Book review: Watertight Marketing - Delivering long-term sales results by Bryony Thomas
We know from our research published showing how businesses manage digital marketing, that many businesses don’t have a defined marketing strategy. In fact, more than half of businesses we surveyed (56%) didn’t have a marketing strategy, an even higher proportion than the 46% who didn’t have a digital strategy!
So when Bryony Thomas offered to share her advice on approaches to use a more planned approach to marketing, I was delighted to be able to publish these to help marketers looking to create a marketing plan. The techniques Bryony has shared in her popular series of posts on marketing planning on Smart Insights are based on the techniques she recommends in her book Watertight Marketing: delivering long-term sales results which I have been taking a look at recently to review our marketing approach.
The Watertight marketing approach
The book gets off…
A checklist of the 13 most common touchpoint leaks
Over nearly two decades in marketing, and across well over 200 businesses – from as large as Microsoft and as micro as the back bedroom – I have yet to find a single one that isn’t leaking potential profit somewhere in their marketing operation. And, even those that have it pretty tight can usually notch it up with a few judicious tweaks.
Categorising marketing profit leaks
In pulling all this together, I found that profit leaks fall into two clear categories. The first, and most obvious, are those that relate to how you interact with the outside world. That is, the touchpoints with customers, potential customers, or anyone else who might encounter your business. Of these, I have defined thirteen typical ways that most businesses lose money in their marketing.
The second category is what I call the Foundation Leaks, and they are far more…
Using the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) to engage with different types of buyers when new products are launched
What is The Diffusion of Innovation?
This model helps a business to understand how a buyer adopts and engages with new products or technologies over time. Companies will use it when launching a new product or service, adapting it or introducing an existing product into a new market.
It shows how the product can be adopted by five different categories/customer types and how to engage as a business with these types of people:
Of course, the emergence of new digital technologies and marketing techniques means that the diffusion of innovation model is particularly relevant to digital marketers. Analysts Gartner have a long standing report showing the stages of adoption of new technologies that is useful for digital strategists to follow. See our post on the Latest Gartner Digital Technology…
Marketing planning can be a long process. With the different steps involved, one area can often hold up another. This template is a quick way to get started as we know that companies that have a plan succeed better and faster than those without a plan.
And here’s a thing not many people know! It doesn’t matter whether it’s a marketing plan, business plan, company plan or HR plan. The key is having a plan.
A marketing plan is a little like a route map for a business. It shows where you’re headed and gives you a greater chance of achieving goals as there are built in mechanisms to measure progress.
The template laid out in this post shows you how to create your marketing plan in 7 steps. For full details on what's involved at each stage see my guide to…
