Brighter Marketing

I have just finished reading a blog post by Drew McLellan which I really enjoyed and which links well with a post I wrote last week about marketing creativity and the fact that we are all creatures of habit.

Drew wrote about the fact that on a recent walk with his dog,  she kept her nose to the ground and missed all the animals and birds that were moving and flying around her. More importantly his dog was so engrossed with sniffing the ground beneath her she walked right into a patch of prickly brambles.

Isn’t that often the case for many of us? We are so focused on getting things done that developing a marketing strategy often goes to the bottom of the list. It is something we know that we have to do, but we keep on doing the same old marketing activities that we have done in the past without even thinking if they are right for the company or whether they are getting the right results. Dostoyevsky the Russian novelist got it right when he said

“The second half of a man’s life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half”

So I urge you to review your marketing strategy. Take a long hard look at what you really want to achieve in your business and think about all the ways that marketing can help you get there. The best way is often to get out of your routine. Take yourself and your team out of the office for the day, go somewhere different, do something different, it’s amazing what a change of scenery can do for your creativity.  And here is a simple exercise you can while you are in a differnt place that will get you thinking.

Just write down A-Z on a large sheet of paper, then come up with marketing ideas for each letter of the Alphabet, be as imaginative as you can be. It doesn’t matter how silly they sound they might stimulate your thinking and get you to come up with some great ideas.

So take some time out from the daily grind, focus on a new approach to your marketing strategy, you never know where it might lead you.