StrategyCast

“ Hitting a pause button and being willing to invest a little bit more time in taking a good look at all aspects…buys off in dividends right now.” Listen & Learn: Why it was so important to understand where the brand had come from before setting out to do a refresh. The six-phased strategic marketing process RMG and Avocet took together to refresh the brand. Coming to a consensus and defining...

“No executive wakes up and says, ‘I’m going to create siloes within the organization,’ but it happens.” Listen & Learn: The top five things companies do that lead to misalignment between sales and marketing. The importance of understanding your audience from a psychological perspective. Why marketing can’t do it all and products don’t sell themselves. The two biggest mistakes marketing and sal...

“ Finding new ways to be relevant is what we all have to do, especially in this climate.” Listen & Learn: The eight simple steps to incorporating humor into your marketing strategies. Why some brands are afraid to use humor in their marketing. Where humor works well, and where it doesn’t. How all brands, not matter the industry or the product, can incorporate humor into its marketing strategie...

“There isn’t a brand out there whose customers don’t like to smile.” Listen & Learn: The eight simple steps to incorporating humor into your marketing strategies. Why some brands are afraid to use humor in their marketing. Where humor works well, and where it doesn’t. How all brands, not matter the industry or the product, can incorporate humor into its marketing strategies. Connecting to your...

“ You can’t expect that the expected is going to do what you need it to do.” Listen & Learn: How thinking divergently fosters growth. Tying bold creative strategies to growth. How to become your clients’ creative agent. Why curiosity is the most important element of all creative strategies. What defines the creative mindset. Why big ideas don’t have to have big budget. Tips for embracing a cre...

“Every organization has an employee value proposition; you just need to be sure it’s the right one.” Listen & Learn: Why social media needs to speak to all your stakeholders. Storytelling as a way to get your customers and potential customers excited about your brand. Attracting the right customers vs. the number of customers. Defining your employee value proposition. Creating a culture and en...

“If you ask someone about their company’s mission, you just see blank stares.”   Listen & Learn: The building blocks for creating a Vivid Vision for your brand. The difference between a mission, a set of goals, company values, and a vision. How a Vivid Vision creates a culture and impacts retention. The questions you should ask to articulate your Vivid Vision. The importance of leadership when...

“Placing yourself in the story you’re trying to tell is where marketers hit gold.”   Listen & Learn: The four tenets of strategic storytelling. The importance of people-first storytelling. The power of narrative. Why it’s never about what you make or why you make it. It’s not about selling a story; it’s about telling a story. Creating a compelling narrative for your brand from the beginning Mi...

“ Direct marketing does not work without brand awareness and brand awareness is driven by creative.”   Listen & Learn: Tips for measuring your creative’s ROI. The tools you need to measure the impact of your creative. The importance of having a “creative minimum standard.” Why it’s important to not rely on creative for creative’s sake. How great creative makes the customer feel smart   Cody Gi...

“People are looking for trustworthy content to guide their decision making. ”   Listen & Learn: Where marketers are getting wrong, and where they are getting it right when it comes to leveraging the power of SEO, AI, and content. How to think about content with AI in mind. How marketers can benefit from a more “human-sounding” approach to content and SEO marketing. Use data to find out what is...

“ Make sure to properly test the local market before you go full scale. ”   Listen & Learn: The elements of performance marketing. The difference in focus between traditional marketing and performance marketing. Navigating GDPR when marketing internationally. The international markets that are easiest to work with. The importance of developing a proper customer journey to keep your audience en...

“When you’re out there shouting, and everyone else is shouting, is it a surprise that no one can hear?”   Listen & Learn: The four steps to the “flywheel” funnel. All about consensus creation. The one framework all marketers need to understand. How to boost demand-gen and topline revenue. Why marketers need to define the problem rather than talk about their product or service. Understanding th...

“ The reason why companies fail is NOT because of the product or the technology. It’s because they fail to understand that…they have to engineer their marketing.”   Listen & Learn: The essence of category design. Why some brands make the mistake of leading with parity. The role of marketing in demand generation. Understanding the buyer’s journey. How the buyer’s journey impacts the marketing f...

“ Conversational marketing allows you to have conversations with your customers along the whole journey.”   Listen & Learn: The advances in AI that are helping brands connect to their customers. The Don’ts and Dos of conversational marketing. How to get chat marketing wins out of the gate. The benefits of the flexibility of conversational and chat marketing. Tips for having powerful conversati...

“ New knowledge is always built on something we already know and then extending it.”   Listen & Learn: How thought leadership is based on new knowledge. The importance of not publishing a book before it’s ready. Building credibility through thought leadership. Why content is critical to help grow your brand through a thought leadership strategy. The pros and cons of working with a publisher vs...

“Don’t do PR in a silo.” Listen & Learn: How PR and earned media strategies should be part of your integrated marketing approach. The credibility of third-party endorsement. Why you need to incorporate influencers into your PR strategy. Milestone releases. What would make an editor or producer ignore a release? Why it’s important to be humble and to take ego out of your news releases.   Mickie...

“I am a bigger fan of fear than most people.”    Listen & Learn: Why fear is an important emotion. The difference between fear and anxiety. Turning fear into positive strategic wins. How to soothe your audience. The one thing all marketers should STOP doing. The power strategy of pairing something new with something familiar   Dr. Roger Hall is the author of Staying Happy Being Productive: The...

“If you get the circumstances right and you find the right influencer, you can make a very powerful program.”   Listen & Learn: The three “must-dos” of a successful influencer marketing strategy. Why consistency and authenticity are the basis for an influencer marketing strategy. The myths of influencer marketing. Defining what an influencer is Drew Vernon is the U.S. marketing lead at ToniesU...

“Originality comes from within.”   Listen & Learn: Why marketers must be original. The five “Must Be’s” every marketer needs to embrace. Tips for staying focused and grounded in the midst of change. Staying relevant. Why bending the rules is a good thing   Lisa Morris is the director of marketing at Dapicon Inc., a company that considers the idiosyncrasies of each supply chain participant, pro...

“A brand is defined in a consumer’s mind and that takes time.” Listen & Learn: Products don’t sell themselves. Why being bold and brave strategies win the day. How to rise above the sea of sameness and differentiation your brand in the marketplace. Understanding the intersection between a well-planned brand strategy and brand activation. The importance of immersion and of truly understanding y...

“Start thinking about how your content is created and stop thinking about it as a replacement.”   Listen & Learn: Why a Subject Matter Expert is the most important asset a business has. The Natural Language Generation tools that improve AI content. The difference between Natural Language Processing and Natural Language Generation. Understanding content sentiment. The power of combing sentiment...

“The best way to succeed is to have a brilliantly designed innovation that is well-timed in the market.”   Listen & Learn: How to time your go-to-market strategy. Why exponential growth is based on creating heavy users out of your initial fans. How to overcome the mental and cultural obstacles of what an innovative product should do in the marketplace. The importance of building your brand on...

“ One of the easiest ways to passively communicate confidence and inspire confidence is through a consistent visual presence.”   Listen & Learn: Deliver the expected and the unexpected through innovative design strategies. The importance of brand continuity when defining your visual identity. Why a strong visual presence is important to inspire confidence in your brand. When it comes to graphi...

“You can’t sell your brand to the world until you understand what attracts the world to your brand.” Listen & Learn: The 15 primal emotions that are most likely to drive purchasing behavior. How small brands can go from “zeros to heroes” with the right emotional marketing strategies. How once you speak to the subconscious mind, sales will come. The importance of people-first marketing strategi...

“The role of the ghostwriter is to be a vessel between you and your audience.” Listen & Learn: The three-part technical process for defining voice when ghostwriting. Writing a book is not an early-stage strategy. How a ghostwriter is an advocate for the reader. The advantages of having a ghostwriter on your team. The pros and cons of self-publishing vs. using a publisher. How to prep your inte...