No gimmicks

One of the biggest challenges in marketing heard by businesses across almost all industries is the constant search for their next idea — the one that’s going to hook and reel in new customers. It’s the idea that constantly eludes them yet, if they find it, will lead to more revenues, long-term relationships and evergreen sales.

Unfortunately, this way of thinking is largely mythology. And, if you haven’t figured out the big idea of your product or service — what’s intrinsically compelling about it — you have bigger problems than coming up with the latest gimmick.

Searching for a single elusive idea is like looking through the wrong end of a pair of binoculars. It depends on that which is neither familiar, nor within reach. It calls upon disconnected tactics over a focused and cohesive strategy. It manifests itself in the form of one-off and lackluster attempts that yield underwhelming results.

Here are three steps to moving away from this myopic approach and toward a more strategic way of finding better tactics.

Focus first on the bigger challenge.

Take your attention off the symptoms of the moment — a sales slump, for example. Instead, ask these questions: What is the nature of the challenge or problem we face? Is there a larger issue we’re not facing that is causing our current predicament?

A short-term bump in sales is going to be hard to bring about without a larger understanding of what is causing the symptom of a temporary sales slump. Is it due to the seasonality in your business, an increase in competition, or a downturn in the market or economy that’s causing customers to spend fewer dollars?

Understand the causal factors contributing to the dynamic that has brought about your present challenge. By understanding the true nature of the problem, you will effectively prepare yourself to devise a better and more accurate approach. This new approach can be used to mitigate or overcome the forces that are causing a symptom, such as a short-term dip in unit sales.

Develop a strategic plan.

Yes, develop a plan instead of brainstorming a single idea. Will it take longer and require more effort? Most likely, yes. Will it also solve your issue more effectively than a short-term tactic? Definitely.

Strategy is a form of problem solving. Good strategy clearly identifies the problem and then formulates a larger and binding approach to addressing the problem head on. Good strategy demands choice — choosing a path to the exclusion of others, whereby all plans can be coordinated and work together to overcome a problem (not just a symptom). Symptoms can sometimes be relieved through temporary tactics, but rarely will they go away for any length of time or with any great effectiveness without a strategy to deal with their source.

A good strategic plan integrates:

Goals — the end for the effort, usually one or two, at most.

Strategy — the binding approach that will inform all other plans and tactics

Plans — individual recipes, each with coordinated activities in accordance with your strategy, that will serve your goal;

Objectives — observable, measurable and time-bound declarations of how you know you are successfully fulfilling your plans; sometimes called key performance indicators (KPIs);

Tactics — the details and activities that will be undertaken to fulfill plans and reach your goals.

The role of any strategic plan is that it serves as a blueprint for a thoughtful, coherent and logical pathway for solving any complex challenge.

Rely upon integrated tactics

Once you have a thoughtful strategic marketing plan in place, you will be shocked at how much more easily the tactics present themselves. A thoughtful strategy serves to focus everyone around a centralized, agreed-upon approach. Since strategy forces choice, it eliminates the need to consider disparate (and sometimes desperate) ideas.

What you once thought of as innovative and otherworldly ideas will become almost foregone conclusions when a strategy is present. New possibilities present themselves more readily when you and your team are provided a guided pathway upon which to engage creative thought and energy. Because such ideas must fall within a guided strategic pathway they become, by default, integrated tactics.

If you think bigger to tackle larger problems, thoughtfully plan your marketing approach, and tactically integrate ideas around a strategy, you will move away from the myth of, “We need a new idea” and find yourself in the wonderful reality of, “We have a strategic approach to overcoming our marketing challenges.”

Andy is founder of Slipher Marketing and author of The Big How: Where Strategy Meets Success. TheBigHow.com