actionable marketing guide

Dear ,

As May starts, you’ve got a lot of celebrations to fill your promotional, content and social media calendars. There’s Mother’s Day, Graduation and Memorial Day.

For diehard knitters like me, there’s the annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. It’s the largest event of its kind. It attracts farmers and fiber artists from the east coast and beyond.

If you’re sailing enthusiast like my husband, it’s the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Race. The world's fastest, most expensive boats will be racing in New York Harbor for the first time in 96 years. (BTW—Sailing in New York City like driving a car or riding a bicycle is tough. There’s a lot of traffic!!!) 

Recently a number of new subscribers have asked, “Where do I start with my company’s marketing?” They often add, “I don’t have the right background.”

They’re overwhelmed. I get it. (To help you, here’s a list of 72 Marketing Definitions.)

Regardless whether you’ve just gotten out of school, taken a new job, or brought your firm’s marketing in-house, starting your firm’s marketing is a daunting task.

Being calm helps. So take a deep breath.

Any given marketing plan and tactics can yield a range of results. Yours depend on how well you execute them.

Realize that the market will continue to evolve. There’s always a curve ball that’ll set you back. Based on my experience the worst problems are issues beyond your control.

Here are 5 steps to get your marketing started.

1. Examining your firm’s goals.

Without knowing your business’s goals, you’re lost.  

It’s as simple as:

We want to achieve ________ by selling ________  to ________  customers.

Note: Fill in the blanks with your own goals, goods and target groups.

In today’s market, it’s better if your business contributes to the greater good. For example, my favorite New York City yarn store helps the community by creating a welcoming environment for people to get together. There’s weekly men’s group and a monthly book club.

2. Know your audience.

Think beyond your customers. Include their influencers and endusers. Also, consider prospects and social media followers. Go broader to include thought leaders, media and government. Don’t forget about past customers who’ve either outgrown or stopped using your product. You’ll want to know why.

Analyze the financials to better understand your prospects, customers and housefile.

• What proportion of your customers have purchased more than once?
• How many have stopped after 1 purchase?
• Do they only buy from special promotions?
• Do they buy special products?
• Are your customers segmented?

3. Check marketing plans, the current and past year at a minimum.

Among the questions to ask are:

• What are the regular promotions?
• What are the on-going communications? Also check other customer touchpoints. 
• What is being done for content marketing, social media and search?
• What advertising plans are in place?
• Is mobile included in every element of the marketing?
• What related marketing is needed for sales, customer service, human resources and key executives?
• Who is responsible for the website and blog (if appropriate).
• Are there other key groups that need information? Consider journalists, government, etc.

Next associate the past year’s plans with results to determine which customers, products and campaigns work and which don’t.

• Are there promotions that need to be eliminated?  Bear in mind that promotions return lower results the more they’re used.
• Are there customers that need to be unmarketed?
• Are there unprofitable products?
  Are there missing opportunities?

4. Get feedback from internal resources regarding marketing.

Bear in mind, that your employees know the good and bad about your company. They know what your prospects and customers are saying.

If you’re new, take advantage of this opportunity to meet as many different players within your company as possible. Get their ideas regarding what works and what doesn’t.

• What are their specific needs?
• What are their suggestions?

If you’ve just made an important change such as bringing marketing in-house, use this opportunity to get input. Also, find out if you can get support.

5. Look at your competitors and close substitutes.

Think beyond the firms doing the same thing in the same channel. It’s easy to get blindsided by a new entrant leveraging a strength you don’t realize can be applied to your business.

Assess close substitutes as seen by your customers. What else would they buy with those funds? It may not be the same product.

These 5 points should give you a good picture of the challenges you face. But also, it provides a basis from which to expand and enhance your plans.

Now is a good time to do this. Act soon while you’ve got time to layout a plan for the remainder of 2016.

Based on your experience, what else would you add to this list and why?

BTW, if you’d like to improve your social media marketing and didn’t attend Social Media Marketing World 2016, you still have the opportunity to get a virtual pass.

​​​​​​​Last week, I interviewed Laura Vanderkam. Her new book, I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time, is a feminist followup to her best-selling, 168 Hours.

The Actionable Marketing Guide randomly picked one new subscriber who'll get a copy of I Know How She Does It. And that person is: George Burman, Congratulations, George!

​​​​​​​P.S: If you enjoy reading this email newsletter, perhaps there’s a friend or colleague that you’d like to recommend us to? Please send them this link to our email signup page. http://heidicohen.com/subscribe-to-actionable-marketing-newsletter/

How To Drink From The Social Media Fire Hose

5 Step Business Social Media Marketing Plan

“I feel like I’m drinking from the social media fire hose.” 

Do you feel this way?

You’re NOT alone.

I heard this sentiment over and over from social media managers at Social Media Marketing World 2016. (BTW, I hear this refrain a lot.) Continue reading

Favorite Content Curation Tips To Wow Your Readers

6 Content Experts Share Their Favorite Content Curation Tip

Add these favorite content curation tips from 6 content experts to your content marketing mix.

Like sharing a bottle of fine wine with friends, content curation enhances your relationships.

Whether you’re a veteran content marketer or a content newbie, you need content curation to support your content marketing plans and improve your business results. Continue reading

The Devil’s Data Dictionary – Book Interview

Heidi Cohen Interviews Jim Sterne

New book: The Devil’s Data Dictionary – Making Fun of Data

Q: What was the inspiration for The Devil’s Data Dictionary?

SOOOOO serious all the time! What’s up with that? Data and statistics is dry, dry, dry. I’ve done my best to inject some humor and music into the mix yet everything you read is soooo serious.

But data people are actually fun. And intelligent. And that’s a wonderful combination. They’re great people to hang out with. So I set out to make them smile.

Continue reading

Launch Your Own Content marketing Program

Content is a nexus between the sales and marketing functions in most organizations.

Quality content that is easy for sales to find and use is a critical success factor in sales interactions. The dynamics of the content process are not difficult to understand, but the content creation, deployment, usage and feedback loop is often a point of friction between sales and marketing.

Since content is so often the key to successful sales interactions, it merits constant attention and improvement efforts. Demand Metric and Showpad together conducted research to understand the sales-marketing relationship around content, and how it affects sales interactions.

Get It Now!

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• Actionable Marketing Guide was cited as one of the top blogs for entrepreneurs by Appfluence’s Productivity Blog, The Best Blogs For Entrepreneurs. It’s a useful post even if you’re not an entrepreneur since it uses an interesting presentation format that you can adapt to your blog.
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• Heidi Cohen was interviewed by Post Beyond’s Hannah Kovacs. She asked some unusual content marketing questions. Check it out.