Developing a new marketing mindset

At Nutcracker, we’re all about pushing the boundaries of what marketing can be. We love identifying what’s wrong with a company’s existing marketing strategy and doing something to change it. It’s what gets us up in the morning – our bacon and eggs if you will (or a vegan sausage, if you prefer).

Before you can even start thinking about turning your marketing up a notch, you need a new marketing mindset. But what does that mean exactly?

What does a 'marketing mindset' mean?

It means getting yourself in the zone. It means saying ‘I’m going to reinvent my brand’ and doing the work to actually achieve that goal. It means taking the time to understand the benefits of a good marketing scheme versus a poor one. And perhaps most importantly: it’s seeing things from your customer’s perspective.

Here are four crucial aspects of a good marketing mindset, and why you need to get yourself a new one today.

Empathy: staying abreast of customer needs

It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the kind of business that you should be, rather than the consumers you should be trying to market your product to. This is the cornerstone of a bad marketing mindset.

Sure, it’s important to know what your competitors are doing, but you won’t be able to beat them without putting yourself in your potential customers’ shoes. Customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable, according to this Forbes article, which also reports that 84% of companies that work to improve their customer experience report an increase in revenue.

You need to empathise with your customers. What grinds their gears? What can you do to make their lives easier? When you can answer these questions effectively, you’re one step closer to understanding how you can best market your solutions to that audience.

Creativity: bringing the best marketing ideas to the forefront

A good idea, deployed well, can change the world. See for example this Duracell campaign with Darth Vader putting batteries into a lightsaber, or WWF’s #GiveAHandToWildlife campaign, which saw human hands transformed into a variety of colourful critters.

Being creative is about more than just thinking of clever ideas. It’s reacting to current trends and building successful marketing campaigns upon them. This is largely why the influencer marketing business is expected to grow to $15bn by 2022 – because influencers bring fresh, creative ideas to the table.

Here’s a quote we like from author Ashleigh Brilliant: “Good ideas are common – what’s uncommon are people who’ll work hard enough to bring them about.” We love this (a) because it highlights that there’s no rarity of good ideas out there and (b) because it leads fantastically into this next point.

Curiosity: you need to do the work for a strong marketing strategy

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it’s sure to sharpen the claws of any flagging marketing campaign. Being actively curious is crucial for your marketing mindset, as it allows you to effectively research your market, the role your product plays within it and your target audience.

Research is a vital aspect of effective content marketing, which nearly 40% of businesses say is an important part of their overall marketing strategy. When it comes to websites, email marketing and social media marketing, there’s no shortage of online tools to help boost your marketing efforts, dig through data and identify keywords and hashtags that will get your company noticed.

However you conduct your research, you need to be ready to burn the midnight oil every now and again to get results. But you can’t always do it alone…

Being a team player: collaborative marketing is the only way forward

At the heart of a good marketing mindset is a willingness to work with others, listen to feedback and communicate. If you’re sticking your fingers and your ears and blocking out constructive criticism, then that’s exactly what potential clients will do too – block you out.

Companies that ensure they communicate well across all departments – sales, R&D, advertising, lead generation, you name it – have the strongest marketing strategies. But sometimes, that isn’t enough. Sometimes you might want to communicate your ideas to an external marketing agency, so they can apply their expertise to the task.

At Nutcracker, we’ve seen first-hand the power of effective communication. We work closely with clients to understand their target audience, create tangible objectives and keep them in the loop while we achieve them. And if something isn’t working out, we’ll be open about it and try to change it.

Nutcracker takeaway:

Every day at Nutcracker, we’re honing our marketing mindset so that we can provide the best possible service to your business. Partner with us, and we’ll get under the skin of your company and come up with a transformational marketing strategy.

Email jenny.knighting@nutcrackeragency.com today and find out how our marketing mindset can help your business achieve its goals.