Takeaways
1. Goals
- Align Marketing Goals with Business Objectives: Joe emphasized that marketing goals should always support overarching business goals. Marketing shouldn’t operate in a silo; instead, marketers need to communicate and collaborate with leadership to define what success looks like for the business as a whole.
- SMART Goals: A SMART framework is ideal (Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Relevant, and Time-bound). Instead of vague goals like “improve visibility,” use goals with clear metrics and deadlines (e.g., “Increase website visits from 100 to 1,000 per day by the end of Q4”).
- Intermediate Steps to Sales: Acknowledge that while the ultimate goal is often sales, effective marketing requires intermediate steps. Like Joe’s analogy of a train journey, there are smaller objectives (such as awareness or consideration) that collectively drive sales. This layered approach helps avoid tunnel vision on immediate sales and allows the team to measure progress more accurately.
2. Solving a Problem
- Identify Customer Problems Using Market Research: Joe cited Mark Ritson’s view on “diagnosis” as the first step in any effective strategy. Understanding the broader market, competitors, and customer needs allows marketers to frame the real problem their product or service solves.
- Use the ‘Jobs to Be Done’ Framework: Inspired by Clayton Christensen’s theory, this approach suggests that customers “hire” products to fulfil specific functional, social, or emotional jobs. Joe recommended that marketers dig into these areas, such as:
- Functional: Practical needs (e.g., product quality or durability).
- Emotional: How customers want to feel using the product.
- Social: Status or esteem motivations, particularly relevant in consumer markets.
- Secondary Sources & Ethnographic Research: Joe mentioned using Instagram comments, Amazon reviews, or directly observing customers to uncover needs. By putting themselves in their customers’ shoes, marketers can better understand what real problems or “jobs” the product is helping solve.
3. Targeting and Segmentation
- Beyond Demographics—Think Psychographics and Behaviours: Joe referenced the risk of oversimplifying audience definitions by focusing solely on demographics (age, gender, location). He used the example of Prince Charles and Ozzy Osbourne to show that people in the same demographic segment can still have vastly different psychographic traits. Instead:
- Consider values, behaviours, and motivations to create richer, more accurate personas.
- Recognise behavioural differences (e.g., loyal versus occasional buyers) to shape messaging and offer relevant products.
- Market Segmentation: Joe cited Byron Sharp’s ideas on mass marketing but noted that segmenting the market remains essential for smaller businesses with limited resources. He recommended evaluating segments based on:
- Total Addressable Market (TAM): The potential number of customers in each segment.
- Spending Power: The financial capability of each segment.
- Ease of Reach: How accessible these segments are and whether they’re reachable through your chosen channels.
- Focus on Priority Segments: By narrowing down, as with Joe’s example of ABC Limited, marketers can avoid trying to appeal to everyone and instead concentrate on the segments with the highest potential return.
4. Positioning
- Define a Clear Positioning Statement: Joe emphasized the importance of positioning and quoted Chris Anderson’s view on talks, saying that marketing should focus on building a “positioning idea” in the audience’s mind. A positioning statement should capture the essence of what your brand offers and why it’s different.
- Differentiation vs. Distinctiveness: Joe referenced Byron Sharp’s distinction here:
- Distinctiveness involves creating memorable brand assets that stand out visually or experientially (e.g., Tiffany Blue or Lush’s unique store scent).
- Differentiation involves showing how your product or service addresses problems differently from competitors. Joe clarified that being “unique” isn’t necessary; being different enough in areas that matter to your customers can create competitive advantage.
- Establishing Mental Availability: Inspired by Sharp’s concept of “mental availability,” Joe mentioned that marketing aims to make the brand the first one customers think of when they need a solution. This means being clear on what your brand stands for and reinforcing it consistently across touchpoints to stay top of mind.
5. Tactics
- Differentiate Strategy from Tactics: Joe emphasised that marketers often jump into tactics prematurely. He highlighted that a lack of strategic focus can lead to spinning wheels, as marketers hop from one tactic to another without clear purpose.
- Funnel-Based Approach: Joe presented a simple marketing funnel to guide tactical decisions, based on five stages: Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Retention, and Advocacy. Each stage has a distinct goal:
- Awareness: Making potential customers aware of your brand.
- Consideration: Encouraging interested customers to evaluate your product or service.
- Purchase: Making it easy for interested customers to buy.
- Retention: Keeping existing customers happy and engaged.
- Advocacy: Encouraging customers to promote your brand.
- Tactical Planning with Purpose: By mapping each tactic to a specific stage in the funnel, marketers can ensure that every activity has a clear goal. For instance, instead of doing “SEO” broadly, the tactic could serve “Awareness” with a goal of increasing organic traffic by a certain percentage.
- Measure and Adjust: To avoid constant pivoting, Joe advised tying each tactic to measurable outcomes. That way, marketers can evaluate if tactics are working over time without prematurely scrapping the strategy.
Final Note on Team Alignment
- Collaborate Across Departments: Joe stressed the importance of involving other departments (sales, leadership, etc.) in building the strategy. This approach builds organisational buy-in and prevents marketing from being an isolated effort. As Mark Ritson points out, alignment is crucial to maintaining consistent messaging and achieving company-wide objectives.
Transcript (AI generated, may contain errors)
Good afternoon everyone, welcome to another Marketing Meetup and the start of a new season on strategy and planning.
We are about six-ish weeks from 2025, so we wanted to help you all get ready for next year with a solid session on strategy.
Now before we kick off the session, we’re going to do a little bit of housekeeping. Regulars will know this one quite well, but you need to change your settings so that everyone can see your comments—not just hosts and panelists. So if you can change the little blue toggle in the chat section, then everyone will be able to see where you are listening in from.
And look at that, we’ve got folks from Lincoln, Manchester, Leicester, Colombia—Goodness me, hello from Colombia, that’s exciting—Bristol, and it goes on and on. It’s lovely to have you all here.
So, on to our guest today. Some of you might know him; his name’s Joe Glover. Before Joe did the job of running The Marketing Meetup with me, he was a marketing manager, fighting for budget, trying to justify his role in this world and his ideas as well, and he was generally learning on the fly. Many years later, Joe has the experience of building lots of strategies, including the one we’ve built for The Marketing Meetup.
Today’s presentation is going to be talking about the basics of what a marketing strategy is and how those fundamentals can be applied to any business, using some examples to take you through. Joe is a thoroughly generous guy, as we all know, and his knowledge is worth following on LinkedIn. If you don’t follow him already, then I highly recommend it. In fact, this QR code here will take you to a kind of update that he’s got, so I think you’ll enjoy that.
During the session, I must also point out that we’ve got the chat function that’s firing up nicely. If you want to ask Joe questions, we’ll do those after the presentation—put those in the Q&A, and we’ll take the most upvoted questions from the Q&A to answer at the end.
A lot of you will also know that these sessions run because we have wonderful partners, and these special brands allow us to bring all these amazing talks and resources to you for free. Today, I wanted to give a special shoutout to our friends at Storyblok. Storyblok is a headless CMS for companies needing custom website designs but who also want a lot of control over how and where their content appears. They have a series of free webinars coming up—marketing is moving and changing all the time, and these webinars are about the importance of evolving. If that sounds interesting to you, scan that QR code (I keep pointing the wrong way) and we will send that link in the follow-up email.
I’d also like to say a quick thank you to our other friends at Frontify, Exclaimer, Cambridge Marketing College, Planable, Redgate, and ScoreApp.
So that is my very rough introduction done. Joe, my old friend, have you got any knowledge for us that you could share with this wonderful community?
Joe: I will try my best! What’s been really lovely already in the chat is that I don’t usually get the opportunity to interact as I have, so hello, everyone. It’s so lovely to be speaking with you today, and I hope I can help.
Jessica: Yes, that was a rip in the QR code—I’m glad we got a couple of people.
Joe: So, it’s such a pleasure. Let’s get going with how to build a minimum marketing strategy. To do so, we’re going to start with a bit of a story.
This story takes us back to the year 2016, where I was a solo marketer working in a small company. In 2016, this was the moment that I hit my marketing rock bottom. I was driving through the hills of Ireland (although it looked a little bit more like this because it was a horrendously rainy day). I was sat in the driver’s seat, with my boss at the time sat in the passenger seat. I remember turning to my boss while driving through these hills and saying these words: “I don’t know how we’re going to get to where we want to. What we’re doing doesn’t seem to be landing, and we have a communication problem.”
I don’t want to trivialise these problems because, on a very emotional level, I remember sitting at my desk in that role and feeling pretty lost. I had a sense that I just wasn’t delivering what I was supposed to, but no real idea whether that was correct. I was unsure what I should be doing next; I was a little bit fearful and definitely anxious, and I’m not sure that I had the trust or buy-in from my team. It’s one of those situations that, again, I just want to sit on for a minute because so often, when our marketing work isn’t going the way we want, it can have a very real emotional response as well as a business response to the work we’re doing.
The thing that I was lacking at that moment was this word, this concept, this idea of having a strategy. For me, over time, a great strategy has fundamentally helped me move from a place of feeling lost to having purpose and clarity on what we should be saying and to whom. A sense of delivering without a benchmark suddenly turned into having goals and a way to communicate with the team. When I was unsure what the next move was, I now had a framework for decision-making and action prioritisation.
James knows that I love a framework, which has been endlessly useful. We’ve got Amanda in the chat saying “preach!” I’m sorry that’s your situation right now, but hopefully, we’ll explain over the course of this chat how we can build a strategy that alleviates some of these feelings.
If we’re speaking about strategy, we at least need to have a common understanding of what one is. We can look at it in two different ways. This is a quote from Michael Porter: “Strategy is choosing what not to do.” I think that’s quite informative because a lot of folks will say a strategy will tell us what to do, but I think a great strategy also gives us the ability to say no to things, which is really important in an industry that “moves so fast.”
A different way of thinking about it is a very simplified version by Mark Ritson, who says a strategy is essentially:
- Who we’re going to target,
- What is our position to that target, and
- What is our objective with those people?
Mark speaks about these as three key components of building a great strategy.
How do we build the minimum version? That’s what we’re going to explore today. Just picking up on the chat comments: we’ve got Theresa saying, “My solo marketing job nearly made me quit marketing altogether”—hopefully, we’ll save a few more people today.
PART 1: The Bare Minimum Marketing Strategy
This is what the bare minimum marketing strategy looks like. Here it is:
- At the top, we have a business or marketing goal.
- In the middle layer, we have:
- A problem we solve,
- Who we’re trying to solve it for, and
- The idea we would like to build in their brain.
- Then, we’ve got the Tactical Elements: Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Retention, and Advocacy.
So let’s break this down.
- Business and Marketing Goal
This is basically a straightforward concept. It’s like Ronseal; it says what it does on the tin. - Diagnosis and Strategic Elements
Diagnosis and strategy are part of Mark Ritson’s model, and I owe him a hat tip here. Diagnosis means to understand the market and the target market, and strategy is about answering those key questions. - Tactical Stuff
This is the third phase. The Tactical Elements are actions mapped to the funnel stages.
Now, I presented this bare minimum strategy last year, and since then, I think there’s been a bit of an advancement I can share. A strategy does not sit in a silo. This strategy shouldn’t be something you go off, create alone, and then return to the team with, saying “Ta-da!” Instead, it should involve the rest of your team and stakeholders. Marketing should not be done in a silo; we need the involvement of our team and organisation.
So, please—don’t go about creating a bare minimum strategy by yourself. We need the involvement of the rest of the company.
Assumptions of the Bare Minimum Strategy
There are some assumptions we have when putting together the bare minimum strategy:
- We need to articulate what we want to do easily.
- Product and pricing are likely fixed. This is key because it’s the difference between a bare minimum strategy and a full marketing strategy. Here, we’re working on a simplified version, focusing on promoting an already-established product or service.
PART 2: The Example
To ground this strategy in a relatable example, I’d like to introduce you to ABC Limited, a small e-commerce business run by Mavis and Bob. They sell high-quality designer pet wear and promote it based on the product itself rather than specific benefits. Although it’s been established for two years, they’re now looking for marketing support. Currently, they sell to “everyone”—all pet owners.
So let’s walk through the bare minimum strategy for ABC Limited.
- Business or Marketing Goal
When we talk about setting goals, it’s critical that marketing strategy correlates with the business strategy. Marketing goals should ultimately serve business goals, and we need to be aligned with leadership to achieve that.If your leadership just says vague things like, “Get us out there” or “Do some social media,” it’s up to you to translate that into something actionable. Instead, set goals that are:- Specific: with clear start and end states.
- Measurable: so you know if you’ve achieved them.
- Ambitious, but realistic.
- Relevant to the business.
- Time-bound: with a clear deadline.
Example Goals
- “Increase our website visits from 100 to 1,000 per day by a specific date.”
- “Have 80 ideal LinkedIn conversations with customers by year-end.”
Joe’s example for ABC Limited’s goal is to “create 50 net new customers at an average profit value of £200 by December 31, 2025.” So, now we have a clear business goal.
PART 3: Strategic Elements
Here we start solving a problem. This problem is not necessarily product-specific; it’s the customer’s problem. As Mark Ritson puts it, “You, as the marketer, are often the least qualified person to understand what the market wants.” Therefore, it’s vital to focus on what customers need, not what the company is excited to launch.
Ways to understand your customer’s problem:
- Ask your customers about their pain points directly.
- Observe behaviours (ethnographic research).
- Look at secondary sources (e.g., review sites).
Jobs to Be Done
In Joe’s example, scrolling through Instagram reveals people who love matching their outfits with their pets. The Jobs to Be Done here are:
- Functional: people want matching outfits for their pets.
- Societal: they want to look stylish in the park.
- Emotional: matching outfits make the pet owner feel happy.
This leads to ABC’s problem solution: “Create designer pet wear that enables owners to twin their clothing with their pets, look stylish in the park, and feel happy.”
PART 4: Targeting & Segmentation
When identifying a target audience, don’t rely solely on demographics. As Joe joked, Prince Charles and Ozzy Osbourne share demographics but have vastly different lifestyles.
Instead, focus on:
- Psychographics: values, interests, and what matters to them.
- Behaviours: why they buy, what keeps them coming back.
- Emotional drivers: what they expect from the brand.
- Situational factors: specific contexts or pain points.
Segments for ABC Limited
After considering reach, spending power, and ease of access, Joe identified that ABC Limited should target “fashion-forward pet owners.” This segment includes those who take pride in their appearance and want their dogs to look as stylish as they do.
PART 5: Positioning
According to Chris Anderson, the goal of a presentation—or in our case, positioning—is to build an idea in the audience’s mind. This is where brand positioning comes into play.
Positioning Statement Example
“ABC makes dog clothing that lets the world know you come as a pair and look damn good doing it. In ABC Limited clothing, you can be sure you’ll walk through the park with pride.”
Distinctiveness vs. Differentiation
Byron Sharp’s concept:
- Distinctiveness: unique brand assets (like Tiffany Blue or Starbucks mugs).
- Differentiation: what makes you different from competitors in a way that resonates with your target audience.
For ABC, positioning assets include:
- A logo,
- Coordinated clothing visuals,
- The tagline “For those who value their best friend.”
PART 6: Tactics
Joe made a crucial point here: separate strategy from tactics.
Use a Funnel-Based Approach
Joe’s model includes five stages: Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Retention, and Advocacy. For each stage, identify a tactic that supports your strategic goal.
For example, ABC might:
- Use Instagram for Awareness, measured by reach.
- Drive website traffic (Consideration) with paid ads.
- Track success by measuring purchases, retention, and advocacy.
Final Note: Team Involvement is Key
Marketing should never work in a silo. Involve your team and get their buy-in. By collaborating with sales, leadership, and other departments, you’ll build a stronger, more supported strategy.
Thank you very much for listening—that’s the presentation element done. Happy to take any questions!
Bravo, Joe, that was great!