Marketing leaders in the commercial A&D and building communities have more marketing tools to utilize than ever before. From podcasts to press releases, social media to SEO, the ways to promote your brand’s story are plentiful. With the advent of a new year, we offer 5 resolutions marketing pros can keep top-of-mind when considering all the tools available these days – and how to best utilize them in a strategic manner.
1. Always Have the Courage to Identify the Business Goal First – Seems obvious, right? But as marketers, I’m sure we’ve been asked more times than we care to admit to just “go.” No more. Let’s resolve that we will have the courage to ask leadership what the business goals are first before we dive right into tactics. Without understanding the business goals first, any well-designed plan is doomed. Let’s resolve to identify all business goals first and then get those in writing. Once we do this, strategies, tactics and KPIs can align to support those goals
2. Be Realistic with Budgets & Timelines – If you’ve ever done a renovation project at your house, you probably know two things: One, It takes twice as long as you anticipated. And two, it always costs more than you originally budgeted. The same can be said of complex and multi-level marketing campaigns. But we’re not suggesting you double your budget or double your timeline. The fact is this: human nature makes us believe we can accomplish tasks faster and cheaper than what is reality. So, for 2023, let’s resolve to have realistic conversations about budgets and timelines.
3. Take the Time to Develop Key Messages – Launching a new product or service to the marketplace is easy. It’s another thing to get that product or service to stand out and get people talking about it. Let’s resolve to create messages that fully articulate how a product helps a customer. Let’s take the time to hone those messages so they resonate and stick with customers. And, let’s be sure those messages are so well crafted they can be used across all marketing efforts consistently over time to drive greater brand recognition. Powerful words, phrases and stories stay with us much longer over time than any ad campaign ever could.
4. Bring More Customers and SMEs to the Planning Table – Let’s resolve to bring more people to the table – especially customers and subject matter experts – for early-stage planning. There is too much at stake with a new product launch not to have the voice of the customer included. Let’s also resolve to bring in the voice of your company’s subject matter experts. Oftentimes, SMEs have critical insights that can make a big difference when it comes to brand or product positioning and differentiation.
5. Prioritize Stakeholder Communication – Let’s resolve to prioritize better and enhanced communication with all stakeholders involved in a large-scale marketing endeavor. By sharing information, adding critical voices, being intentional, transparent and consistent with your communication, marketing leaders can drive greater team unity, help set expectations and establish what success looks like.
If you’re an A&D marketing leader tackling new goals and projects this year, we hope these resolutions help.
If we can be of assistance, please feel free to reach out. Or, check out our free resources, including our 5-Step Strategic Plan Process.
