OFF-MUTE 🔈
🤫 What’s the secret to early stage marketing success?
🧱 You've gotta lay a solid foundation. And it needs to be centered around a strong story.
🔦 This week, EVP of Client Service, Tiffany Darmetko, kicks off our new series, The Inkhouse CMO Spotlight, that features CMOs and their perspectives on modern marketing.
🎙️Tiffany’s first interview is with Adam Coughlin of York IE, a vertically integrated strategic growth and investment firm helping reshape the way companies are built, scaled and monetized.
💡Adam is full of insights about why companies should invest in marketing now and what it takes to grow and become successful as a brand.
👀 Check out the full interview and read his main takeaways here:
⏰ Start early. “Many companies think there will be a perfect time to start marketing— when the product is further along, when the sales team is ready, when the first marketing hire happens, after funding, etc. The reality is that there is never a perfect time and that building a brand takes a lot longer than you think. You need to start earlier than you think.”
🧱 Lay a solid foundation. “The risk of not starting with messaging is that you let the tail wag the dog. You will put a bunch of effort into campaigns but they won’t bubble up to anything. As a result, you’ll lose the benefit of the multiplier effect.”
💬 Distribute your story and build brand equity. “When people think of marketing, they often think of activities such as paid advertising, public relations, social media and content. While all of those are important, they are really just distribution mechanisms for your messaging and it needs to start with your story.” Which brings us to Adam’s next point:
🥁 Find a rhythm. “Marketing is dynamic and constant…This is why I am such a huge proponent of the drumbeat marketing philosophy.”
🌱 Grow your team. “...it can be helpful to have a dedicated marketing resource who is living and breathing your brand, your message and your customers. This doesn’t have to be a senior marketing person at first though; it just needs to be someone passionate, hungry and willing to learn from their mistakes because in early stage marketing, there will be plenty of mistakes!”
💥 Break the silos. “Marketing, along with sales and customer success, is part of your go-to-market strategy. The magic happens when all three are working in unison—not when marketing is in a silo.”
📉 Prepare for down market conditions. “During difficult economic times, it can be tempting to turn off marketing. But that is short-sighted. In those times, you have to compete even harder for every new client. You need to stand out even more. You need to market more, not less. And, again, done responsibly this will pay off.”
💬 Be human. “Whether you’re marketing software or services or a physical good, you’re talking to people. We live in a noisy world. To cut through, you need to make connections. People connect to emotions and stories.”