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 which is the action.
But do you know why?
Why did you start it, what were you expecting to get, what are you trying to say?
Without this context, actions make no difference.
Strategy is understanding how the world works, and what are the levers that need to be pulled to make certain decisions.
Once you know how to make marketing decisions, it’s easier to plan, and pivot when something doesn’t go according to plan.
Marketing Journeys
Let’s go back to our example of the waterfall from the previous page, and companies trying to contain the uncontrollable.
These companies are probably doing what you’re doing.
Watching their competition, and follow their every move.
If someone drops their prices, you do that too. If they are on TikTok, you open an account too.
But a marketing world based on our vision, who we are and what we care about, is deeply unique.
People are always asking marketers like me how to stand out, the answer is to simply stop following what others are doing and follow your gut instead.
Be you, because nobody else can copy that.
Not even AI.
So instead, we perch ourselves farther away from the waterfall, near the river that is created after the water falls to the ground.
We generate a world with gravity, and build little motes on the ground.
Like raindrops, places where people can go and explore and accumulate trust before being pulled further down.
We let people and their attention create the streams that get pulled by gravity naturally. Rejecting the majority of the river, but attracting only the ones being pulled by our gravity.
And inch them closer to our world.
No coercion, no fear based manipulation, no constant selling.
They are free to explore, because for the right people, there’s only one way this ends up.
Becoming citizens of our world.
Over the past 10 years, I’ve worked on building marketing strategies that feel right. That are based on my values, and allows me to build relationships with people I want as clients.
Thank you so much for your attention and getting this far. This next step is for people that believe they’re in the right place.
For the people I like to call world builders.
People that want to build their business for people instead of algorithms, that want to create that gravity and attract people naturally by building relationships.
World Building Strategy
I help businesses build their strategy and their plans so they can create a world worth having. Marketing they enjoy interacting with, that helps their business grow, and understand how it all works.
But over the years doing strategy for companies I’ve also understood that worlds have weather systems that can disrupt even the best plans.
A slow quarter, staff changes, new competition, etc. Companies are constantly fighting to put out fires and forget to look back at their carefully laid plans.
Leading to mountains of great ideas just sitting on a shelf collecting dust.
That’s exactly the problem The Marketing Root System solves.
Strategy without support is a seed sitting on top of dry ground. It might look promising for a while. But the first wind blows it away.
What you need is depth.
Something that anchors the strategy into your day-to-day operations, into how your team thinks, into the rhythm of how you review and adjust and grow.
That’s what this system is built for.
It’s not just strategy. It’s the full structure of support before, during, and after the strategy is created.
Because a plan that nobody follows isn’t a plan at all.
Learn more about The Marketing Root System, or check out my services page to see an overview of what I can help with.
Thank you again for your time, it was a pleasure having this conversation with you.
P.S.: Want to chat about what you just read or have some feedback? Send me an email, I respond to each and every one. Thanks again.