approach. Because if you're too shy and scared to try, do, or say anything because you don't want to risk ruffling any feathers or offending anyone, then you'll have a business that sparks indifference at the very best, and that's the most dangerous game to play of all. That leads to bland, entirely forgettable, and vanilla marketing that lands cold at the doorstep of your people and makes no impact whatsoever on anyone.
You can sit in the middle land, offending nobody and connecting with nobody.
Still, it's a fast route to an easily forgettable proposition with no loyal fans and no opposition, and that isn't a brand. You have to make deliberate choices, decide who you are and what you're out to say, and say it boldly, bravely and unapologetically.
That's the only real purpose a brand must have.
So, there are five new marketing habits for 2023. What would you add?
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