Is Your 2020 Marketing Plan Radical Enough?

Have you noticed?

Most marketers play safe.

As a result, most marketing plans are predictable, uncreative and uninspired.

The longer I work in the entrepreneurial marketing world, the more I think that, if it’s legendary, it’s radical.

So I’d like to propose some ways of thinking, about creating, reviewing and updating marketing plans.

So here are three questions:

1. Will this plan enable us to design and dominate a giant category that matters?

I think that’s the job of the CEO & CMO.

And frankly, that’s the job of the marketing organization, the job of the board, and the entire executive team.

What we learned in writing my first book Play Bigger is that, at least in the tech space, one company, earns 2/3rds of the economics in the entire category. 76% to be exact.

And so, as you are working on plans, I think a powerful lens to use is the question, “will this plan and the sub-components of it, enable us to design and dominate a giant market category?”

2) Do we have a radical way to evangelize our category POV?

Legendary leaders market the category NOT the brand.

We live in the world of marketing where all we hear is: brand, brand, brand and the thing that many people don’t get is: categories make brands not the other way around.

Categories are about customers and brands are about companies.

So legendary marketers, market the category with a provocative point of view.

Things to think about along these lines:

Are you getting your CEO out there? I believe The E in CEO stands for the evangelist, and your CEO needs to be a missionary.

She needs to be out there, evangelizing.

Is she speaking? On podcasts? Does she have a high profile in the industry?

Is she out in the world delivering the point of view? Can you put her on TV?

Ask, “are we developing a big footprint for our CEO?” There’s no more powerful evangelist in your company, whether it’s a small business, the owner herself, or a major publicly-traded company, the CEO must be your #1 evangelist.

If you’re the CEO, at least 1/3 of your job is to be publicly facing.

Other questions to consider:

– What’s your owned media strategy? (I’m amazed more companies don’t understand that they have to become media companies and create their own content)

– What high-impact PR are you doing?

– When you get PR results, are you multiplying it?

– Does your website communicate a provocative POV?

– Are you constantly testing how to execute your POV?

– Do you experiment on new headlines, new offers, new copy? On new and different platforms?

The bottom line is: you want to get people in the category talking about you.

You want to drive word of mouth. You know you are winning when prospects and customers start parroting back your point of view.

And most importantly, as you evangelize your category POV, you want to create a sense of inevitability with your target customers.

This perception will help make your new or different way of doing things become the defacto standard.

3) What’s a radical way to generate leads and drive revenue?

Legendary CEOs and CMOs design the category for the mid-long term and drive revenue in the “ASAP, right now” term.

Questions to consider:

– Are you dominating digitally?

– Are you making a radical offer to gain attention?

– Are you doing what my friend John Bielenberg, the legendary designer calls, “thinking wrong”?

As you look at any of your marketing executions, particularly in the area of driving revenue, ask yourself: what does everybody do here?

What’s the opposite of that? That’s thinking wrong and a great technique to start thinking in non-traditional ways.

Most legendary marketing is radical in some way. And most marketing plans are not.

So I encourage you, be different.

Get radical with your 2020 marketing,

 

P.S.
For more, you might love this episode.