Have your cake and eat it
Balancing a two tilt marketing approach

Have your cake and eat it

When I first took on the responsibility of leading marketing functions, I quickly recognised that while my marketing strategy might be solid, securing stakeholder alignment to view the branding element as a long term investment would be a challenge. The pressure for immediate results was quite intense, and it became evident that without demonstrating early successes, my team would struggle to maintain momentum and get the internal support to lay out longer term plans.

Show don't tell

In that moment, it was clear to me that we needed to 'show' rather than 'tell' the value of our brand strategy. Borrowing from my novel writing, the 'show don't tell' writing technique is something many authors live or die by. You must show your readers what's going on, you can't simply tell them.


Show don't tell writing technique

Back to the marketing strategy. I set about breaking down our overarching goals into smaller, actionable milestones that could deliver iterative gains. This approach meant that we could achieve short term wins that validated our approach while keeping our sights firmly on the long term vision.

For example, we launched a series of targeted campaigns directed at well defined personas. These activations not only heightened brand awareness (indirectly) but also drove a measurable increase in engagement within the first quarter. These early successes were critical in demonstrating that the strategy was on the right track, earning us the right to advance our broader, long term initiatives.


Extract from an early strategy paper. I didn't have all the answers but I stand by the two tilt approach.


As we continued to deliver on these smaller efforts, the cumulative impact became clear. Stakeholders who were initially focused on immediate ROI began to appreciate the bigger picture - the incremental gains were compounding, and slowly but surely, our brand was becoming stronger and more recognisable. This iterative approach built trust in the marketing function but it also helped me to execute some above the line initiatives that didn't warrant large, disruptive projects.

Ultimately, the lesson I learned is that a successful brand strategy must balance both short term wins and long term objectives. It sounds so obvious but what wasn't always clear as a bell to me was this:

It’s not enough to tell people that branding is a long term investment; you need to show consistent, tangible results that build towards that larger payoff.

And so, by taking a two tilt approach and showing instead of telling, it is possible to cultivate a culture where the marketing team understands that every small win is a step towards creating that end goal: Enduring brand value.

This post is part of my recent thinking on short term wins vs long term gains. I plan to write more on this topic because there's definitely more to say! But I'd love to hear your thoughts.

James Walker

CEO at Curiosity Software | Driving Productivity and Quality in Software Delivery with the Outer Loop Platform 🚀

4mo

This is great. Thank you for sharing Emily!

Jason Hancock

Delivering increases in retention, revenue, profit & LTV for mobile & web apps, loyalty programmes and membership portals|Expert in UX/UI design & development|Driven by the deepest understanding of users|Co-Founder

4mo

Really cool approach. I am heading and experiencing a lot of the pressure on short term wins. It's definitely impacting on the briefs we are seeing out there.

Caroline Carlqvist

Turning complexity into clarity

4mo

Breaking a strategy into milestones that allow you to make progress iteratively is indeed a great way to have your cake and eat it! I really love how you formulate it! And it is a very effective way to convince people who are only looking for short term gains. Thank you for sharing this Emily Tippins 👏

Silke Tolkmitt

🚀 Empowered Teams in Tech | Superpower Trainer for Management, Sales & Marketing on the journey to a holistic customer and partner strategy | Marketing & Team Consultant & Coach |

4mo

Let all of us have and enjoy cake while driving both. Thank you Emiliy!

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