INBOUND ACCELERATOR

While 2020 brought big changes—even if only temporary—in how we live our lives, do our work and how brands reach audiences through content and integrated marketing, some things remain the same: marketers like you continued to seek out ways of improving their campaigns, fine-tuning their strategies and simplifying the tasks that support that work.

Choosing a name isn’t always easy. Just ask any parent—while some have known what they would name their kids since they were kids themselves, others like a friend of mine almost end up bringing home “Baby Boy Lastname” from the hospital because they just can’t decide.

Building a successful inbound marketing program is much like building a house: If you don’t have a detailed blueprint and a solid foundation, no matter how every other detail of the structure is, the house will be a maintenance nightmare and fail to live up to expectations.

With 2018 winding down and 2019 about to kick into high gear, it’s a great time to do a little research, learning and goal setting for the next year. If you are like me, each year you set a resolution to spend more time learning things that I can apply to my life — my health, my family and my job.

But there is only so much time available and there is SO MUCH out there to read, watch and listen to. How to choose?

We’ve talked in the past about setting goals and “doing the math” — you can’t know if you are succeeding, if you don’t know how to define success — but there is another step to take that has a similar ring to it:

You can’t sell if you don’t know who you are selling to.

When introducing a business blog, don’t just jump in and start writing, or try to imitate another blog that you love to read or that you’ve heard has had great success. Instead, take a step back and remember that — like any marketing content you create — your business blog is a reflection of your brand.

As I write this final blog post of 2017, here at JONES we are preparing to take a couple of days at the end of the year for an intense huddle to review our 2017 efforts and flesh out the final details of our content and campaign plans for 2018. 

By setting aside the day-to-day of blog writing and emails, we can focus fully on what is coming next.

Creating a new brand, or developing a new positioning approach for an existing brand, should never be done in a vacuum. It is essential to understand not only your own strengths and weaknesses, but those of your competition as well.

I know we’ve said it many times: A logo is not a brand. And neither is a combination of colors and typography the same as a brand.

Creating, or recreating, a brand position is a big undertaking, requiring internal and external research, data analysis, and concept development of everything from messaging to visual components. It is something only the largest marketing departments are equipped to tackle alone.