Our CEO, Ashton Bishop, reveals what businesses can do to find their next step change, and how to implement the Big 6 Challenges for business growth in this 7-minute Marketing the Invisible podcast with Tom Poland.

With so many delivery channels to think about today, how do you know which marketing channel works best? The straight answer is, you don’t. Your best shot at success today is having a multichannel marketing approach to ensure you are frequently where your customers are.   

Are you proactively influencing how your target audience sees your brand in relation to all the other options available to them (a.k.a your competitors)? 

So you already have a killer inbound marketing strategy. You may find yourself wondering  why you’re still having trouble getting your qualified leads down the pipeline. Why aren’t they converting?

When it comes to showcasing your brand to your audience in the best way possible, videos are still unrivalled.

Marketing automation assures us of one thing: it’s a powerful, remarkable, personalised way to engage with your audience. And if it’s done right, it can give you an edge over the competition in the war for customer attention.

Buyer personas. Either you have them but your team doesn’t know how to use them, so they’re good as gone — or your team simply skipped creating one to get to the ‘real work’.

While many companies are aware of the general importance of personas, they don’t fully understand what it is they’re trying to do when they create them.

Today’s customers and prospects know exactly what they want and go online to find it. To market your business in this new age, you need more than just the right message to stand out and drive customer loyalty. You need to do more than just create the right offer.

Even Amazon‘s $685 billion market value couldn‘t save the Amazon Fire. Launching a product online takes a lot of work — and it‘s something that can elude even the largest companies in the world.

As more brands turn to video to get their content noticed, the need to put out engaging content is no longer an option but a necessity.

In the second part of this series, Insights from Kevin Roberts, we ask the former CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi what goes on in his head when he talks to clients.

Look into any business and marketing is usually the first budget to be ignored — or cut out entirely. 

What really makes people decide to buy? And no, it doesn't have a lot to do with singing kittens riding bikes. Find out what does work here:

Marketing without a plan is like trying to chop down a tree with a crowbar. You might get there in the end, but there’s a better way.

If you think that email marketing is dead and that using email to reach your audience is an outdated approach, here are some statistics to prove that it’s here to stay and it’s not slowing down anytime in the future.

Public relations is a very important tool when you want to build brand awareness and be recognised as an expert. But is it right for your business now?

In 2017, a mattress war exploded when local mattress seller Koala threw massive shade at high-end bedding giant De Rucci. If you’ve been travelling from Sydney to Melbourne, you may have seen these somewhere near the airports...

KitKat wasn’t always the behemoth brand that it is today. It used to be floating around with all other Nestlé products, struggling to gain traction and make a name for itself. Like KitKat, many businesses often have a great idea or product but often find it difficult to get people to buy. Because the truth is, it’s often the best marketing, and not the best product, that wins.

On a degree of difficulty scale, marketing prescription pharmaceuticals rates high on the list. It’s an industry like no other — categorised by heavy restrictions, a shed load of data, and an audience that is limited and hugely intelligent.

To top that off, there’s also limited time to monetise the new drug before generics flood the market.

So in a few short years, your marketing campaigns need to shift choice away from the incumbent, educate those at the upper end of the knowledge chain, build brand loyalty and value above just price, and remain within the confines of the MA code.

It’s not a task for the faint of heart.

Marketing has changed. It used to be a distinct element of an organisation with a simple focus: getting goods and services from concept to customer.

But the world has changed, and so too must the way we view marketing.

As silos crumble around us and the world becomes more connected, integrated, and seamless, it’s becoming harder to see where one thing ends and another begins.

Which is why marketing needs a rethink.

And that rethink starts with a new definition.

Webinars deliver tremendous value both to the business and the audience. It’s a great and cut-through way to share, engage, connect, and educate your audience wherever they are in the world. That’s why we’ve always been fans of webinars.

Recently, Step Change had the privilege of leveraging the power of webinars.

Our CEO, Ashton Bishop, presented “Predatory Marketing: Repositioning the Competition to Build Business” to 76 CEOs, CMOs, and Marketing Directors for a series powered by GoToWebinar.

As the holiday rush pours in, you need to do more than the usual to make an impact in your holiday marketing.

To make a lasting impression that leads to conversion for the holidays, you have to be able to capture interest and emotionally connect with your audience to elicit a response and get them to engage.

The most effective way to do that is through emotive storytelling.  

In the never-ending conversation regarding marketing budgets, you may be tempted to look for ways to cut corners. Reducing or maintaining your marketing budget heading into the next fiscal year could have a more substantial impact on your company’s growth than you realise.

Your brand is anything that comes from your company as a specific source. To the consumer, it symbolises what they can expect when they do business with you. And in today’s crowded marketplace, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your brand stands out from the crowd. 

Are you selling a product or a service? If you are, then you know that having a selling proposition will make an impact and ultimately make the sale. However, it is not enough to just have a selling proposition. It needs to be enticing. It needs to be original and clever. And most importantly, the message needs to make customers buy.

So you’ve been telling your audience lots of things about your business. But the thing is, is what you’re saying valuable to your customers? Does your message resonate with them? And does your message differentiate you from the other brands?

Every cent your company leaves on the table is a missed opportunity, allowing your competitors to gain resources and customers that could have been yours. If you work with a vendor or manufacturer, there is a good change that you are not using potential marketing funds that are available to you.

What should you strive to work on in the first 12 months to successfully connect your team with your business strategy?

Invisible Marketing is the messaging customers don’t see. And this is the key to a step change for the Financial Services industry.

At Step Change, we deliver it through a workshop on behavioural economics, and it’s one of our most intellectual perspectives on marketing. Our clients usually ask us, “How do I apply invisible marketing to our brand, products, and our marketing?” Well, if you have a product that isn’t tangible, or if you need to elevate your brand to number one, this is a critical thought process for you.

I came across this question from a budding entrepreneur in an online community of marketers: “I just launched my own consultancy, and I am curious: Do I focus on reaching out and getting clients? Or do I build my brand online with the aim of acquiring clients that way?”

It’s a great question. It’s just not the first one I’d be asking. Here’s why.