Sounds like an ambitious title for a blog post, doesn’t it? While we do know lots about marketing, where are our credentials in business and life that allow us to talk about success?
Well, it started recently when we were looking at better ways to predict marketing success in our campaigns, trying to isolate the core factors that have the biggest impact on results.
It was a topic we were revisiting as we had gone through this process a couple of years ago and the result was our Marketing Enablement Program. The contents of that program are based on many years of experience and represent our view on the best practices in marketing. However we now wanted to drill a bit deeper and see if we could narrow it down even further. Then we came across this quote.
“There is no road to success but through a clear strong purpose. Nothing can take its place. A purpose is the eternal condition of success.”
— Theodore Munger
It really got us thinking. In all the business books and courses we’ve taken over the years, a core recurring theme is about purpose and vision. You always need to know where you’re going – the clearer that vision and purpose, the more drive you seem to have to get there.
If you read any biographies of successful people, there is always something about purpose. It’s a strong purpose or vision that sustains them through the failures, the difficulties and the ups and downs.
And it applies to marketing as well – but not perhaps in the way you think.
When we work with clients, messaging is always important, but some clients really struggle with it. They know WHAT they do, but they’ve forgotten or lost WHY they do it. How are they unique – what drives them and what draws customers to them? In a nutshell they’ve lost their purpose. (There’s a great TED talk around this topic that you might like to checkout by Simon Sinek – “Start with Why”)
When we work with businesses that still have that very clear purpose and a clear vision, we find the messaging and content just flows, prospects really respond to it and the campaigns are more likely to succeed. And while we know that there are many other ingredients for success, in our view, it all starts with a strong clear purpose or vision. How’s yours?