We all love stories, so I thought November could be a month for telling a few marketing stories and lessons learned along the way.
Starting off with and oldie but a goody, as they say:
Not storing all your contacts exclusively on social media
Despite sounding like a stuck record when advising my clients to create a lovely, clean, opted in CRM database for marketing purposes, as a social media culprit, I am terrible for leaving all mine in my platforms. Which is super convenient… but I don’t own those platforms. And what happens when – the horror – they go down?
Which of course happened one evening.
LinkedIn went down for several hours. I wanted to contact someone about an impending project, and had been conversing via LinkedIn without moving it over to email which I SHOULD have done as we were in advanced discussions.
A stressful evening ensued.
Moral of the story: Social media messaging is quick, easy and convenient. But you don’t own those channels, you never know when they might change and yes, even LinkedIn occasionally goes down. Move to email when you start having businesses discussions, obtain data consent and plug into your CRM system. And don’t leave it to long to set up your own CRM system. Working off spreadsheets is too clunky for a business that wants to scale!
The end.
Nothing is original
Being original is hard.
I spent yonks writing a blog once, only to discover a very close competitor had written one exactly the same. And as we were both targeting the same customer segments, had a similar business model and therefore objective in writing it, the result was simply far too close for comfort and I ended up canning said blog.
It’s OK though. I repurposed that content in another way to be super-efficient and because I cannot bear waste.
Moral of the story: It’s nigh on impossible to be entirely original most times, so searching to see what else might be out there when it comes to any kind of marketing idea is a good call, just to ensure you don’t duplicate. Do your research!
And here’s a top tip on being “original”: sometimes it is worth obsessing less about whether it is truly original and work on being truly authentic instead. Remember the first ideas are always the most conventional!
The end.
Word of mouth is a powerful thing
When I started out as a marketing consultant, I spent a huge amount of time meeting up with my network. Coffees upon coffees and I was not sure where they would lead to. I was generous with my advice and looked to help where I could. It’s something I still love doing. What is the point of having a network if you can’t help everyone in it?
There were many naysayers when it came to this approach. Many said I must not give my time and thoughts away for free, I needed to monetise it and charge.
But the return I have had in word of mouth marketing has been amazing. So many endorsements from those people who I developed relationships with, recommendations that have led to meaningful business opportunities, positive endorsements on social media and a huge amount of advocacy in helping to create a buzz about what I do.
I love my amazing network in legal. It has been instrumental in me building a business. Thanks to all of you reading this blog right now who are part of it!
Moral of this story: No matter how large your business is, whether you are a founder or the managing partner of a global law firm, nurture and look after your network and it will repay you a thousand fold.
The end.
If you are a client who would like to work with me and be part of a new marketing story, just drop me an email at
