JC Marketing195I LOVE marketing—especially in the field of advertising and branding! And as much as I LOVE doing it … I LOVE talking about it.

Marketers like our JC Marketing Communications team enjoy the verbal & mental jousting that leads to impassioned, spirited debates. The result—Our client WINS. Imagine that? We fight hard NOT to be right, but for the sake of our client’s mission—which, is focused on their return on investment (ROI). They put out “good money” and NEED to get back a major reward.

In this business of marketing & advertising … you have to have a voracious appetite for learning … because it’s through the “learning you can do the churning.” You cannot provide innovation and achieve your client’s desired outcomes without putting in the work. Personally, I find it fascinating “why people make the choices they make. Particularly when it comes to purchasing decisions.

I love learning what is considered a “clean & classy layout” to one client in an industry … but that exact same layout is “boring or ordinary” to another client in that same industry. I love understanding why a brochure layout appears “busy” to one client … and yet that same layout speaks “WOW” to another client from the same industry. It’s rewarding when learning the tipping point or pain points of one demographic … or what’s pleasurable (emotionally) to another demographic.”

I love breaking marketing down—the anatomy of it … that fierce process of drilling down deep … right to it’s molecular strands (DNA). And then further dissecting that. What a rush it is searching for the key sub-atomic particles that can influence my audience to take the action my client and I desire. It’s exciting because the target market is always “predictably irrational.” Marketing is an ever challenging process where you have to be ready to test and refine infinitely … nurturing, evolving and yet, remember to be calculated in your process. A blend of science and emotion! Our philosophy opens more doors to bigger clients simply because we have gone deeper than most marketing & advertising agencies typically go.

By now you know why I like to break down marketing architecturally. I’m sure it’s because in many ways I’m very analytical—without being anal. I’ve always enjoyed subjects like math and science. I enjoy structure & logic … and yet, what makes me different is I adore the chaos within the marketing malestrom. The spiderwebbing tapestry versus the straight weave. Exactly what does that mean? Out of all that chaos & bedlam of information, it allows me to birth insanely great creativity! That’s right. Despite being a very analytical type, I embrace spontaneity. Thrive on it. My business partner Mike G says, “JC loves the moment when he’s put in a position of discomfort. A place where he identifies “controlled spontaneity.” And G’s right … dare I say it? It’s the orgasm of the profession … the reward for the effort of marketing & decision-making done well.

Marketing & branding—as I have practiced it for nearly 40 years—is NOT for the faint of heart. If you don’t embrace change… or just want to RIGHT all the time, forget it. And there’s so many different factors that can get introduced into your equation as you are in the middle of solving the issue. That’s why there’s a razor thin line between success and failure. Measure it … track it … it’s what JC Marketing stands for. As “marketing rockstars” … it’s the only way we know if the fans are diggin’ our tune(s)! And best part is—you have to accomplish your mission under extremely insane deadlines. What a rush flying without a net!

And as much as I know about marketing & branding—or what my pastor calls “my behavioral science thing”—for me it is like a ‘smoke ring’ of whatever. An ever changing nebula of organic energy and fickleism that no one can ever seem to nail down. For folks like you looking to solve a specific problem, no wonder why you all are confused and jaded by the marketing experts. You want the magic wand … the magic bullet. There isn’t one. Marketing is a roll your sleeves up career. And that’s another reason why the marketing profession is fun for me.

One thing I wish were different. Our “creative field” suffers from the interpretive opinion culture. Although there’s not many professions that are excluded. I can think of one though. Stand-up comedy. Any LIVE comedy act instantly knows from the audience reaction when he/she’s is cooking with gas … or about to be skewered. By the audience that is. But I digress …

This leads me to share the information you came here for. A few colleagues were recently discussing the critical marketing best practices.

We grant you insider view/access:

What is a critical marketing best practice that is often overlooked?

  • A critical best practice I see most often overlooked is continuing to maintain contact and offer value to customers post-sale. Maintaining that relationship in a meaningful and systematic way allows you to open the door to a plethora of referrals—and importantly … repeated sales. Some companies who do this very well might offer in-person training courses for subjects like web development and digital marketing. And once you’ve enrolled in a course, they become dedicated to your success until well after you’ve finished. They do this by offering free workshops, networking events, job listings … to find a job using your newfound skills.

He went on to say:

  • At the end of the day tactics and execution can all be optimized fairly quickly—systems and efficient workflows can be put in place. But without an effective strategy, everything falls short. To me, everything comes back to content. Content is the foundation of any company. Content is the documentation of validating the reason why the company is in business in the first place. When a company doesn’t have content (or good content) … it really makes me wonder how far they think they will be able to get. Especially by seducing the new age of educated buyers. Copywriting and ads are great, but “magic” words may quickly lose value from overuse (by other marketers). And also lose value as potential customers begin seeking more substantial value. Even though recent surveys keep saying that more money is being poured into content, I still don’t believe companies are spending enough time on building a bulletproof content strategy that’s backed by data. Marketers have to get their hands dirty—read more about their customers—get in touch with their customers, and read a lot about their industry & product. Simply—many novices and marketers overlook the importance of understanding all of the pain points of their customers … and turning that into genuine content.

A fellow colleague added:

  • I agree, but want to add this unique angle. Keep your content at the potential clients level—FREE from industry jargon. As marketers put out more and more content, we typically ascend into some level of technicality that is very fun to write about … or discuss with our peers, but lost on a potential customer. Take for instance “marketing automation”… Unless you are very 101 with your content, it can potentially be completely lost on your intended audience.

Another colleague went on to say:

  • Great point. So True. You have to practice removing the jargon. When you do a lot of research its easy to fall into the same trap that professors fall into—“believing in new words,” rather than focusing on the benefits behind those new insights. You can’t alienate. I feel that many marketers, as they focus more and more on pushing out content, the pressure is to make more words—that makes sense because long form content is good—but when that long form means adding words that don’t add value then it misses the point. This is our solution for this problem, keeps you grounded (keeps content at the potential clients level). The Solution: Make content HYPER tailored to your potential customers—which means NO MORE general marketing advice. Stay clear of marketing 101 content. Make content tailored to their industry, their customers. This worked for me when I took my consulting practice to a higher level because I focused on a specific vertical. It gave me industry expertise in the higher education market, alternative education market. I had early problems and had to turn down potential deals. BUT it helped me become an expert in an industry, and take on more clients within that industry. I leveraged that super tailored content with workshops, where attendees accomplished stuff. I got deals because they knew that my team could do it better. And for the people who didn’t hire my team, we are still in good relations. Yes—they basically got free consulting—but they were never going to hire us anyway. The better information you give out (as in information that is “professional/ hired work” level)—the higher quality the lead …When I would ask them why they wanted us, I frequently heard something like “well, if you are giving us this for FREE—and it works well—then what even better results can we expect when we hire you.”

Another spirited colleague chimed in …

  • I just had to say this … Writing content is NOT the goal.
    Getting readers to do the thing that you are writing about is the goal. Think of it like personal training. Everybody knows how to get fit—its science and common knowledge. But personal training is a rapidly growing industry and its because it gets people to do the work that they already know they should have been doing. If you treat your content like this, your early traction might be lower (because its segmented and targeted to a specific vertical) BUT the amount of flexibility it gives you as collateral for outreach is AMAZING.Its like: I noticed you are interested in doing “A,” so I did “A” for you a little bit—and here it is—and I hope it helps you get “A” done more easily.Things happen:1. You build a portfolio of SHOWABLE work (whatever it is—you can showcase it.)1. You look like you genuinely care.If they don’t hire you, its fine. Because that vertical is ripe with dozens and dozens of competitors that you can present that work to. Over time, you keep doing that and you will have built a portfolio that is insanely “valuable” that pro-bono or not—companies are going to find you.

And lastly …

A lot of content I put out for our agency is about high level web development—but I throw in pop culture references, allusions, and other relatable elements to take the technical edge off of otherwise boring industry jargon. We all have content about branding and marketing—why not give it some original flair and diversify the library available to our personas so they don’t get lost.

For everyone who persevered this article, I hope you’ll be blessed by this extremely valuable advice from these gurus.

Insightful? Yes. Throughout their discussion, these pros respectfully disagreed at times, and yet built upon each others idea. It’s okay to disagree.

A good friend once told me: “If you are in a relationship with someone and you both agree on everything—one of you is unnecessary.” 

It makes total sense to me, but what about our target market? That’s marketing …

Be blessed always!