Summer is approaching, and it’s the perfect time for a quick assessment of your marketing plans. How well are your marketing campaigns performing? How effective are your processes for driving a go-to-market strategy and plan? I recently asked my readers to share which tools have helped them the most to tune their marketing engine. Here are a few of their responses.
“We used Mike’s writings in my prior company, so when i joined (my current company), I brought his blueprint templates with me. We gave every team member a copy of Marketing Campaign Development and asked them to peruse the first few chapters. Then we conducted a couple of working sessions to develop our own blueprints for our marketing campaigns. Leveraging his examples helped us accelerate our planning process.” — Laurie, director of global marketing
“We needed to develop our marketing plans quickly using a repeatable process that could be applied consistently across the five business units. We downloaded Mike’s “streamlined IMP template” and Mike coached us to customize it and apply it for our business. The team also loved the persona and positioning statement exercises found in The Marketing High Ground. These were easy to follow and my team took complete ownership of the process. These templates and the clear examples gave us the confidence to move ahead quickly.” — Chris, director of integrated campaign management
“I have an insatiable appetite for books on marketing best practices and I couldn’t wait to apply what I learned from Marketing Campaign Development and The Marketing High Ground. We had every member of our team read the books. Of particular interest was his use of marketing blueprints. In fact, we created our own then made poster-sized copies that we hung in the hallways. Now, everyone knows exactly what marketing is doing to support the business. Then we asked Mike to participate in a planning offsite where together we critiqued our work and got a jump start on the next round of planning. Our president responded with high praise: ‘This is real enterprise marketing!'” — Sharon, VP of global marketing
If there is a common thread between these stories, it’s that success was based, in part, on every member of the marketing team having access to the tools, templates, and best practices. The exercises work best when they are shared broadly. Pass them around and enjoy the creativity that follows.