How artificial intelligence changes the future of work

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This post originally appeared on the Remote-First Institute Blog.

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In recent months, since the global introduction of ChatGPT, the internet has been loudly vocal about AI. It is the new shiny thing. As with anything that moons over the hype cycle rapidly, the best thing we can do is to relax, calm down, and take a big step back to evaluate the situation appropriately. Let's see how artificial intelligence can really change how we will work in the future. 

To understand what AI can bring to the world regarding the future of work, we need to understand what AI is in the first place. Now, I want to avoid going into technical details, but there are two fundamental ways AI contributes to today's world. 

Fundamentally, AI can do two things now, which will be refined in the upcoming years. 

First, it can take a massive amount of data, analyze it, and throw it back to us based on the prompts we give. It can be text (copywriting with AI), it can be visuals (image creation with AI), it can be music (audio creation with AI), or even a combination of all in the video. 

Second, AI shines where there is automation. Human prompts can configure the AI to do tasks, utilizing AI analysis capabilities. Now that part was here way before ChatGPT made it to the front pages - just think about the stock market and the bots that make investment decisions based on algorithms. Expect that these automation practices will extend further in the future.

The bottom line is that AI helps with analysis and automation. 

We, future of work experts, when it comes to meetings, we say a lot that "this meeting could have been an email" - to avoid burnout because of meeting fatigue. 

In the AI-influenced work, I'm sure we will say a lot that "this could have been an AI task automated" - but will this mean that most of our jobs will be done by bots? 

I don't think so. But there will be five areas where AI will definitely shape and fundamentally change how we work.

Solving problems over analyzing problems.

In general, those jobs whose sole purpose is to analyze problems will change fundamentally. Most of the analysis becomes an AI workflow.

Data miners, data scientists, or literally anyone who works with huge chunks of data right now will see an increasing influx from AI in their tasks. 

Of course, we will still need the human element, those who write prompts to the AI, as the AI doesn't know what to analyze. 

Parallel to that, the fundamental skill of solving problems will be incrementally valuable in the future of the workforce. Problem-solving, in general, becomes essential as human prompts need to understand the big picture to control AI workflows effectively. 

Ladies and gentlemen, creativity is back on the stage.

With the introduction of an army of technology and tools to workflows in the early 21st century, the creative workforce pretty much ditched creativity from work. 

Everything became a tech-created template. Everything became a SaaS. And everything got measured, tracked, and monitored. Everything ended up as a hack. It was especially true in the creative industry, where creative agencies literally became tech companies. 

Now that we can create written text, audiovisual content, and full-blown digital properties with a click of a button supported by AI, we will see an even more extensive amount of template-based production. Everything will start to look, read, and feel the same way. 

It inevitably jumpstarts creativity back in the driving seat. We will still use AI capabilities but spend more time on actual creative strategy. Of course, it will affect first the creative industry, but it will go beyond that. 

Anyone who will work with AI, which will be most of us, will need to spend more on making processes and production efficient, unique, and distinctive. Therefore, creativity will be an essential skill on top of problem-solving for the future workforce.

Say goodbye to HR. Long live people analytics!

What is HR now? It manages people as resources: paperwork, in-out flux, and internal development, whether skills or culture. 

Most of this work will be done by AI, and I believe this will be one of the first areas where we will see massive adoption. 

The activities of employees produce a great deal of data. Collecting these insights is part of people analytics anyway. But the insights can serve as a backbone for decisions only now. It will change with AI. 

Why? Because AI doesn't care who you are - it cares only about what you do and how you do it. As a result, most of the bias and inequality we see daily in the workplace will go out of the window. The AI doesn't care what your gender, race, nationality, location, or religion is. It cares about your performance only.

I'm 100% sure we will see AI recommendations on performance within years. AI will play a fundamental role in compensation, bonuses, employee reviews, and employee retention. Not to mention the endless paperwork which will be done in an automated fashion by bots - but that happens anyway with most of the bureaucracy (so I wouldn't sign up for a law degree in 2023 if I were you). 

Of course, the human element will stay, but we will call it something other than HR. It has to be a human who makes the decisions ultimately - the AI can only recommend. Also, people want to talk to people still - we are far away from human-bot relationships. 

I would bet on the rise of people analytics jobs mixed with people-first roles, such as work experience designers, people experience specialists and more. 

Async recruitment/hiring is here and won't go away.

Asynchronous hiring and recruitment are already getting traction, and they will be even more dominant in the future. It is easy to understand why. 

Let's say you have a role, and you have 1,000 applicants. All of them submit their CVs or profiles to your ATS. Do you still go through all of them manually as you would with a dating app, swiping left and right? I don't think so. 

With the language processing and automation capabilities of AI, the first 1-3 phases of recruitment will be fully async and automated. Recruiters will step into the picture on two occasions: configuring the AI filtering based on the job role requirements and doing the screening interview. 

Anyone who participated in recruitment as a recruiter can tell: that is pretty much the most time-consuming part of the job. The AI will present only those candidates for a screening who are fit for the role, at least based on their skills. The rest, cultural fit, for example, still be part of the recruitment's human element.

I am sure that recruitment, in general, will experience a tremendous shift in workflows just because AI will do most of the work for them. 

An era of more horizontal and transparent organizations has begun.

After all the direct impact we went through, there will be a massive indirect hit on all organizations. They will become more horizontal and more transparent. 

Since monitoring and analysis will be part of AI workflows, and the human element will be much more needed, the middle management of companies will face a fundamental shift in their roles. 

People who spent most of their jobs creating reports and facilitating project management with their teams through delegation and standups will face enormous challenges. It will be hard to justify why we need those activities if we have a full-blown AI supporting our internal workflows. 

People who spend most of their jobs analyzing work will have the same issues. AI will support most decisions as well as facilitate them. And the AI will be able to make those decisions better - since no human can compete with the analyzation capabilities of a computer. 

So where is the way out? How can we ensure that our jobs will still be needed, even with the addition of AI in the upcoming years?

It is a simple answer. It is the answer to all the challenges above. It will all come down to human creativity, problem-solving, empathy, connections, and relationships. 

The future of the workforce becomes more people-first. Yes, you've heard it right. We need to take a more people-first approach when we add a non-human (AI) element to our work. 

We need to be more supportive and spend more energy on creating work environments that facilitate empathy, understanding, and the value of people. We need to invest less in tactics, analysis, and decisions and more in our teams' facilitation, support, mentorship, and coaching. 

People support people. We mentor each other. We help each other. We take care of each other.

The most crucial indirect effect of AI will be in learning and development. Within years, organizations will spend more resources on internal L&D programs. Not just to upskill their AI prompt skills to work better with AI but also to level up their skills in mentorship, support, and facilitation. 

Regarding the current stage of remote work, flexibility won't be just part of where and when we work. But with AI's mass adoption, it will also be about how we work with each other. 

2023 and 2024 will be the best years to sign up for learning and development programs to help you level up your current team.

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Why a daily standup meeting is pointless, and what to do instead?

In agile marketing management, there's this trend of daily standups for marketing teams. It came from the agile development method. Now, I'm not sold if a daily standup is needed for developers, but I'm 100% sure it is unnecessary for marketing teams. Let me explain why and what you need to do instead.

Frankly, I'm not a big fan of regular meetings in general. My aversion towards meetings doesn't come from my personality, I'm not an introvert or extrovert, and I'm super confident enough to lead a discussion. I've spent years in the ad business, where we had these creative sessions, brainstorming gatherings, and account meetings. Looking back at it, we would have been better off with 90% of these meetings if we had used emails instead. I can't stand if we waste each other's time, imitating that we are working.

So now you know where I'm coming from when it comes to meetings in general. But I have a rational explanation why any daily standup, especially a marketing standup, is utterly pointless. Let me explain.

The essence of a standup meeting

For a start, let's quickly run through the basics of a daily standup. An agile daily standup is not about solving problems but reporting on project progress, delegation, & asking for support. Usually, they cover the three main points: what are you doing today, what are you trying to finish today, and do you have any blockers to achieve your daily work? The daily standup is also short, usually keeps a fast 15-mins format. There can be minor differences depending on how you run your agile team, but that's the gist of it.

The question of independent work

Now, first, and I have to be frank here as well. I think every leader's responsibility is - and as a CMO, you are a leader - to hire grown-up people. People who can manage their time, manage their workload, and if they are stuck, they are proactively raising their hands. They are independent. If you don't have these people on your team, it is time to do some human resources check-up.

The question of remote work

Second, we are talking about remote teams. In a remote environment, the entire company is operating online. It also means that all project management is online, hopefully, run through a versatile and capable online tool. If you are a good marketing leader, your team should have pre-populated tasks already, not for a day but for weeks to come; most of them are regular tasks, such as sending out newsletters, updating marketing channels, etc. If you are a good marketing leader, you also manage the tasks and the individual responsibilities - everyone is aware of who's doing what and who is responsible for specific tasks. If they don't, they can look it up online on the tool you use - it is transparent. Since an agile standup meeting never addresses problem-solving, that's another meeting, just the what you did, what you will do, and do you need support to do it. It is entirely pointless to discuss if everything is up online transparently. It is a waste of time. It also feels like you are checking up on others, making sure they are doing their work.

The question of marketing teams

What happens if you don't have a daily standup for your marketing team? Two problems can occur. One, the task won't get done. You will know immediately if that newsletter won't send it out itself. You will also know from the project management tool who was the one who checked out. Two, someone makes a mistake because they didn't ask for support for their task. I understand that not everyone is proactive in seeking help, but after one mistake, anyone can be reminded to ask for support if needed.

Instead of having daily standup meetings

So what to do instead of an agile daily marketing standup meeting?

You can do three things, very simple.

Just don’t do it

First, you can skip them altogether. If your team has independent, responsible, and proactive people - they not just won't need this meeting, but they will feel that this meeting is entirely pointless for them anyway. You will still have a weekly project meeting, but that will be a more extended meeting with room for problem solving and support. And there will be a feedback meeting at the end of the week where you reflect on the week's results. These are valuable meetings.

Bet of automation

Second, use automation. If you use a project management tool, Trello or Asana, or pretty much anything, they usually have automated notifications for those assigned to particular projects. You can hook up these notifications to any other tool; I would opt-in for Slack or a team chat solution. When you start your day in a remote team, you open up your laptop, then our email, then your team chat. With automated notifications, you immediately see your tasks for the day - and your manager also sees them. No need for the daily standup - it's in the notification transparently. If you need support, you contact those who can provide support for you separately and proactively.

Have asynchronous meetings

Third, have an asynchronous meeting. It is useful especially for those who operate across continents with very mixed timezones. It is also helpful if you are working on an urgent project with a strict deadline approaching. In this case, a face-to-face standup might be more effective than simply relying on the project management tool and its notifications. Now the format can be anything. Since this is still a remote environment, it will be better if you write it down as it will be searchable, and you can document & archive everything. A simple routine of a daily email or chat would do, but you can do recorded video or even audio as well. It forces everyone to think through their day, report on what they will do, and write it down or speak it out. Now, it is still a daily meeting - but instead of gathering into one place at one time, everyone can express themselves without pressure or personal expectation.

Meetings for the marketing team

In general, I feel that marketing workflows are much more hectic and more fluid than a development process. Sometimes you can't segment it into days of work; you have to spend more time delivering some results. Therefore I think daily standups are pointless tools for overengineering the work. Also, in the creative process, you need to discuss ideas - you can't just break them down into tasks.

Because of all of the above, I think meetings for a marketing team should be much longer than 15-mins, and they should be not daily but weekly. Suppose you have a large team of marketers with multiple people assigned to performance marketing, content production, and others. In that case, you can have separate meetings with them, but also not as a daily schedule. If you do so, make sure you have weekly all-hands scheduled for everyone.

There is a lot to discuss on organizing workflows for your marketing team - but I'm sure daily standups are not viable solutions for getting things done. What's your experience? Do you agree?

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What should you do in your first 30-days as a Chief Marketing Officer?

Congratulations, you've just got appointed as Chief Marketing Officer for a growing company - now what? What would be your first steps as a newly appointed CMO? How will your first 30 days look like in the company? 

If you have been working as a marketing leader for years, you probably saw a lot of company setups. Every company is different, of course, but they tend to have similar challenges when it comes to marketing - no wonder why marketing agencies are offering similar services on the market. So just by routine, you probably can guess your first steps within your new role. 

But if this is your first opportunity to act as a CMO, you either learn the hard way or prepare yourself for the challenges. This article gives you an entire process that can be customized or applied to almost any company. 

Who’s this article for?

Now let's start particular 'any company' part. The process I will detail below can help those marketing leaders working for growing companies with dedicated resources and somewhat defined marketing goals. The industry doesn't matter much, but technology, professional services, healthcare, and innovation-heavy sectors are the best where this process can shine. Also, this process is somewhat redundant for those enterprise-level companies that operate in multiple locations with a staff of more than 1000+ people. So in plain English, we are talking about growing businesses with 20-100 people on board and around $1M monthly recurring revenue (MRR). 

One more thing. You have to have reasonable experience in marketing. I tend to see that companies, especially early-stage startups, appoint a head of marketing & CMO staff while their entire marketing team is one junior marketer. I'm all into the fact that it is better to let a senior marketer grow into the position of the CMO within 2-3 years internally. You can't just start your company's marketing team from the top-down. Therefore the process that I detail here can be helpful for the 1-person-army marketing "team" leader; it works better for those with at least 4-5 years of experience in marketing and managing at least a 3-5 people-strong marketing team.

So now that you know the context - let's dive in.

Your first week

Some people tend to skip the first week and focus only on familiarizing themselves with the team, the company, and the internal working style. Usually, the first week has a lot of meetings with a whole lot of meet & greet. If there is any onboarding process within the company, they tend to dedicate the first week for an entire onboarding process. However, as the new hire, you should have your own goals to achieve - even on the first week of the job. 

Find out the why

First, the most crucial goal is to find out why they hired you in the first place.

Why do they need a marketing leader? What are they lack? What is the main pain point for the company when it comes to marketing? Was there a previous marketing leader, and what was their experience? These points will help you understand what the main priorities for the job are. They also help you provide immediate insights for your strategy - these are the points that will serve as the foundation for quick wins. 

Learn more about the current marketing setup

Second, learn as much as you can about the current setup they have for marketing.

What platforms do they use, and what are the results? What tools do they have, and how do they use them? What are the material resources, what's the marketing budget? A simple checklist is helpful to walk through with the leadership. If the answer is unknown or not defined for some questions, there should be a why behind it. For example, if there is no pre-defined marketing budget, or they calculate marketing staff salaries into that budget, there should be a conversation about the proper allocation. The insights on the current setup will help you understand the causes behind the current problems, which will help you form your strategy on how to solve the current challenges.

Meet your marketing team

Third, get to know the people. You probably will report to the CEO or the founder(s) or someone equivalent. How they manage will define the success that you can deliver. Especially at early-stage startups, the founders tend to be micromanagers - they just can't let go of their baby. Learn as much as you can about their priorities. You should also get to know the people that you will be working with directly.

Every member of your team wants two things from you: support for the work they are already doing and support for more growth within their career. Learn what they do and where they aspire. 

If you achieve all three goals within a week, you probably end up with enough insights to form a strategy. You will know what you can do from what resources. You will also understand the internal dynamics, team structure and start to bond with your marketing team.

Your first month

There is a lot that you can achieve within 30-days. However, while the first week detailed above can be applied to almost all scenarios, the first month can be different depending on the company where you work. The process here splits into two ways, but fear not, there is only a subtle difference between the two. 

If you did your first week properly, you are overwhelmed with insights. The number one insight that you should pay attention to is this: does the company have an existing marketing strategy, or do you have to create the first one. If they don't have one, the process is simple. If they do have one, you should review that strategy and come up with improvements.

There are three things that you should do within your first month.

In order, prepare a comprehensive audit on the current state of marketing at the company, prepare a strategy based on the audit, and prepare an annual roadmap on how you would implement the strategy.

If the company already has a marketing strategy, you should review it within the audit and develop your version anyway. That's where the two roads are different, and that's all. 

Prepare a marketing audit

Remember those insights that you gathered during your first week? They will serve as the backbone of the audit. If you think you still need more information, spend the second week on research as well. Sometimes it's worthwhile to invest in user research and other external services, but I wouldn't advise going that deep during your first weeks. 

Simply put, your audit summarizes the current marketing activities, their current results, the current marketing team, and their responsibilities, the existing resources and their review, and finally, the goals and objectives of the company with marketing. The audit is unbiased, factual, so gather as much data as you can to support your statements. Your audit should be a written material, ideally a presentation, and you should present it to all the stakeholders internally. The audit has two goals: it sums up the current scenario and instantly gets everyone on the same page. 

You can choose to prepare the strategy and present it simultaneously as your audit, but I would advise you not to do that. While you can summarize the current marketing ecosystem for the company, getting everyone on the same page might be challenging. I would get everyone's approval first, then go with the strategy.

The audit's primary purpose is to act as the foundation for your plan and show that you have understood the company quickly and analyzed the setup. 

Prepare your marketing strategy

Once you are done with the audit, it is time to show your strategy. Every marketing strategy is different, of course, but all should have five elements. It doesn't matter what business you are in, the industry, or what the audit showed you - it is the same five elements. Now we can go deep-dive into management consulting terms, strategy matrixes, and whatnot - but I believe in the power of plain English, so let's break it down into these five parts in a straightforward manner.

The first element is all about considerations. It is the part where you recap the insights of your audit, but you go slightly forward: show what we could learn from the audit, what we should consider. What are the pain points, and where is the market going. What should you be aware of, and what are the key challenges? What are the company's key strengths, what can we capitalize on when planning the growth? You should pave the upcoming strategic statements within this section. 

The second element is about goals and objectives. By this time, you had the chance to talk to everyone and learn everything about the company - recap the goals and objectives here. There are two types of goals - business and marketing. Business goals should come from your CEO & founder(s), marketing goals should come from you. These goals are essential to state in the strategy because you will provide KPIs and metrics on how to measure these goals at the end of the strategy. 

The third element is your strategic approach. The core part of the marketing strategy describes how you would meet your marketing goals while taking into account all the considerations.

There's no standard recipe here - it can be a highly detailed marketing funnel, a creative content platform, or anything you fancy. The bottom line is, you have to be precise, sharp, and your approach should deliver a predictable outcome of results. 

The fourth part is your tactical approach. You should be able to describe how you would implement your strategy. It is not a project plan; that is the roadmap - but you should explain what needs to be done to implement the plan. It has to describe the possible fixes of the current setup, providing quick wins. It has to tell the upcoming activities, immediate actions, and it has to detail the exact purpose of the activities. Your considerations and goal-setting are the why. The strategy is the how, while the tactical approach is the what.

The last part is the metrics. Sadly, this is the most overlooked part of every strategic marketing plan. But without proper metrics, you won't be able to measure the results of your strategy. It is different what metrics you should consider using; it all depends on your plan. I always love to provide four types of metrics: hard KPIs, soft KPIs, and hard & soft metrics. KPIs track the results, metrics track the performance of your activities. There should be a hard (primary) and a secondary (soft) for each.

The more important the result, the harder the metrics should be. Once the strategy gets approval, you should track all your metrics from day one. Monthly reporting of marketing activities is all based on these metrics.

Sell your strategy to your team

After you show your strategy, there are two remaining things you should do within the first month. First, you should sell the strategy internally. You need to consult with your marketing team to get their feedback and make sure they are on the same page with you. Being a marketing director is collaborative, so you need to communicate with all the stakeholders internally to finalize the strategic phase. Lastly, you have to present a roadmap - this should come entirely from you, as you are the team leader. 

The roadmap brings your strategy to life - it details the marketing activities as a project. It is an annual plan broken down into quarters, but it starts with a pre-work phase, the quick wins.

By this time, you know the situation with the marketing, what you need to do, and you are aware of the problems. Some problems are easy to fix or amend - you should do so within your first month. These are the quick wins that provide immediate results, plus by improving them, they establish your credibility internally as a marketing director. 

Your first 90-days

After you did everything right in your first 30 days, what usually happens is that you can turn your focus on the long-term results. The following two months are insanely different for everyone. It all depends on your current setup, the company you are working with, and your strategy. 

Most of the time, 3-months are enough to show long-term results. It is enough to set a foundation for long-term marketing activities, launch a new campaign, kickstart a marketing funnel, or create a content platform. You can also make amends to your marketing team as well, hire new people if needed. It is enough time to do experiments and see their results, check your metrics, and see what worked, what didn't. No matter what you need to do, at the end of your 90-days, you should review your strategy again publicly and make adjustments for the next quarter, if needed. 

I hope this article helped you to get more comfortable in your new seat. Share your feedback, or share your first 30-days story by dropping a line here. If you need further support, do reach out - I would be happy to help.

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Why you shouldn't focus on quick wins too much

Quick wins. Low hanging fruit. As a marketer and consultant, these are my most hated words. Let me explain why. As our podcast guest, Chris Kalaboukis from Hello Future said: "The best fruit is way up at the top, but you only go for the low-hanging fruit. And then you just continuously go for the low-hanging fruit. Meanwhile, your competitors are going to go for the higher hanging fruit."

Today, leaders cherish quick wins as they deliver easy-to-see results. But quick wins eat long-term strategy for breakfast.

The bottom line on why leaders need quick results

If you were sarcastic enough like me, you would say that an average user in 2021 has an attention span somewhat similar to my dog's focus on a random wooden stick. Everyone wants instant gratification, not just on social media. And every service provider aims to please their clients with said fast results. It almost doesn't matter what industry you are in—marketing consulting, performance marketing, or simply business consulting. You have to be able to deliver super-quick results now, then worry about long-term goals later. If you are old enough, you remember how a business strategy meeting looked like before the 2010s. We planned out at least a year with quarterly tactical plans. Today we are lucky if we can get into quarterly planning with a client.

But what is the purpose of a quick win anyway? It is simple.

Quick wins exist to reassure you that you are on the right track. It would be best if you didn't plan to pick the low-hanging fruit as a goal - but you need to pick it to know that you are at the right tree.

Three points where quick wins harm your business

If your focus is solely on quick wins, there are some ways they can cause more damage than deliver results.

First, you quickly jump into micromanagement. That is the root of all evil. Focusing on quick wins will make you focus on the details, the small little hinges. And while you might see immediate results that will let you calm down during business planning, the results will fluctuate. You will soon end up with some parallel processes, where you need to balance to see the big picture.

Second, quick wins will tie your hands to focus on things that really matter. If you are constantly chasing short-term objectives, you won't be able to plan properly. Pretty much, you will end up in a constant problem-solving process. Without the vision, the time needed to define the big picture, your focus will shift, and the future will turn grey.

Third, there are others, a precious few, who are still focused on meaningful planning.

Anyone who's reaching for the higher hanging fruit will ultimately benefit for the long-term. They put in the hard work. They put in the time. They stayed committed. They never changed their plan, no matter how hard it was to stay on track.

What should you do instead?

What needs to be done is as simple as it sounds, yet only a very few businesses do the way it should be done.

1. Do your homework and plan. There are fundamentals you need to figure out before you focus on short-term results. Have a go-to-market strategy for your product. Do customer research. Learn more about your market. Figure out your long-term strategy.

2. Never mix-and-match long-term goals with short-term objectives. Your goal should be set and should lead you to the future. Your objectives, though, can be short-term. There, you can have your quick wins to reassure you that you are on the right track.

3. Stay committed. If you believe in your vision and your planning work supports you, never deviate from your plan. Even if you have short-term failures, never deviate and change course. It is the hardest thing to do in business, especially in times like these.

My best example I can give to you is a simple one. Imagine a YouTube influencer that you love to watch now. Now go to their channel and scroll way back in time. In most cases, their first 50 videos are of lower quality, poorly edited, and have lower views. Imagine how hard their commitment was with their message. They continued to produce their videos, one-by-one for months, sometimes even years, meanwhile only their close friends and some bots watched their show. But they stayed committed. Eventually, their channel kicked in and delivered longtail results. It's easy to think that they 'hacked' the system and win the race - but you rarely hear about those influencers who quit producing content after 10 videos with zero views.

Plan ahead. Stay committed. Stay on track. Focus on the higher-hanging fruit first. The low-hanging ones will come to you without any effort.

Watch our podcast guest, Chris Kalaboukis talking about quick wins & innovation. Listen to the whole episode here.

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A simple positioning process for B2B companies

One of the critical elements for a successful marketing strategy is positioning. However, many companies can't crush it. We wanted to give a simple process applicable to most B2B areas, especially for professional service providers. 

How do you know when you need to rethink your positioning strategy?

There are a couple of scenarios where you need to invest time & resources to define your positioning correctly.

• When you just launched your business. Typically, startups mix up positioning with niches. They think that their product or service will define their market position anyway - but this is not true. It only explains what industry niche they are active in. For example, if you have a product that helps small businesses to accept card payments, you are in the SME fintech niche - but it is not your market position.

Simply put, you can't skip your positioning strategy when you are just starting because your product or service won't define it for you on its own. Others are providing the same solutions on the market - you have to be different.

• When you reached a certain point with your business. This scenario is typical for medium-sized companies. They started with a position; they evolved beyond and now need to rethink their mission, goals, and ultimately position on the market.

Positioning is not something you set and forget - it has to evolve and change with your business.

• When your market changed, forcing you to change your business. Typical for those who used to do business in a certain way, but the market moved ahead. They might not feel a push back, as old-school is still working, but their competitors will soon eat their slice of pie as well. Legal companies are a great example of this, sticking to traditional networking, capitalizing on their attorney profiles to get new clients - but people are looking for specialized help with a lot of upfront value-based content.

You can't skip upgrading your business to the current needs, and an upgrade starts with your positioning strategy.

The five steps of our positioning process

Our process is insanely simple, but it takes a lot of effort to go through it properly. We designed it for general purpose, and we can apply to any business scenario. However, we've found that it works best for B2B service providers. If you have an in-house marketing team, you can implement this process on your own as well. We advise using a facilitator like us to get objective results.

The first step is RESEARCH. Before we do anything, we do a lot of research on the market. Our research focuses on three key areas:

1. Your competitors. Everyone operates within a niche industry nowadays, and no one is alone doing so. Proper competitor analysis is mandatory for any positioning strategy or plan.

2. Your customers. You have to know your customers' pain points to offer correct solutions to them. Gathering intel on what your target audience wants will help to craft better messages within your positioning strategy.

3. The broader market. Like day traders can't ignore the current trends of the market when they are trade, you can't ignore the market trends either. It doesn't mean you need to follow the trends - but you have to be aware of them.

A tangible output for this step is a market report with competitor-, customer-, and market analysis. No actionable steps yet, just insights.

The second step is an AUDIT. Gathering all internal stakeholders, decision-makers, and opinion leaders within your company is a crucial need for this step. We can't recommend a positioning that is a) not doable with your current internal resources, b) is not within the company's future vision, c) just not desired for whatever reasons. Your whole company should fully own the new position; otherwise, it won't work. This step should produce an audit report, seen & approved by all stakeholders. 

The third step is STRATEGY. With all the information gathered from the previous two steps, at this point, you can create a positioning strategy for your business. The plan should detail the summary of the research & audit documents, the reasoning behind the strategic switch, the goals & objectives, the necessary steps (tactics) to fulfill the strategy, and KPIs to measure the plan's effectiveness. We always include quick wins, and teams stay motivated in completing the procedure when there are immediate wins for the business. 

The fourth step is the DESIGN. It is inherently different for everyone - a collection of materials to achieve the business's desired position. Simply put, this step is the production work that is needed to fulfill the strategic approach. Most companies do a design makeover at this step, rewrite their messaging, maybe push out a complete set of new content. 

The last step is implementation, LAUNCH. Usually, the previous step's production work has a set of milestones. Completing the milestones will launch the positioning strategy into action. The stage is ready; the curtains are down. We always recommend keeping a close eye on the results & metrics. Monthly marketing reporting with an additional KPI report should be a priority for at least a quarter. There might be some adjustments to the positioning strategy because of the reviewed data.

As described, positioning is not that hard. Positioning IS focus, a focused approach for your business. It is why you need to focus time & resources to craft a positioning strategy that captures your customers' attention. 

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The secret to a zero $ marketing machine

If you spent any cash on marketing so far, you would probably be familiar with cost-per-lead and cost-per-click terms. There is a quantifiable figure on how much you need to spend to get a client. How much does it cost to drive a prospect through your funnel and turn them into a client? We bet you would be thrilled to know that this figure can be zero $ - or even better, you can make a small ROI on every dollar you spend on marketing without considering your usual sales figures.

We discussed previously that value-based marketing is a good call to reach potential leads. Now you need to prepare a sales offer that turns leads into clients.

Most businesses go with one or maybe a few high ticket offers. But most people are not ready to buy a high ticket offer from you right now. But that doesn't mean that they are not prepared to buy. If you ignore these people, you will leave a great deal of money on the table.

Enter downselling. You have to create an offer that is low-priced but still high-value. This offer will convert most of the leads in your pipeline on day one, increase your customer base, and pretty much pay out their acquisition cost, making your whole marketing budget liquid. And the best part? Micro-offers like this can instant-qualify leads into sales-ready customers. Anyone who bought something from you is a potential customer who will buy something else.

I'm sure you are familiar with IKEA, the furniture store. Did you know that putting an affordably-priced restaurant plus a food court in their stores was and still is part of their marketing strategy? IKEA was one of the many furniture companies selling affordable furniture via its warehouse-style stores. Serving food was one of the prime distinction from their competitors. It reinforced their family-brand, plus it is easier to sell furniture to someone who's not hungry. Today, more than 1/4 of their visitors come only because of the food, which accounts for 5% of their revenue. Buying a couch is above $1000 - getting a meal for the family is below $100. It is the power of downselling.

Our practical tips on creating your low-priced downselling offer:

• Even if it is low-priced, it has to have tremendous value. Remember, it might be cheap to eat at IKEA, but it is healthy and tasty and distinctive. Where else could you get Swedish meatballs with gravy? Your downselling offer shouldn't be a low-priced, low-value version of your full-priced offer.

• Connected to the point above, never highlight the bargain value of your offer. Your offer's weight should be much higher than the price - it is the only way to generate buy-in from your customers.

• Learn as much as you can about your customer through this downselling offer. Those who bought-in on the proposal are all potential buyers for further, higher-priced offers. The more you know about them, the more comfortable you can sell the high-ticked offers.

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How to provide value to your customers with marketing

In recent years, the concept of value-based marketing became a practice only within young entrepreneurs - but the rest of the industry forgot about it. Why? Because of two things - first, customers attended too many 'free webinars' and other bullshit solutions masked as sales calls. Everyone became more paranoid and cynical. Second, giving value is hard - you have to understand your customers' problem, create a solution to solve it and provide value around it. Most businesses fail even with the first step.

To understand value-based marketing, you must understand the principle behind it: you provide value for your customers without asking anything from them in return.

You can't pull them into a webinar on whatever topic, which is essentially a sales call. You 'just' provide a webinar with an insane amount of value in it; that's it.

We don't waste time with story-mode, but there's a great story that helps everyone understand how value-based marketing works. Bruce Henderson founded Boston Consulting Group in 1963 - at a time when other companies like McKinsey dominated management consulting. Despite the fierce competition, he managed to grow the company so big that it is now part of the Big Three, the world's three biggest consulting companies. How he did it? With a simple marketing technique: value-based marketing. He published his ideas in short stories called Perspectives and sent it to potential clients. He provided value for free and showed a genuine understanding of his clients' problems, and with his insights, he actively helped them succeed. Within years, the company grew above the sky because of value-based marketing that served BCG an influx of leads.

Today, it might not be the best option to write short stories and mail them to senior executives. But though formats change, tactics stay the same. Content that adds value still acts as a powerful magnet for leads. Frankly, you are reading a piece like that now.

Value is useful. Value is entertaining. People are more likely to buy if they are learning something useful in a simple, digestible format.

The most useful tactical advice we can give you when it comes to value is a simple one. Provide value all the time. Don't waste anyone's time - value should present itself even with a simple headline.

Lastly, the value should be actionable for both sides. Your customer should find it useful for consideration, even for implementation. But it should be actionable for your business as well. The value should drive your customer further into their buying cycle. Make sure you include a call to action at each lead magnet content piece you create. Call to action shouldn't be a sales offer - just a drive for further action.

After all, though value can be free, your help is not.

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How to broaden your audience and get more clients

Essentially, you can increase your sales with two tactics. You either increase your conversion rate on your current flow of leads, or you can increase the number of leads you get to get an overall impact on the figures. We believe that you need to combine the two efforts into one with one tactic: focus on the few who are ready to buy from you now but always talk to those who are not there yet.

Your audience segments

Generally, your audience has five segments. There are those, the majority of your potential clients, who are not problem aware - they don't know that the issue you are solving exists yet. Others are aware of the problem, but they don't know how to solve it. Some see the solution and actively looking for those who can provide the solution for their pain. And others are aware that you exist and you offer the solution. A few of them are ready to buy from you. Most sales teams focus only on these few - they are easier to convert as they are aware of the problem, know you have the solution, and have a genuine interest in buying.

In a previous post, we said you need to create a solution that solves their immediate problem. With different tactics detailed here, you can increase your sales team's conversion - but that works only for the few who are ready to buy. It would be best if you also increased the incoming flux of prospects, so you have a funnel set to provide enough leads for your sales team.

Ultimately, you have to increase your traffic, generate more buzz around you, make people aware that you exist - you have to talk to the many.

How to do it

What is the best way to achieve that? A simple combination of content and targeted ads. While ads can deliver a high impact on a short timeframe, content is more longtail. You need some content to supply ammunition for the ads, but the most effective long-term strategy is to become a thought leader in your industry. You have to become the authority who has the solution to your customers' problems.

You have to be everywhere, highlighting that the problem they might not know yet, exists.

You have to promote the ideal solution everywhere, furthermore, stress that you offer that solution. The tools you need to use are different for every business - it can range from guest posting on blogs, answering forum questions, being very active on social media, providing free webinars and other content, etc.

However, the ultimate goal is the same: put yourself at every stage of your customers' research. Your sales team can convert more easily as your ready-to-buy leads will want to buy from the best in the industry. Those looking for a solution will find you quickly, and with an efficient marketing funnel machine, you can move them quickly to the stage where they are ready to buy. You can get on the radar for those who are not aware of the solution or even the problem.

Your active ad campaigns should reflect your approach - the more platforms you use to drive traffic, the segmented your visitors will be. It is worth balancing your marketing budget between multiple ad platforms, even if your resources are limited.

Speak to the many, broaden your audience. With this tactic, you can increase your conversion rate and the number of your leads. But to maximize the impact, you need to provide value. In our next post, we define the concept of value-based marketing and what is really behind that.

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Why you need to learn about your customers' pain points?

It might sound a bit too dark but hear us out. You probably heard about the thing about painkillers vs. vitamins. Painkillers are easy to sell because people need them right now to solve an immediate problem. Vitamins are harder to sell because they don't fulfill an immediate need. Everyone knows that certain apps can help you have a more balanced diet, but when you are on the road and hungry, Google Maps enables you to find the closest grocery store.

Your goal is to become an essential solution for your customers to solve their immediate needs now. After all, no one will buy you anything if you offer something that your customers might need or will need. You have to provide something that is needed right now.

If you want to jumpstart your sales, you need to create offers that solve immediate problems. To do that, you need to learn the pain of your customers. What is their most pressing issue that you can solve? What is the single most crucial pain-point that keeps them away from achieving their goals?

Once you know the problem - you can offer the solution.

How to learn about their pain?

Well, you need to do some research. There are three main areas where you should start.

Start with the most important and widely-used platform, Google. Everyone is typing their questions into Google in desperation to find a solution to their problem. Check keywords around your existing product or even within your industry - what is the most searched phrase. Check related Google searches, which gives you the exact questions your prospects are searching for answers. A simple Google search can provide you excellent top-of-the-head value around the most excruciating pain points your customers have. You can top Google searches up with tools like the Google Keyword Planner or Answer The Public - the latter is one of the most powerful marketing research tools.

Funny how the internet hasn't changed in the last twenty years.

After the casual search options, the second area where you need to look at are the forums. Online forums are places where people ask questions, socialize, talk, and exchange ideas. They are not forums per se, but platforms like Facebook Groups, Quora, Reddit, or any industry-related groups are the best options to get the gist of your customers' problems. Find the most active forums, groups, or threads - they usually have enough insights for you.

The last area where you need to look is the world of public reviews. It depends on your business, but platforms like Amazon, Yelp, even Facebook or Google My Business are an excellent way to gather relevant insights. Good, 5-star reviews are OK but focus on the bad reviews. People provide points that are missing from a product or a service - if you can create solutions that solve these missing points, you are in for business. Focus on your competitors first, then broaden your search within your industry.

We always recommend gathering the information into a spreadsheet for later use. It is essential to check the pain points but equally crucial to follow how your customers explain their pain. What words are they using? How they phrase their problem? That information can help you craft better ads, better headlines, better offers that address your customers' pain points with their own words. To your customers, you will become a mindreader with this tactic.

But pain is not enough - that addresses only those who are ready to buy now. What about those who haven't faced a problem yet? Click here to learn how to focus on the broader audience from the following tactical advice.

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