One of the key tenets of my G.R.I.T. Marketing Method is learning how to be more intentional in your marketing programs. Being intentional with your marketing programs will lead to:
- more qualified leads
- higher conversion
- more overall impact
What does it mean to be an intentional marketer?
Put simply, an intention is the plan you aim to execute and the goal you are trying to accomplish. If you are being intentional, you have a purpose in mind. Doing something with intent is doing something you mean to do, whether you end up pulling it off or not.
This is the difference between executing a well-thought out campaign designed to meet a specific company objective, and an ad hoc campaign that you threw together in an hour.
When you market with intent, you keep your focus on your audience and are very deliberate in:
- the types of programs and content you build for your audience
- which channels and format you use to disperse information
- developing the message
This may seem obvious, but somewhere along the way, whether it’s because we’re busy or we don’t have enough information, we might have gotten off track.
Sometimes it’s simply a matter of focus.
The roadblocks to marketing with intention
Despite the best of plans, it’s not easy to act with intention.
Once upon my time I had my marketing team track how often they were interrupted with random requests. The average they came back with was 200. In one week each person was interrupted 200 times.
Each and every day my team stopped what they were doing to field requests like:
- I’m going into a sales call in an hour: can you throw me a slide to show…
- I need a t-shirt to give away…
- Hey! I’ve got this great idea…
- Can you just create a little logo for me?
Interruptions like this can really impact your productivity, and if they are not helping you meet the ultimate objective of the company, you need to stop doing them.
How to be more intentional every day
I believe that you have to be intentional with every single thing you do, every minute of your day. Otherwise you’re spinning your wheels and you’re potentially producing programs and content that are meaningless.
If your job is to focus on the strategic programs of the company, but you are getting distracted by a million requests that steal your focus, you need to learn to say no.
You also need to show others that your outcome, and the impact, is a direct result of your being intentional. It wasn’t dumb luck or magic. It was pure grit.
Ready to get even grittier? Dig into the G.R.I.T. Marketing Method with my book, Sway: Implement the G.R.I.T. Marketing Method to Gain Influence and Drive Corporate Strategy.
