Share this post:
Marketing innovation doesn’t grow on trees, but you still have to cultivate it.
As we enter the busiest retail months of the year, it’s easy to get bogged down by daily tasks and forget about your marketing strategy. Don’t get caught in the trap! Now is the best time to review your marketing, while your metrics are being put to the test.
How active do you want your marketing to be? Do you want to be the one who reacts to changes in the market, or the one who leads the charge? If you’re set on staying in the lead, keep reading to find 4 ways to keep your marketing fresh:
1. Review your strategy every day
No, I’m not insinuating that you have to revamp your branding strategy on a daily basis. But when you arrive at the office and plan the events for the day, ask yourself: why? How do your daily tasks contribute toward your company’s growth? In what way? And most importantly, how do I make it better? The best way to improve is by turning flaws into opportunities.
Take your daily marketing metrics and match them against your overall strategy. Are they aligned? How do you improve?
If your key marketing metric is “clicks to website” it’s easy to get consumed by the daily A/B tests that maximize your reach and clickthrough rate. But when you’re comparing results across campaigns, you also have to consider results across platforms.
We’re always testing new platforms and have found success through various campaigns, such as Instagram social media marketing. Using the same metrics (cost per click, reach) we not only succeeded in launching a viable driver of traffic but we expanded our potential reach to people we normally couldn’t. Find out more.
2. Get a Fresh Perspective
I’m not big fan of throwing the word “innovation” everywhere because it’s an overused marketing term. I’m a bigger fan of keeping marketing fresh and exciting…and in a way, that’s what innovation is!
Gaining a fresh perspective means opening your mind to new ideas. Watch videos, view webinars, enlist the help of marketing professionals, or simply take the time to map out the “big picture” goal of your company. A fresh perspective is planned, not stumbled upon.
We like to find fresh perspective by observing the businesses in our lovely city of Vancouver. You can see marketing in action everywhere you go. In the bus, on the streets, past buildings and through tunnels – there is inspiration everywhere you look. You just have to notice it.
3. Save time by enlisting experience
A typical person has anywhere between 60,000-70,000 thoughts in a day. How many of those thoughts are related to improving your business? How many of those thoughts are actionable items? Don’t waste time chasing after projects that ultimate don’t work.
Innovation doesn’t mean that you have to be the first to make something work. Apple did not create the first Mp3 player, but what they did was create the first iPod. The Mp3 player on its own was a great tool, but it’s the fresh perspective that Apple had which innovated the user-friendly, “hip and cool” iPod.
Follow the footsteps of those that know best. Breathe your own life into things that succeed. Innovation comes in two parts: ideas and execution. If you have a brilliant concept, we turn those ideas into actionable marketing strategy. That’s how you put #ThinkFresh into action!
4. Put what you read into action
There’s a vast wealth of knowledge available online for nearly any tool, process, or strategy. But it’s not enough to read about best practices, it’s about how you integrate what you read into your business. We’ve all heard the quote “a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” But another interpretation of that same quote would be “planning the entire journey of a thousand miles means you’ll never take the first step.”
You’re open to new ideas. You have a lot of good advice floating in your head. Now take those ideas, write them down, formulate a strategy, and do it.
Marketing should be Fresh
Marketing innovation comes from an open mind, one that identifies flaws and needs and turns them into opportunities. With some creative thinking, rigorous testing and constant review of results, you too can stay on top of the innovation in your industry.
Innovation isn't a lightbulb above your head. It's a seed that you water, cultivate and grow. Daily. Share on XTo recap, here are the four steps to integrate fresh marketing in your life:
- Review your strategy every day to find flaws and opportunities
- Keep an open mind by watching how other people find success
- Enlist professional experience to turn your strategy into action
- Stop planning. Get out there. Do it!
Do you have anything you would add to our list? Drop a comment on our Facebook page if you had any “aha!” moments while reading this post! We hope you found some insight into how to keep your marketing fresh. Want to put your ideas into action? Contact us at our marketing agency in downtown Vancouver! We always have chocolate.