Our focus then vs now
When we first started with our business we always started with a written strategy and a tactical plan. Right now, in our marketing, communications, and public relations agency, we are really focussing on building a CIPR framework. This strategic framework is going to be the foundation with which we approach all our clients.
Our full-circle moment for us was starting off strategy-focused, we then deviated a bit away from that and now we will be going back to a strategy first focused approach and developing a detailed plan, getting alignment, etc. first before we move forward.
Don’t be an order taker
Sometimes in the marketing space, we think we have to just take orders and do things that clients ask us to even if it’s not in their best interests.
But if you sit down and dig deep into strategy, really getting to know the clients’ business and what drives the business, what the leaders care about and what they think is important that’s when you can start to drive meaningful long-term results for people. It’s where we’re headed and it’s kind of a full-circle moment to how we started.
Strategy, strategy, strategy
Christina was a bit of an order taker when she first started CIPR on her own; we were subcontracting and mostly focussing on what needed to be done. Reflecting now about our current clients that are doing exceptionally well and are still with us it’s because we started off with building a strong foundation in terms of strategy.
In retrospect, the planning process was different a couple of years ago from what it is today but in many ways is still the same. WSI has helped us to build things that are more robust, more research-orientated, and data orientated and being able to apply this advice has been so beneficial to our agency.
We’re excited about the relationships that we have been able to build with our clients around strategy all being aligned and moving forward from this as opposed to one-off things that may only get you small incremental growths at a time.
You need to have a comprehensive marketing strategy as you may get lucky with one-off tactics but the reality is it’s a process and it takes time, it’s multi-channelled and multidimensional and you need to do many things well for it all to come together.
The right fit is super important
Going forward we are going to disqualify leads as much as possible so that we align with the right company fit in terms of the growth that they envision for themselves together with what we are trying to achieve for them.
When we get the right alignment with clients right that’s when we can really go full speed ahead. Inbound marketing is one of the helpful tools we utilize as it helps us and can help you to identify your target audience because even though you are going to be generating a lot of traffic to your website and you are going to be generating a lot of inquiries, it’s about being clear about who your customer is so that you’re working with those clients only and not wasting your time trying to help people who aren’t a good fit with you and vice versa. It’s about honesty and transparency around agency-client fit that will really see you accelerate in growth in the digital and online marketing space.
