A Marketing Lesson: Think Before You Jump

When starting out in marketing, or even if you have been working in a marketing role for years, it can be easy to get caught up in trends, ironic given my last article, but I wanted to share one key lesson I have learned.

It can be easy to follow trends, when more and more businesses are starting podcasts it can be easy to get excited and start your own, and although it can be a great way to market your business, there is one more important step to think about first before jumping into any marketing channel or activity. In the words of Simon Sinek, it’s the WHY.

Starting with your why

Start with why we need to do this, and from this create a base plan outlining a few key points, in order to understand if it is worth doing and could bring value to your audience.

A basic plan could cover some of the following, but you can add more detail or adjust as you see fit.

1. Start with a brief overview of what marketing activity you are planning to do
2. Ask why you are doing this?
3. Briefly describe and outline your target audience
4. Ask what the purpose of this marketing activity is
5. Briefly write down your core message

Once you know who it is for, what you are doing, and why people should care about it, you can then start looking at the different channels and activities that could complement this particular message/campaign, and arguably most importantly of all, if it is even worth doing.

If you have a clear overview, goal, and message it will be much easier to create all the relevant content to sit alongside it and decide on what channels it can be showcased on.

Once you know this particular activity or campaign is worth doing, a few additional points you can add to expand your initial plan could be:

1. Expand on your target audience, this could be creating personas.
2. For any larger marketing campaign, look at creating a content calendar. Once you have your main message, and reason for doing it, it will be much easier to create more relevant content, from a range of blog posts to advertisements that tie into your overall message and goal.
3. Assign tasks to relevant members of your team and set deadlines.
4. Create a separate area to monitor and review your activities and campaigns to see if they have met your goals and if they don’t ask yourself why this could be?

Although it is always great to stay up to date with trends in your industry and career, take your time before diving right in, and focus on what you’re doing, why you are doing it, and what value it will bring to your audience.