That Marketing Strategy Episode

Every marketer loves to talk strategy; grand visions and overarching plans to deliver huge value and write their names into the annals of marketing. But are we going about it all wrong?

Leigh Hopwood joins That Marketing Podcast delves into all things strategy: how the term is used, what a strategy needs to address, and how marketers can bring other departments on board:

How we use the word “strategy”:

“I think the word strategy is often overused. For me, account-based marketing is all about an approach. It’s an operational approach, rather than a strategy. A strategy is far more all-encompassing than that. It’s far more looking at a longer-term approach rather than an operation or even tactical question”

The big question to ask when we talk about strategy:

“The big question marketers, I think should be asking is “why?” Why are they doing what they’re doing? Whether that’s a tactical, operational or strategic level. Why are you doing it? And what I found, is those people that have got a qualification in marketing, tend to understand the basics of marketing and are better equipped to ask the question, ‘Why?’”

Using Marketing jargon when speaking to others:

“I’m not sure that there are terms that we need to ditch as such, I think we need to think about when we use them. So if we’re using jargon when trying to have conversations with the board members, then we’re going to lose [the attention of] our board members. In the conversation, what the board is looking at is revenue growth, they’re looking at margins, they’re looking at customer satisfaction. They’re looking at a different set of metrics.”