There’s nothing like the smell of a freshly-baked marketing plan

Everything is better when made from scratch … especially your marketing strategy.

Seems like everybody is offering a “template” for success these days. Templates for social media planning, marketing strategy, even templates for successful blog posts.

But if the key to sustainable business success is a differentiated product or service offering, isn’t templatizing the planning the process kind of against the grain?

Sure there are very useful guidelines and marketing fundamentals that are inescapable, but when your marketing department or ad agency is trying to cut corners by doing “what other people are doing” then you’re probably setting yourself up for failure. We’re seeing this happen especially in the area of social media marketing and planning where so many newcomers simply want to check the right boxes and not fall behind.

The ultimate goal of marketing is to create strategic leverage by finding un-met or under-served customer needs and then dominating that niche — not copying somebody’s else’s tactics and offering a me-too entry in an already crowded niche. That is just going to make everybody miserable.

Throw the templates away. Whisk up a strategic plan with poppin’ fresh customer insights and made-from-scratch ideas. Bake your own biscuits.