Watertight Marketing = sales results in the long term

27/11/2024

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐀𝐈?

The next Watertight Wednesday marketers roundtable will be on the topic of what scares marketers about AI.

We'll be joined by two guests, both eminently qualified to answer your questions about AI's impact on marketing and our future roles.

Come along with questions that have been on your mind but you've been too afraid to ask!

20/11/2024

**𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲** 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞-𝐮𝐩 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬

As many of you will know, there are numerous benefits to keeping your customers central in the business.

But... there are also quite a few challenges!

In our recent roundtable we talked about some and how to deal with them. The full write-up is published today, with eight nuggets of wisdom drawn from comments around the room.

Here's are a selection of three of them:

> Develop customer-centric competencies (one of our guests pointed to a good resource for these).
> Use storytelling to bring good and bad customer experiences to life.
> Don’t forget the employee value proposition.

With insights from our two guests plus questions and input from attendees, there's lots of ideas to improve your customer's experience.

https://watertight-thinking.com/2024/11/customer-centric-culture/

13/11/2024

**𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭**

Today we publish our latest podcast from our recent roundtable discussion on how to become customer-centric.

We had a wide-ranging discussion including how to embed it in your planning, competencies to develop, examples to learn from and how to deal with challenges.

It was a great session with lots of useful insight and take-aways from those who attended and our guests Rhian Huxtable from Insight6 and Aimee Blakemore from Flourish - Customer Journey Marketing.
👉

Topic: A lot of companies say they have the customer at the heart of their approach, but does that really stand up to scrutiny? In this session we talked about how to get to business-wide customer focus, some of the challenges and examples of where it's worked. (Note: one word of mild profanity...

23/10/2024

🐶 If customers were more like dogs than cats...

You give them love and they'd be loyal from the start.
You show them which path to take and they follow you.
You give them some toys and they want to play with you.

🐈 Cats are very different. For one thing, you don't own them. They come and go as they please.

Do join us next week at midday on 30 October when Bryony Thomas will be sharing lessons in marketing from a multi-million pound cat thief!

Info and booking details here: https://watertight-thinking.com/catsmasterclass/

And... you'll be getting a sneaky peek of the other 100 ways in which customers are like cats.

Live masterclass with Bryony Thomas, bringing you lessons in marketing from a multi-million pound cat thief

16/10/2024

🧩 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗶𝗲𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗷𝗶𝗴𝘀𝗮𝘄

Earlier this month we shared the initial findings of this year's research: how well does marketing support business plans?

As it turns out, not as well as you might want or need!

So what's missing? We identified four things:

1. Only 𝟰𝟭% 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗲𝗹𝘁 𝗰𝗿𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 about what they were selling to whom.
2. A 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹 mapped to every step of the sales journey.
3. Just under 𝟰𝟬% 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗱 at which people make decisions.
4. Teams are generally 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻.

In the discussion that followed we talked about some key issues that emerged:
> why is marketing planning so hard and
> why do MDs rate marketing so low?

👇 Read the full write-up and find out more about the four missing pieces, the two questions we chatted about and the five key actions you can take.

A write-up from our latest roundtable about how well marketing supports business plans. Starting from our latest research findings.

09/10/2024

"A slap round the face with the bleeding obvious"

This was a quote from an MD after reading the Watertight Marketing book.

He meant it as a compliment...!

He said that page by page there were moments of realisation, and he couldn't quite believe he hadn't seen things like this before. "Now you've told me, it's utterly obvious!"

On 16th October, Bryony Thomas will be sharing her four top marketing truths that every growing business needs to accept and embrace. Do join us!

Link url to register in the pic!

02/10/2024

Join us today at midday to explore our research findings, and discuss the following questions that have emerged:

- Why is marketing planning so hard to get right?
- Why does tactical ex*****on not match strategic intent?
- Does the speed of marketing make it impossible to ever keep up?
- Why do MD's rate marketing as less effective than their marketers think it is?

Still time to register - come along and join the discussion >>

Join the Watertight team on the first Wednesday of each month for a lunchtime discussion for strategic marketers that want to steps things up.

11/09/2024

“𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝘃𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀”

Our latest interview is with Damion Viney, owner and accountant running with Co-Accounting, based in South London.

One of the things Damion talks about is how, having been on some sales briefings from a training organisation, he realised how well Watertight worked with sales.

In fact, when his new business development manager started, he handed her the book, saying: this is our approach to marketing. She has been using it to map out their customer journey and there is plenty in our material about what marketing to put in place to warm up conversations with prospects, give them sense of what it's like to work with you and how to prove your promises - all things a savvy sales person would want to do.

Read the full interview here: https://watertight-thinking.com/2024/09/interview-damion-viney/.

Thank you Damion for chatting to us!

21/08/2024

**New podblog**

10 ways to screw up your marketing budget.

Bryony Thomas explores the ten things she most often sees blowing the marketing budget.

I think my "favourite" one is: counting entertainment as marketing.

I'll hazard a guess that EVERY marketer who's reading this will nod their head. Yes it has a place, and of course if can be about relationship building, but paying several thousand pounds for a box at the local rugby ground... might not be good value.

You can listen to it here https://www.watertight.school/podcasts/watertight-marketing-podblog/episodes/2148742630

Which of the 10 ways resonate most with you?

10 ways to screw up your marketing budget! This episode delves into the top ten reasons marketing budgets often get overspent. Key links to accompany this episode: The original blog post is here Key Words: Marketing Strategy, Commercial Karma, Marketing Team, Values, Vision, Leadership Team,...

31/07/2024

**New blog** Five ways to maintain marketing and business momentum

In the research we conducted last year, we found that only one third of respondents were crystal clear about their business aspirations and plan.

It's very hard to find the energy to maintain something that's not clear!

Maintaining momentum in business (and marketing) is achieved by creating a vision, being clear about your values and putting in place milestones – and then communicating that to your people so they feel part of the plan and can actively contribute.

It also involves consistent effort over time, which is where it often falters. In our new blog we explore what it takes to make sure you’re keeping up the energy in marketing and business.

A write-up from the roundtable discussion: How to change internal thinking

24/07/2024

🍧Who influences the buying decisions your customers make?

Our 𝑰𝒏𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒓 𝑰𝒄𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎 framework explains who influences the decision at what stage the journey.

In high value, considered purchases, marketing to influencers are often forgotten. They're top of mind for some products - witness the power of Influencers on social media. But these people are not the only ones who can influence your buyer.

This blog explains more about the framework and which audiences you may need to engage with.

You need to know who your buyers are talking to, and get those people on side. You need to know who’s on their team, and get them on yours.

18/07/2024

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐬?

This was the question we researched last year, publishing our findings in a paper using data from 500+ companies.

We're updating the research and would love you to be part of it. It'll only take 10 mins and you'll be entered into our prize draw, a donation of £100 from us to a charity of your choice.

Last time, we discovered that 88% of people think their marketing could do with some improvement. We unearthed what the good growth habits were, what holds most businesses back and what to do about it. We're very curious to know how things have changed.

Link to complete is here: https://watertight-thinking.com/research2024/