The 2 Steps to Creating a Great Marketing Strategy
Have you ever taken a StrengthsFinder, Birkman, or Myers-Briggs test?
Many times we are shocked at how accurate they can be, and realize they are a valuable tool for aligning our professional goals.
I routinely fall in the midpoint of personality/psychological tests, for example, for StrengthsFinder 2.0 I tested almost exactly in the center of introvert and extrovert.
My personality has set the stage for me to do well in marketing because in my experience there are two major steps to creating a great marketing strategy: 1) analytics and 2) creativity, i.e. combining distinct personality types.
The first step is analytical and takes initial research and goal setting to a new level. Note: there is broad discovery research to set goals for yourself or company (see here). Then there is more exact research which identifies what marketing techniques work to meet the established goal.
Once you have a goal, for example building a digital presence for yourself or your company, then research becomes more focused. This is the time to research content marketing, inbound techniques, digital influencers, and more. Some people excel in this type of analytical research while others do not spend enough time narrowing what to look for. Here is when time must be sacrificed for finding data that leads to a finalized marketing strategy.
The second step to a great marketing strategy is creativity. Once your research is done you can identify best practices, yet at the same time, there has to be the decision to be slightly different to stand out. I have told many people, you have to know the rules of the game in order to bend them for your success.
Conducting research is learning the rules of the game while being creative is bending the rules to benefit you or your company.
Below is a simple infographic that illustrates these two ideas.
The two keys to remember are: 1) take time to be analytical and find valuable data to guide your strategy. 2) Be creative and different than your competitors for a fresh marketing campaign. When you do those two things your marketing strategy will blend analytics with innovative ideas and push you to your goals.
