When I found myself randomly in charge of Marketing, I was not prepared for the slew of sales people who came at me at the rate of – and with the terrifying vibe of – starving post-apocalyptic zombies.

Just replace their chant of “brains” with “noob marketer.” 

Thankfully they had no idea I was that new. They were chasing me down because of my job title, assuming I had a modicum of decision making authority.

Many of these sales reps were trying to sell me on where I could market my products at the time. I was open to their ideas because… damned if I knew what would work, so I should hear them out, right? 

I was in business-to-business (B2B) marketing, so the options ranged from: 

• Agencies of every type: SEO, social media, PR, digital marketing…
• So. Many. Tradeshows. And events, including those allowing us exclusive access to C-suite executives for the price of your firstborn child.
• Signs, benches, and billboards. Heck, even a blimp. 
• Paid media – “We’ll get you into USA Today!” or some other household name publication.
• Paid media disguised as earned media (Ew). “We’d love to interview you for our upcoming TV segment! …But that’ll cost you $8,000.”
• Put your logo on something random. “We make branded cookies. They taste like shit, but that makes them even more memorable!”
• Cold calling lead gen programs, content marketing lead gen programs, “lead gen” programs that involved nearly everything except kidnapping my ideal customer. 
• AND MORE OPTIONS. Cue fetal position and crying silently in the corner. 

For the sake of recreating the experience, I hope you were as overwhelmed as I was, encountering that list. 

Maybe you’re already in a similar position of navigating seemingly endless possibilities. Given all the options, how do you decide where to invest your time, energy, and money? 

What Hungry Zombies Taught Me About Marketing Tactics

Throwing spaghetti at the wall (or at zombies, for that matter) does not work. Sure, you might get one noodle to stick, but that’s a lot of wasted resources… er, semolina flour. 

This is one hard fact of marketing: Effort and activity does not equal achievement. 

Don’t start with tactics, though it can be tempting when you are spread thin, rushed, and under pressure. Tactics should stem from a broader strategy.

Here are some key questions to think about if you have not had the bandwidth to develop a fully fleshed out marketing strategy:

• What is the “diagnosis”? What marketing problem are you trying to solve? (Lack of brand awareness? Customers churning? Declining sales? Among whom?)
• Who are your audiences? And who are you targeting at this time based on this diagnosis?
• What market research do you have? What do you know about this audience segment that leads you to believe the tactic will be effective in getting the results you want?
• What are you trying to convey to this specific audience group? How are you differentiated? (Positioning)
• Does this tactic convey/support the positioning?
• What are your marketing objectives? Will any of the tactics be effective in meeting these objectives?
• Do you have the ability to make this tactic worthwhile? Will your promotion be impactful (quality copywriting and visuals)? Can you create attention-grabbing experiences?  

You just might find that none of the marketing channel options you originally learned about from the zombies, or otherwise, will do the trick. Sometimes going back to the drawing board is your best option. 

Start with strategy.

I certainly should have because those cookies sucked. 

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Written by a bona fide human. Need help with your marketing strategy? Book a consult.