A lot of people confuse strategy with planning.
A plan is what comes after doing strategy, because you should already know what you’re doing by the time you end up in planning phase.
You’re just trying to fit it into the schedule.
Plans are tactics, strategy is a system to find the next right step to make.
I like to equate strategy as context.
In the movie The Dark Knight (2008), we start with a tense bank robbery scene that turns out to be the Joker’s crew.
(Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker is haunting, beautiful, and definitely deserved the Oscar he got posthumously. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favour and watch it later)
We have no context as to the story, the reason, where Batman is, or what we’re getting into.
The movie adds this context throughout the story later, allowing us to enjoy what we’re seeing because we get it. It makes sense.
Batman is haunted by his demons, Joker is chaos personified, etc.
If movies had no context and just action, we’d all end up confused by what we’re seeing.
Why are these guys fighting each other? What is the point of blowing up that building?
Context allows us to make sense of the world.
Strategy does that for our marketing.
You’ve probably been advertising, or posting on social media all this time. That’s the action.
But do you know why?
What were you expecting to get? What were you trying to say? Who were you trying to reach, and why them?
Without this context, actions make no difference.
You’re watching explosions without understanding the story.
Strategy is the compass.
It doesn’t tell you exactly where to go. It tells you which direction you’re facing so you can figure out the next right step.
And when something doesn’t go according to plan, which it won’t, you know how to pivot because you understand what you’re building toward.
Marketing Journeys
Let’s go back to the waterfall from Part I.
All those companies bunching up at the bottom, fighting over the same overflow, copying each other’s moves.
Dropping prices to grab attention that couldn’t fit into someone else’s funnel.
You don’t have to stand there.
When you know who you are and what your marketing is actually built on, you can perch yourself farther from the waterfall, near the river that forms after the water settles.
You build your world there. With gravity.
The little places people can go and explore.
Where they accumulate trust before being pulled further in.
Not because you tricked them into it, but because what you built resonated with something they already cared about.
You let their attention create the streams that flow naturally toward you.
Rejecting the majority of the river, but attracting the people who feel the pull of your gravity.
For the right people, there’s only one way this ends up.
Becoming citizens of your world.
Over the past 10 years, I’ve worked on building marketing strategies that feel right. That are based on my values, that build relationships with people I actually want to work with.
Everything I’ve written here is how I think about marketing.
But thinking about it and building it are two different things.
The manifesto is the philosophy. The map you’ve been looking at.
If you’ve made it this far and this feels like the right place, the next step is seeing what it looks like to actually build your world.
That’s what I help with.
Thank you for your time and attention. Getting this far means you granted me time out of your busy day, and I don’t take that lightly.
P.S.:
Not ready for that step yet? That’s completely fine. If you want to keep the conversation going, the Anti-Viral podcast is where I think out loud about this stuff every other week.
And if you’d rather just stay in the loop, you can join my email list. No pressure. Just two paths forward whenever you’re ready.