Everyone wants immediate marketing results, but rushing into marketing without a clear strategy often means wasting time and money at speed for less-than-optimal results. In their episode Speed Kills: Why Marketing at Warp Speed Creates Garbage, co-hosts Laura and Julia discuss the pitfalls of fast marketing. Today we’ll reinforce the marketing strategy and planning stages, and how AI haste can’t stop you from generating marketing waste.
Plan Then Execute: Laying the Groundwork
Looking at the old adage “measure twice, cut once,” the measuring part of marketing is analyzing a business as part of marketing strategy and then translating that into action as part of marketing planning. You only execute the “cut” when you’re certain about the following things:
- What Marketing is Solving: Why do you need marketing? Figuring out the pains and pressures marketing can alleviate for you (lead generation, page ranking, social media presence) is the first step.
- Best Marketing for Your Needs: Next is figuring out what marketing is the best fit for your needs. This includes your industry, your budget, and the infrastructure—website and otherwise—you already have in place or need.
- Refining Your Branding: Your brand is the primary differentiator between you and your competition. From the mission statement on your About page to the voice of your social media posts, refining and reproducing branding is essential.
- Targeting the Right Customers: Who do you sell to? Taking that and translating it into actionable information for marketing, advertising, and sales is essential. Building ideal customer profiles or customer avatars is where to start.
Failure to take these steps can lead to a ton of marketing waste: if you’re throwing marketing at the wall to see what sticks, you’re gonna waste a lot of noodles.
Fast AI is Lazy AI, and Lazy AI is Obvious
AI is the elephant in the room of fast marketing. It promises speedy, professional marketing at little to no cost, but its use can magnify the issues mentioned above when you don’t do your homework. Worse, an out-of-the-box AI is going to make the most generic marketing copy and images imaginable, giving your marketing a generic look that not only does not make it stand out, but brands it as low-effort AI slop—more damaging to a brand’s reputation than amateur marketing.
enVisioning Success Podcast
This article is based on topics discussed in enVisioning Success, our weekly podcast hosted by Vision Advertising CEO Laura DiBenedetto and COO Julia Becker Collins. In it, they discuss all things business and marketing, from lead generation to leadership. Find us on PodBean to download from your platform of choice, watch us on YouTube, or subscribe to our mailing list to get new episodes and other news delivered directly to your inbox. Interested in working with us? Learn more about our services and contact us today.
