Innovate Media

Online Video Strategy Experts

What The Art of War can teach us about Online Video Strategy

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I consider myself a pretty good cook. To tell the truth, I sometimes overestimate my cooking ability and that’s when things typically don’t work out so well.

I’m not really one to use recipes, tending instead to rely on my perceived skill or memory of how things are prepared or how much of what goes into which dish. This serves me well, most of the time, but it only really needs one butter cake coming out of the oven looking more like a pancake to realise that without a good recipe you’re really just hoping for the best.

Now think about how you’re approaching your digital marketing. Are you following a recipe? Or just throwing a bunch of ingredients together and hoping for the best?

The Art of War

Sun Tzu was a Chinese general and philosopher who lived over 2,000 years ago and is most known for writing ‘The Art of War’.  Now clearly, he was writing with respect to military tactics but what’s really valuable about his writings is the lessons we can learn to apply to modern day business and marketing.

Sun Tsu wrote;

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

For me, this quote sums up beautifully one of the main issues I see many businesses make with their digital marketing. So often we see the tactics without strategy approach which only results in noise online… and ultimately defeat.

Let me explain.

Tactics without Strategy

We’ve all been guilty of it numerous times in our business, treating our digital marketing from a solely tactical perspective. Throwing out tactic after tactic, flitting from one tactic to the next, thinking tactics rather than strategy and effectively failing to look at the bigger picture.

Post a status update (tactic)

Create a quote card for instagram (tactic)

Email out a newsletter (tactic)

Upload a photo (tactic)

Make a video (tactic)

The result… it all just gets noisy and we have no idea if our tactics are actually achieving anything. In fact, we have no idea really of what we want to achieve anyway!

Strategy without Tactics

The other side of the proverbial coin here is to be too focussed on defining a strategy and never getting around to implementing any tactics. As Sun Tsu says, this is the slowest route to victory. In fact, I’d go one step further and say you’ll likely never get to a victory if you fail to implement the tactics.

Where I see this happening often in digital marketing is businesses who have worked with an agency to define and document a detailed digital marketing strategy plan however they fail to take the necessary steps in their team to ensure the plan is actually actioned, and the marketing content rolled out.  All bark… no bite.

The truth is that an effective strategy is basically useless without the method to implement it – tactics.  On the other hand, tactics without a strategy are often just consuming time, resources and space with little understanding of how (or if) to see a return on investment.

Which comes first?

As you now understand strategy and tactics are intrinsically related and one without the other simply fails to be effective. However I believe that defining the strategy is often the best place to start.

Stephen Covey wrote in his seminal book ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’;

“Begin with the end in mind”

Effective online video strategy starts by knowing what it is that you want to achieve. The goals for your marketing should be the foundation of your strategy and directly inform the tactics that you implement (or the content) within it.  When it comes to online video too often businesses are approaching the creation of content with little thought to an overarching strategy. Instead simply throwing ideas together, producing pieces of video content that may look great, but fail to align with their intended goal and with little consideration of how to even measure the success of the campaign.

In reality this sort of digital marketing is exactly like trying to bake without a recipe. You may think you’ve got the ingredients right and are using them in the right way, but what you end up with is far from tasty.

Tell me in the comments… how do you approach strategy in your digital marketing?

Why you need to earn Permission in your marketing

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Permission marketing was a term coined by Seth Godin (all hail) well before its time. From a book that was published in 1997 the concepts and ideals ring just as true today as it did then.

So what is Permission Marketing?

It’s the concept of engaging audiences who actually want to receive your marketing message. Either explicitly gained when a consumer ‘likes’ a page or subscribes to an email list, or implicitly understood when someone actively and happily consumes marketing content that excites them, provides value to them, entertains them or tells stories to them.

Permission marketing seeks to always create marketing content that people actually want to engage with. It’s no longer about interrupting you in the form of loud, attention seeking ads. Its about you allowing the brand to communicate their marketing to you.

If there is anything to take away from this blog post then it this:

REALISE THAT ATTENTION IS SOMETHING TO BE VALUED, NOT WASTED.

When you have someone’s attention it’s precious and should be treated accordingly. In our information heavy world attention becomes an important asset as consumers are getting better and better at ignoring brands messages.

Ok, so how do I get attention I hear you ask?

  • Be entertaining
  • Be engaging
  • Be honest
  • Be helpful

There could be a whole blog post on these traits alone however, what’s most important is when you gain your customer’s attention you need to show respect!

Permission marketing is very similar to dating. You don’t ask for the sale on the first date. You earn it over time and if you have done it right they will want you to come back again and again. This moves past traditional interruptive marketing efforts and allows for synergy like one-to-one or other personalized marketing activities and that leads to MORE ATTENTION and importantly MORE RETENTION.

It always comes back to the relationship with your customers … how do you keep your customers attention? What do you do to show respect?

Tell us about it in the comment box below, we would love to hear your experience.

Starting with the ‘Why’: A Digital Marketing Framework

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“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it” – Simon Sinek

If you haven’t yet seen this powerful TED talk from Simon Sinek then stop reading right now, and go and watch it.

At the heart of this powerful presentation is the idea that is at the core of all effective marketing strategy, and influences the most influential business people in any industry (whether they realise this or not). In short, if people don’t buy into your ‘Why’ then they sure as likely are not going to buy into you, or your product, or service. The simple truth is that if you’re wanting to engage your market online, and in particular through video and you are not clear on your Why, then you will undoubtedly miss the mark, and definitely ‘miss’ your market.

So, how do you find your Why?

Simon Sinek describes your Why as the ‘purpose, cause or belief that inspires you to do what you do.’ It’s your reason for getting out of bed in the morning and for being (or staying) in the profession you’ve chosen. It’s the drive that pushes you to succeed with your clients or to grow and develop in your business. Your Why is not money, or financial reward – that’s a result not a reason. Your Why in your business will come from your people, it should be driven by your Directors or Founders, it should be embraced and personified by your team, it should be real, and at the forefront of your business everyday.

Let’s work through a framework for finding your Why, and consider how gaining clarity on this can equal real results for you in business and in your digital marketing strategy.

Step 1: Define Your Core Values

What’s important to you? What values drive you in moving forward in life? What are the main things that inspire you to take action, to do things that are difficult to do, or make one decision over another.  Write down your top 5, in order, on real paper.

  1. ___________________________________
  2. ___________________________________
  3. ___________________________________
  4. ___________________________________
  5. ___________________________________

(examples: family, health, freedom, adventure, service, impact, flexibility, success)

Step 2: Set Your Goals

Taking action means nothing without clarity on your journey, and where you want to end up.  Setting goals on both a macro and a micro level, that align with your core values, provides focus and accountability to your strategy. Your Why will reflect your goals, so take the time to get these on paper too.

Personal Goals:  (what are your top 5 to achieve in the next 12 months, or 5 years)

  1. ___________________________________
  2. ___________________________________
  3. ___________________________________
  4. ___________________________________
  5. ___________________________________

Professional Goals:  (what are your top 5 to achieve in your business or career the next 12 months, or 5 years) – NOTE: these should align with your personal goals above.

  1. ___________________________________
  2. ___________________________________
  3. ___________________________________
  4. ___________________________________
  5. ___________________________________


Step 3. Identify Your Intention to Influence

In the first two steps we gained clarity on our beliefs and our purpose in both life and profession however this really means nothing if we have not considered who we aim to engage with or influence through our work. Knowing your Why, needs to have a context for lasting change within your real world. If you are not clear on who you want to have an impact on in life and business then you’re destined to cruise through life achieving very little. Not least of which, in the context of your marketing strategy, having no clarity on the target audience you aim to influence is a great way to fail.

Those that you intend to influence should align with your goals (both professional and personal), be congruent with your core values, and tap into your passion.

Let’s work through a framework for identifying the target of your influence.

  1. What do you love talking about more than anything (in business or life)?
    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
  2. What is the problem that this passion can solve for someone?
    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
  3. What is your method for solving that problem?
    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
  4. Who are the people who have this problem?
    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The answers to the above questions when driven by the results of the first two steps will become your why. Your next step… massage those thoughts into a clear ‘Why’ statement.

My Why?

I’d love to share with you today my ‘Why’ statement, which drives my business and frames my digital marketing approach across my multiple businesses. I’ve developed this myself using the framework above.

I’m passionate about engaging people and growing businesses. I’m a curious learner with a drive to innovate with technologies, whilst encouraging authentic marketing. I want to show inspired professionals and corporate influencers how to grow market reach and revenue in the real world by tapping into the power of online video marketing for their business.


What do you think? I would love for you to share your ‘Why Statement’ in the comments.