Before Marketing

Before Marketing

Over the weekend I was assessing the number of articles I send out by category. My writing topics include: brand strategy, culture strategy, leadership, work-life intersection, and marketing.

In assessing my blogs and article themes, marketing was the least. If I thought it would help you do better marketing, I’d write more about it.

The reality is that marketing is a downstream action of other things you do that primes you for better marketing. These other elements are causes that create greater marketing effect.

Here’s the continuum stream that leads to better marketing, as I see it.

  • You know your why in business—it’s operating from and for a purposeful core.
  • Your team is united and ignited in your common purpose and vision at the heart of your business. This action is fusing your culture to your brand, and vice versa.
  • You know your position in the marketplace. You know how you stand against competitors. You know how your products and services are differentiated, valuable, and relevant to your customer’s world.
  • You have packaged your unique and valuable offering so the right people are drawn to it. And, you have orchestrated your brand story-telling approach. You’ve shaped a brand-story that story easy to tell and retell.
  • You and your team has the confidence to stand on all the above. To stand on this it requires leadership that has self-awareness, trust, and deeply held beliefs.

Marketing is the meaningful act of sharing your crystalized brand story. It allows your customers to retell that story. 

The best of marketing happens when you’ve cleared the upstream things so the downstream actions have a powerful current. If you haven’t done your upstream work, your downstream marketing will suffer like a clogged faucet.

Marketing done well is vividly sharing your purpose, your cause, in a way where others are inspired to join in.

After all, there’s nothing more powerful than a united group of souls ignited in a common cause with love at the core.

 

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