Eisenhower once said: “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. His inference was that — in his case planning for war — when war starts, most plans often go out the window pretty fast.

But going into battle without a plan at all was not an option.

Ok, so you’re not in charge of liberating a continent I’m sure, but your business needs a serious marketing communications plan — one that can also adapt when ‘war’ breaks out.

So let’s start out by assessing the first aim of your new battle plan:

“Improve what you serve and how you serve it.”

More often than not, your customers follow a “journey” of awareness, from a point where they haven’t even acknowledged they have a problem or need, to deciding whether your service is right for them.

Your goal is to erase the top-down distinction and distance between your brand and customer over time.

And one way to do that is to articulate and define what it is that I — the client — want — the thing that brought me here. in the first place.

What I want most?

What I want to avoid most?

What I like.

What I don't like.

What I believe in.

What I don’t believe in.

My Assumptions.

My Needs.

My Experiences.

Why it matters.

Becoming a trusted source of useful information allows you to cast a much wider net, as your content can be appealing not just to people already seeking goods or services but also to people seeking information on topics of importance to them.

Not in a cloying, superficial and superfluous way, but in a valuable, informative, educational way.

1. People have a “subconscious attraction” to leaders and authorities.
2. When you educate, the brain automatically assumes authority.
3. If you want to make it to the top, you must become a leader with value to offer others, and proactively convey those qualities in your marketing efforts.
4. Sincerity sells, so if you become genuinely interested in your prospects’ success they will do the same for you.

That’s the 4 golden rules.

And the biggest secret behind those 4 rules hasn’t changed either:

Make Your Marketing Truly Valuable.

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view ... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it*.Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)

The more you know about your market, the more effectively you can leverage these aspirational desires in your marketing campaigns.

In short: Catch their eye with value ..

We all know this of course.

When you come across something special that knocks you off your feet, when you recognise a real bona fide authority, your respect for it as a resource doesn’t end there.

Respect is the bedrock of trust — a rare commodity these days.

With respect and trust in place, next comes a sense of obligation to share the treasure with others ..

I know, it’s an ego thing: we want other people to ‘like’ us for sharing the really good stuff.

So long as you focus on the “customer experience” first, not your big pipe dream, you will get it right.

So long as you help your audience with some small wins so they can see the bonus of a big investment in your big picture, you’ll also get it right together.

But this is still just your jumping off point.

How potential customers behave thereafter is vital to making the necessary copy adjustments.

Understanding the good stuff from the God awful ..

Refining your competitive advantage.

Seeing how this impacts your marketing goals.

“SMART marketing goals” take this entire process one step further.

Adding invaluable success criteria.

A clear trajectory.

Measurable progress.

And priceless idea validation.

1. Specific — What do we want to accomplish?
2. Measurable — How will we know it is accomplished?
3. Attainable — Is this goal realistic?
4. Relevant — Does it match our business needs?
5. Timely — When will this goal be accomplished?

To sum up;

Doing what everyone else is doing is fine.

But to break out of this tough and expensive rat race, start doing your homework and start disseminating that homework in a way that educates them on the benefits of solving their problem — simultaneously trusting your ‘educational’ brand to be the one to do it.