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- Don’t mistake the wheel for the car
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The importance of marketing strategy explained with a Porsche

Don’t mistake the wheel for the car

“Well, don’t mistake the wheel for the car.”

with this clever sentence answered a colleague of mine when someone asked about doing SEO as their one and only marketing activity. That person was convinced that if she’s doing SEO ‘right’, then – magically – she’s got her digital marketing (and of course her monetization) sorted.

Unfortunately, without a bigger picture,

it would not even be possible to say what kind of SEO was right for her business. You need to nest this marketing activity of search engine optimization within a bigger picture – goals, market, products, target group.

Indeed it’s a common misconception people have when it comes to digital marketing and also digital sales. There are several reasons for that, one being simply that there are so many people out there trying to sell you their stuff whether it’s Facebook Ads or SEO.

No one of them would be interested in reflecting on whether this specialty will be needed for your project.

You need to have a concept for the car first – and then you can go ahead and create the single parts.

Really good marketing works the same way.

Or if you’re not so into cars, let’s put it this way… Let’s assume you intend to create a painting.

You can go ahead and place spots of color onto a piece of paper – still, without a bigger concept to which picture this color spot will add life to, the color spot will remain just that:

A color spot.

Without marketing strategy anything can go wrong

It lacks connection and purpose.

The painting project will end up as so many marketing endeavors do:

As unrelated actions that don’t add up to one goal.

Not only is this very unsatisfying as you never get to get a real picture or a satisfying one at that, but also it will also evaporate your budget – instead of focussing it.

Start with the car, not with the wheel.

So, some practical advice on what to watch out for:

  • A photographer might have a very keen eye for high-quality visuals – and still, he/she’s not a web designer.
  • A graphic designer delivers design, not marketing.
  • A logo is not a brand – only one element of creating one.
  • Doing SEO is NOT online marketing.
  • All these might be necessary parts of your marketing – but in itself, they are only wheels.

What is your bigger picture?

Did you figure out your “car” first?

Do your wheels fit the car?

Leave your experience or questions referring this issue down below in the comments.

Just in case your ‘marketing car’ so far is all unrelated wheels ;)… feel welcome to reach out to us. 🙂

 

Kristin Reinbach

As the owner of agency „OVERW8“ and building on more than 20 years experience in marketing, Kristin is consistently thinking along the terms of ‚customer value‘, ‚brand value‘ as well as business models. Consistently meaning when she’s out for dinner, sitting in a cosy ski hut as well as having a sundowner wine at a vineyard. Like this, it’s simple logic that her primary job now is to support entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial teams with this know-how to create more brand value, more customer value and thus more company value. She’s sharing some of these nuggets here on OVERW8’s blog.

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