Introduction to Business Playdate Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Business Playdate, a podcast hosted by Lindsay White and Betsy Moorehead, two internet strangers turned business besties.
Hosts' Backgrounds and Family Life
00:00:09
Speaker
We're two marketing professionals of living across the country, raising our kiddos while running our own individual businesses. We built these businesses based on our experiences working in corporate management roles with the end goal to be able to show up for our families first. And we did it. We're so happy you're here with us. Now let's get into this week's episode.
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello. Hello. Welcome back. So good to see you this morning. You too. How are you? I'm cold. I am healing from, I am now on, now I'm on week four of bronchitis. Oh my gosh. It has been a time over here. It's cold in Georgia. Like what is your Florida heart doing right now?
00:00:52
Speaker
freaking out. I actually texted my mom and my brother's girlfriend the other day and I was like, hey, if anyone hasn't bought Christmas gifts for my kids yet, they desperately need cold weather clothing, like, oh my gosh, leaves, pants, whatever. It's 28 degrees this morning and they don't have clothing for it.
00:01:10
Speaker
Oh my gosh. My brother's girlfriend was so sweet that she ordered a bunch of stuff on Old Navy and she's like, I'm just having it delivered to your house. It sounds like you need it right now.
Cold Weather Discussions
00:01:19
Speaker
Old Navy always has like the best kids clothing for that kind of stuff and on sale. Yes. And it's like cheap. It's easy. It's perfect play clothes. Like no one's clothes. My kids do not need expensive clothes.
00:01:31
Speaker
I think we were just talking about this before we started recording. Mine don't either. Mine don't either. They're disposable. Yes. Also speaking of cold, I think I read something or heard something on a meme or something that this is going to be like the coldest winter we've had in a long time, like worldwide. My eyes just got so big. I know. I have not cut out for this.
00:01:55
Speaker
I actually love the cooler weather. I just don't like when it's cold and rainy, which is kind of how it's been here in the Houston area for a few days now. I'm all about cold and sunny or a little bit of cloud coverage, but not with the rain. Yeah, I'm with you. I am with you.
Marketing Strategy vs. Implementation
00:02:16
Speaker
Well, let's talk about today's episode. Let's do.
00:02:20
Speaker
So today we are talking about marketing strategy versus marketing implementation. We are. And you know, we had to like throw one more marketing episode in for the year. Yeah. We are coming down. I mean, what there's, everyone listens to this. There's going to be like one more episode, two more episodes of the year. Yeah. Like two or so, something like that. Crazy. Yeah. So we are recording this on December 1st. We are, the end of the year is going to be here quick.
00:02:45
Speaker
Happy Elf on a Shelf Day, everybody. Yes. How did yours go this morning?
Elf on the Shelf Marketing Success
00:02:50
Speaker
Oh my god. So we have a landing from upstairs that overlooks the living room. And we sleep with our bedroom door open downstairs. And I could hear her going, Mommy, Mommy, I see Po. I literally see her. And I was like, OK, at like 6 AM. I was like, OK.
00:03:11
Speaker
You're like, okay, I'm not ready for this yet. I haven't had coffee. And also like we have a gate on the stairs upstairs because if we didn't, homegirl would be downstairs all night long. And so we lock her up there. So she couldn't come downstairs. To actually go see Po.
00:03:29
Speaker
My son is not convinced the elf is real. He's like, that's a toy. It's not real. And I'm like, oh gosh. So we're going to have to spend the next month trying to convince him this is a real elf. Show him the little movies on Netflix if he'll sit and watch them. It's the Elf on the Shelf movies. They're really cute. It talks about the whole story. We watched them this morning. OK. That's a good idea. I didn't know they had that. Yeah. There was a quick right turn from marketing to the Elf on the Shelf. Yeah. Great marketing, though. They have great marketing. They do. They do.
00:03:58
Speaker
Oh my gosh. I know some people are like, hey, the elf on the shelf, a friend of mine was like, I'm never going to do that with my kid. I was like, girl, you do you like, there was no way I could get around it. Not, not doing it, but I wasn't going to do it. And then I could see like, I could see some of like the magic and the benefits of it. I was like, we're going to do it. Yeah. Helps with that behavior too. Sometimes. Exactly. Bart is watching. Bart. I love that.
Understanding Marketing Strategy
00:04:23
Speaker
Today, we are going to be talking about marketing strategy and implementation. Really, I'm breaking this into a couple of different segments today. First, we're going to talk about defining what marketing strategy and marketing implementation are. Then we're going to go into navigating some common challenges as a marketing service provider. After that, if we have time,
00:04:45
Speaker
we will be talking more about what your offer can look like or what it should look like to get what you want out of it and alleviate some of these challenges as a marketing service provider. Yes. And you guys, if you are listening to this, get out a pen and paper because this is Lindsay's bread and bread and butter. She is so, so good at talking about this. I learned so much from her whenever we talk about this kind of stuff.
00:05:09
Speaker
And also, what a great episode to drop now for you to start planning for next year on what your offers could look like or what any changes could look like with your current clients. So yes, get out your pen and paper. Yeah, I am pumped. I wish that I wasn't half a brain with this whole sickness situation, but I'm going to do the best I can, guys.
00:05:27
Speaker
So, first we're going to define marketing strategy and marketing implementation. So, according to the Oxford dictionary, you know I love a good Oxford dictionary definition. A marketing strategy is a plan of action designed to promote and sell a product or service.
00:05:44
Speaker
So in other words, it aligns the business's goals with its marketing. And so you want to make sure that those marketing goals are actually aligned with your business's goals. And that's really the first step. And that's where a lot of people go wrong with their marketing efforts is they're not thinking about their business goals at all. They're kind of looking at the vanity of marketing. Yeah, you have to have a foundation to like know what to move forward with.
00:06:07
Speaker
Exactly. And that's really what a marketing strategy is. So you're aligning those business goals with the marketing goals so that you can set the foundation for all marketing activities. So it'll outline what the business wants to achieve, and then it'll align those marketing objectives. What if somebody's like, oh, I don't need a marketing strategy?
00:06:30
Speaker
Love that question. I mean, if you had a potential client who you're trying to pitch a marketing strategy to and they're telling you they don't need one, I would just start going down the list of like, okay, well, tell me what is your current landscape.
Key Elements of a Marketing Strategy
00:06:44
Speaker
So I'm about to go through all of the things that a marketing strategy should include. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. This is not very deep
00:06:52
Speaker
at all of what would be in your marketing strategy. But to give you guys a taste, if you will, but I would just start going down the list and be like, okay, so tell me, give me your SWOT analysis. Tell me about that.
00:07:07
Speaker
feel so strongly that every business needs to have a marketing strategy plan and especially if they're going to be outsourcing their marketing. If they're even having a conversation with you, that means that they want to outsource their marketing and you really can't outsource your marketing unless you have all of these pieces of the puzzle spit out on paper for someone to look at and read and hold and look back on to see what is success to the business.
00:07:32
Speaker
Well, how are they even going to know what the business is if there's no strategy in place to understand the depth of it all? Exactly. So in your marketing strategy, it should include things like an analysis of the current landscape, like a SWOT analysis. You should be looking at the competitors and what their competitors are doing in the landscape.
00:07:53
Speaker
You should be looking at if they have a defined unique value proposition and if they don't figure out what their unique value proposition is. You should be defining their target audience and or their buyer personas. We should be looking at the different marketing programs that do need to be focused on.
00:08:12
Speaker
those different marketing channels, the priority marketing channels, maybe different campaigns or social media piece of the puzzle, email piece of the puzzle, what that looks like. And then an account of the business's distinctive brand positioning and brand voice. That's super important. So important. So important. And later we'll talk about the things that I look at when I'm talking to a potential client, but that's one of the first things is actually
00:08:39
Speaker
making sure that they have a distinctive brand position and brand voice. When I've put together marketing strategies for past clients, walking through things like a SWOT analysis or coming up with the unique value proposition,
00:09:00
Speaker
Is it best to have separate meetings with people across the company to figure all these things out? Is that what you've experienced? I think it depends on the business. If you're working with
00:09:17
Speaker
I know listeners to this podcast work with a lot of different types of businesses. If I'm working with someone who's really just a thought leader type of client and they're a one-man team and maybe they have a VA or there's not a huge ecosystem there, I would probably just talk to the business owner.
00:09:33
Speaker
Now, if it's a larger company, like recently we did a marketing strategy plan for a company that had six different huge departments of the business to business lines, I spoke with the CEO, I spoke with the diversity and inclusion officer, I spoke with every president of every single
00:09:50
Speaker
business line. I spoke with some of them had like a marketing liaison, if you will, underneath the business line. I spoke with them to really just make sure that our brand positioning was what we were hearing was the same across the board because you want to make sure that
00:10:06
Speaker
what one person says might not be what's actually being communicated throughout the entire company. Yeah, because the marketing department is probably who you're working with or the equivalent to, but the marketing department isn't the brand of the company, the company or the organization. The business has its own brand and everyone who works with it or
00:10:31
Speaker
just a solo owner, they embody that and you have to identify that. You have to be able to tease it out. Yeah, you have to be able to tease it out. Oftentimes too, one of the marketing objectives that we had identified in this marketing strategy plan was there was a lack of communication from an internal perspective from the top level down to all of the employees of what their unique value proposition is, what their brand
00:10:59
Speaker
actually stands for, what their mission and vision is. Communicating that down from the top down is an important piece of that marketing puzzle because at the end of the day, if you have a company of 500 employees, they're going to be the best advocates for you.
Marketing Strategy vs. Tactics
00:11:15
Speaker
Yeah. I think there's a confusion sometimes on the client side when they hear us talk about
00:11:27
Speaker
you need a marketing strategy and it's like, okay, well I have a social media plan, you know, or I have an email plan and it's like, okay, that's wonderful. That's a piece of your strategy. That's a tactical part. It's a marketing part, right? Of your, um, of your strategy. But like the difference between like business goals and marketing goals and the tactics that you use, like all of that encompasses along with all of these other things we've identified all, they all encompass this holistic view of,
00:11:57
Speaker
the company's marketing strategy. Yeah, definitely. And I think that the marketing strategy is that foundation. It's that foundational point that everyone needs, whether it's in their brain or it's on paper. We need to get it on paper, especially if you're going to be working with any other human being.
00:12:14
Speaker
that then goes into the marketing implementation side. I mean, after the marketing strategy, you should be creating this marketing implementation plan of like, okay, what do we need to do now? How are we going to reach these marketing goals? And that's honestly separate from a marketing strategy. In your marketing strategy plan, you can definitely do a high level roadmap or action plan of what to do next.
00:12:35
Speaker
you could also create a whole separate project around just creating this marketing implementation plan. A definition of a marketing implementation is really taking action on the strategies, taking action on different projects or tasks, and creating that roadmap of what was set forth to align the marketing goals with the business goals.
Creating a Marketing Implementation Plan
00:12:55
Speaker
So a couple of, that's just like, it goes right into it. Cause that's what I was just like asking, like, you know, this is the part of the implementation is separate from the strategy. And I think sometimes the implementation is like, Oh, me doing the work. And now this is like the marketing implementation. Like this is the action plan that we're going to use moving forward. This is tactical pieces of the puzzle that are going to.
00:13:20
Speaker
make sure that the marketing strategy is being used accurately and being put into place where it needs to be to reach those goals. Yes, definitely. And I mean, you could have a company-wide mission and vision and that's great, but maybe you have different business lines and they need to have kind of their own foundational level. And that might be the first step of your implementation plan is like, okay, let's define each business unit's unique value proposition because it's going to be different than the whole firm.
00:13:46
Speaker
So definitely different things to think about. A couple of keys to effective implementation are a clear understanding of your target audience. Can't do much without knowing who they are. A clear unique value proposition, effective communication channels, a well-defined brand identity, and a plan for measuring KPIs and adjusting the strategy as needed. So all of these pieces roll up to that marketing strategy plan.
00:14:15
Speaker
Mm-hmm. You cannot have effective implementation until you have those pieces. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Presenting Strategy to Clients
00:14:21
Speaker
So all of those should have been established in that marketing strategy phase. And when you have presented these to clients, are you presenting them? Well, I think you just said that. You can make them two different projects, but do you normally present them together in one? Because that's kind of what I've done.
00:14:36
Speaker
all the things that we talked about that aren't the marketing strategy. They've been maybe the bulk of the first part of a presentation. And then the implementation side of things will be at the end. Yeah. And I think when you're thinking about common challenges as a marketing service provider, I think that's the biggest one is client expectations and offer alignment. And so what I notice a lot is a lot of clients and prospective clients
00:15:06
Speaker
They may or may not know they need a marketing strategy, but they're expecting an implementation plan. Yes. Okay. So with that expectation, if you are their marketing service provider, it's like you have to show up for what they want, but give them what they need. Okay. Yeah. So I operate under that mindset where I know they want an implementation plan.
00:15:29
Speaker
They're talking to me like they are only getting an implementation plan. And I'm sitting here saying, hey, we're creating a marketing strategy plan. And with that marketing strategy plan, we will create a roadmap or an implementation plan. Look at you reverse psychologying these people. You know, I mean.
00:15:45
Speaker
If you want to get paid, you got to figure out what the client wants. Also, knowing this stuff is why people are outsourcing marketing because internally, and I'm not speaking for every company, but I know internally, sometimes they're just having people that are doing the implementation and there's not necessarily somebody who is sitting down.
00:16:04
Speaker
and coming up with a marketing strategy if one doesn't already exist or if it does. Maybe it needs to be tailored. It needs to be tailored or refreshed or it's not working. Shopping this out to somebody like you or me or somebody who works in this space that can solely focus on one project at a time like this is really beneficial for any company of any stage of
00:16:31
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think too, a lot of businesses will be like, my marketing's not working. I mean, we have a social media manager. We have a social plan. We have an email plan. It's just not working. And that's when a marketing strategist can come in and actually look at what they're doing and kind of audit that. But say, you know, the reason it's probably not working is that your business goals aren't aligned with your marketing goals. Yeah. It's so easy to get caught up in the, as a business owner, it's so easy to get caught up in the weeds of
00:17:00
Speaker
listening to these business development podcasts or reading a book and being like, oh my gosh, the next best marketing strategy that's going to bring in all of my new clients is launching a podcast.
Target Audience and Client Education
00:17:11
Speaker
And it's like, well, who is your target audience? Are they even listening to podcasts? Yeah.
00:17:16
Speaker
Like they might not be. Um, so, and same with social media. I mean, are they on Twitter? Are they on LinkedIn? Are they on Facebook? Are they on Instagram? Like where are they spending their time? And thinking about all of that is so paramount to making sure your implementation actually is effective. Can you talk more and maybe this is, um, kind of can go with like the common challenges. Cause I know I've experienced this, but like the difference between your business goals and your marketing goals and like,
00:17:46
Speaker
is some examples of those? Yeah. So a business goal is top level. Generally, I'm sitting with revenue.
00:17:57
Speaker
debuting a new product line. Maybe you're in e-commerce and you want to focus on party supplies and you want to now have a party planning side of your business. That's a business goal. That's opening up an entire new product line. Now, from a marketing goal perspective, great. We know the business goal is to debut a party planning line.
00:18:21
Speaker
From a marketing objective, we need to create brand awareness around this. We need to create brand awareness that there's no a service, not just an e-commerce business, but there's a service of this business as well. And so that would be one of your marketing objectives is creating brand awareness around that new product line.
00:18:38
Speaker
Yeah. And your business goals sometimes can have like, they're, they're very specific. It's called something. I can't think of the acronym right now. Um, but if they're, they have like a specific, you can have a number to them, an end date in mind, you know, smart, a smart goal. There you go. Smart goal. And I can never remember what all of them stand for, but I can't either. They're smart goals. Yeah. And you should definitely, and the same goes for marketing goals. Like you most likely want to.
00:19:06
Speaker
have a smart goal as your marketing goal. Yeah. So I mean, educating your clients is just key. I mean, knowing what you're bringing to the table, educating them every step through the way and like guiding them through the whole process. Yes, absolutely. And I think communication is key. I also think making sure your offer is dialed in because it's all going to start with that discovery call of the first conversation that you have with that prospective client to make sure that expectations are set on
00:19:35
Speaker
what's the best route forward for them. Yeah. And your agency is structured in a certain way too, right? Like for, and the plantation versus strategy work. Yeah. So we have a very specific offer ecosystem that we kind of operate within. And so I'm pulling up my offer ecosystem map. Um, it's a very cool visual. I love it. It is a very cool visual. One of these days I'll have to massage it so we can put it on the internet.
00:20:04
Speaker
So the first thing that I make sure all clients have is a branded vision. So if they do not have a brand and vision, so that's that brand positioning, that's that brand messaging. If they don't have that, including the brand visuals like logo, fonts, colors, if they don't have that,
00:20:22
Speaker
Then that's the first thing we do with them. Pause and write this down brand positioning and your brand visuals, mission statement, vision statement, all of that. They're, they're all your brand. It's not just your colors and your fonts. I think we can talk about that till we're blue in the face. And once people understand it, it all is your brand. Yes. Like brand is actually way more than just your colors and your logos and your fonts. You need to know.
00:20:51
Speaker
these key pillar pieces of the business. So that's where we start. So if you don't have a brand and vision, we start there. Then the second tier of work that you can and will do with us is the marketing strategy portion. So after we get that brand and vision in place, you can then roll into a marketing strategy project. So that would include
00:21:15
Speaker
A couple different pieces of the puzzle. We do marketing strategy planning, we do organizational planning, we do resource planning, and we also do content strategy plans. Any of those four areas would fall under that marketing strategy. You have to have a marketing strategy plan.
00:21:35
Speaker
and a content strategy plan to even work with us on implementation because it's just not going to be any good. Yeah. And two, this is your intensive first model too, right? Yes. You're doing these. It goes back to that episode that we did on
00:21:52
Speaker
project work versus retainer work. These are big projects, the brand positioning, the shopping all of that out, the marketing strategy, all of that is their projects. People aren't really necessarily hiring you on a retainer for those things. Right. No, they're a one-time project. And as we talked, I mean, you can go back to that episode. I don't remember what episode it is. I'll pull it out. Yeah. We'll tag it in the show notes. But you can go back to that episode and listen.
00:22:16
Speaker
We both feel super strongly about it until it's a first because not only is it setting you up for success when you do get to the implementation, but it's also allowing you to try out your client before you roll into
Preventing Scope Creep with Strategy
00:22:28
Speaker
working with them. Maybe it's not a good fit for either of you. That's something you'll see a lot of red flags when you're working on this project with them. It's also a great way to eliminate scope creep.
00:22:39
Speaker
So you're identifying that implementation plan, right? You can be identifying that implementation plan during the marketing strategy phase. And you know exactly what's going to be worked on. You know what that's going to look like, what your content cycle looks like. And so it's a lot easier to eliminate scope creep and provide pricing for the proper projects that will be included in that implementation. Yeah. And we definitely dive into that topic a lot more. It's episode six, pros and cons of retainer versus project work.
00:23:06
Speaker
We dive into that topic a lot. So go back and listen to episode six too, if you're interested in that. We can talk about in the show notes too. So after the marketing strategy portion, and again, that kind of encompasses a couple of different things or it can, depending on what the company needs, then we would go into implementation, which for my agency, we refer to as creative services and execution. So under creative services and execution, you're going to see all of those things like
00:23:36
Speaker
Podcast management, blogging, website, paid social, social media management, YouTube management, paid media releases, pillar content development, like all of these different creative execution pieces. That's when you can finally do that because as we mentioned earlier, in order to have effective implementation, you have to have that clear understanding of target audiences, the value proposition, the communications channels. You have to have, among other things, you have to have all of these things identified first.
00:24:06
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. No, I love that. And like, um, the, the need for the second portion, the implementation, like you were saying, like clients know that they need the implementation help. They need someone to come in and do it, or they need to hire somebody internally to do it. But having a solid foundation.
00:24:26
Speaker
is key to make sure that that part moves smoothly. Definitely, definitely. And again, when you're thinking about what your offer looks like with these potential clients, you should be thinking about how aware your client is of what they need. Are they
00:24:41
Speaker
coming to you for implementation help or are they coming to you for marketing strategy help? And trying to identify that before you even jump on a call with them is going to be important because you want to make sure that you are talking to them about what they want, but again, being able to deliver them what they need so that there's success on either side.
00:25:00
Speaker
Yeah, I've run into a couple of times too where like, um, we've put together a marketing strategy plan and then like the owner of the business will come back and he has like totally changed his mind on what the business goals are going to be for the year, you know, a quarter or two in. And so sometimes like having that solid plan and pivoting your implementation a little bit, as long as you have like a solid
00:25:24
Speaker
foundation of, okay, well, let's look back at what our core values are, our value proposition. Like what do we bring to the table? Okay, here's how we can pivot this implementation plan to reach that goal. You don't have to like start from scratch when somebody's business goal or idea of what is most important changes, especially when it's a smaller company or, you know, something that might maybe like the economy
00:25:49
Speaker
uh, impacts or something like that, like, um, or God forbid, like, you know, another like pandemic comes along. I mean, you have to learn how to pivot and how to shift, but having that solid foundation will only help you to do that. Like in a, so you're not scrambling if something has to be like the foundation. So if you have that foundation, it's strong, you can easily change it. You can tweak it, you know, things change. You want to implement something new, totally great. Like that's an easy switch.
00:26:16
Speaker
And one thing I also like to do is implement a quarterly strategy review. Let's just look at it, make sure it's all accurate still. It's a quick project. I mean, another thing as a service provider, so us as our own business owners, you want to make sure that you are creating your own offer ecosystem
00:26:36
Speaker
that's going to lead to consistent growth and revenue streams. Maybe you don't do implementation. Totally great. I love that for you.
Quarterly Reviews and Revenue Streams
00:26:45
Speaker
Create quarterly strategy reviews, and that's an extra revenue driver for you where you're creating recurring income from a one-time project client, and you're helping them tweak and evaluate their KPIs and adjusting their strategy as needed and making sure that everything's still hitting the mark. Yeah.
00:27:04
Speaker
I love that. That's something that I have had on my offer list for a while that I'm going to be hitting hard in 24. 24 is a big year for all of us. 24. I can't believe that's crazy. I know.
00:27:18
Speaker
Well, I love this. I think this is such great information and hopefully everyone listening, this gets you fired up to be thinking about what the new year could look like for you and how to talk to your clients about these things and the necessity of both, but definitely the foundation of having a strategy comes first. Yes. I love that. Yes. Anything tangible tip, tangible takeaway?
00:27:45
Speaker
You go, I'm always the burst at this. Take a look at your current offers and brainstorm slash outline some tailored offers to
00:27:56
Speaker
kind of walk through this consistent growth and revenue stream idea, right? Start with a project that can create some additional revenue streams, decide if you want to do implementation or not, what that could possibly look like for you, but take your current offer ecosystem, create an offer ecosystem map for yourself and evaluate if that's working or not, and then kind of go into brainstorming. I love that. I love that so much. I don't have one.
00:28:22
Speaker
That was it. That was great. I love it. That's the tangible tip. That's the tangible tip for the episode, you guys. Well, thank you. That was wonderful, Lindsay. And if you haven't, you know what we're going to say.
00:28:36
Speaker
Shoot us a review. Go leave us a review. We would love that. We have big goals in 24. Yeah. And shameless plug, if you don't know how to do a marketing strategy plan and you want to get into marketing strategy, come follow me on Instagram.
Conclusion and Teasers for Next Episode
00:28:50
Speaker
Yes. I have a wonderful program that will walk you through exactly how to create a marketing strategy plan for your clients. She does. I've taken the program. It's incredible. So shameless plug there.
00:29:04
Speaker
Well, what a great episode today. This was so much fun. Yes, it was. And we wanted to hit you hard at the end of the year with some good marketing tips, business tips. And I think our next episode might be around our 2024 goals for ourselves. So that'll be a fun listen. It will. It will be so much fun. Yes. All right. Have a good day. Bye, guys.