An Unconventional Guide to Marketing

It’s Friday, so things are getting a little crazy up in here. Today, we’re taking off our marketing caps and shaking things up with an unconventional guide to marketing. Forget everything you’ve ever learned about marketing for the next 10 minutes. (Not to worry; you’ll pick up your marketing knowledge again at the end of the blog.) Read through our unconventional guide to marketing and then let us know what you think of our advice. Are we crazy? Or are we onto something, a new form of “marketing gold”? You’ll have to decide for yourself…

An Unconventional Guide to Marketing

Stop thinking like a marketer…

…and think like your clients instead. Think like a consumer! You’ll find that you’re a better marketer because of it. You’ll be able to create content that resonates with your target audience. Thus, you’ll be forming better, stronger connections with the people interested in your brand (or your client’s brand).

Drop the ROI talk

ROI is not the end all, be all of your marketing strategy. Stop thinking in terms of dollars and cents and start thinking in terms of branding, user experience and customer satisfaction. There’s no monetary scale for these (at least, not one that can be definitively tracked), but they play a key role in the success of your company. When you’re focused on building your brand and keeping clients – whether new to your company or long-time fans – happy, you’ll have a thriving business. It’s as simple as that.

Don’t spend time on a social strategy

Organic reach is way, way down. The way organic reach is going, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was non-existent in the next handful of years. That’s why you shouldn’t be spending much (if any) time on social strategy. Instead, focus on advertising campaigns. Focus especially on Facebook, as marketers are seeing tremendous success on the platform. Facebook advertising is a good way for small businesses to extend their budget and make a little go a long way. We talked all about Facebook marketing and how to start running ads on the social network in a blog post recently – check it out here for more help on the subject.

Focus less on imagery

Yeah, yeah: imagery is still very important. But, if you haven’t started playing around with video, it’s time you started. Video isn’t just a trend anymore; it’s the way design is going. It’s the preferred format of content for a growing group of people. Get comfortable with it now.

Lower the quality of your work

Not everything that comes out of your marketing needs to be at the professional level. Sometimes, lower-quality but heartfelt marketing makes a stronger impact. Plus, “done is better than perfect.” Lower the quality of your work and get your projects out on time, folks! That’s true for blog posts, video marketing,  social media calendars and, well, nearly everything in marketing.

We hope this unconventional guide to marketing has started your cogs a’turning. Of course, we’re not advocating for throwing the marketing rule book out the window. Those best practices are tried and true for a reason. High quality work is important, especially when you’re producing a piece for a client. Without ROI, how will you know what’s working? We completely, totally agree. We’re just suggesting that you step back sometimes. Look at your most common marketing practices and think about the Why. Why are you following those practices? Should they be improved? Perhaps a little unconventionality is just what your company needs.