Bryony Thomas, Watertight Marketing – InnovaBuzz 209

Bryony Thomas, Watertight Marketing

In this episode, our guest is Bryony Thomas, of Watertight Marketing. Bryony is an inspirational marketing speaker, and author of the book Watertight Marketing which has been variously described as “a must for small businesses”, as “the entrepreneur’s essential marketing manual”.

Through her book, her speaking, her events, and her hands-on support, Bryony gives entrepreneurs and business leaders the clarity, the confidence and structure to transform their marketing to put their business on a sustainable growth curve.

In our discussion, Bryony talked to me about:

• How the standard old marketing funnel has outlived its usefulness as a metaphor and what’s a better one
• The profit – purpose matrix as an adjunct to the ideal client exercise and
• Taking a long term view of marketing from a customer-first perspective

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Marketing is there to slow things down. Good marketing creates moments for purposeful pauses where someone stops, thinks, and actively chooses to move forward. @BryonyThomas on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet

Show Notes from this episode with Bryony Thomas, author of Watertight Marketing

Key points and takeaways from this episode include:

• Marketing has essentially the best bits of everybody else’s job. It has psychology, art, creativity, statistics, and science. It essentially has a bit of everything.
• The word “funnel” and what the diagram represents are opposites of one another. When you put water in the top of a funnel, all of it is going to come out whereas the sales funnel diagram actually shows reducing the number of people in each stage of the process.
• Language is extremely important. The more you use a word, the more you believe that the thing exists. If you continue to use the word “sales funnel” as if a funnel exists, it fundamentally undermines the way that people address the process.
• Turn the funnel upside down and improve the touch points at each stage from the bottom up. By the time that you get to what most people think of as marketing, there is much less to do because everything that passes through it is better. It converts better and you spend less because the people you are speaking to are the right people.
• Good marketing takes somebody through a buying decision wherein they remain happy even if they are not going to buy from you.
• Marketing is how you treat people, and treating people decently is a business strategy.
• The Buying Continuum – Draw a line in your mind from the left to the right. On the left-hand side, you have an impulse purchase. On the right-hand side, you have a considered purchase. If you think about this line from the left for purchases that are made in a heartbeat to purchases that are made in a bit of a merry dance, the further it is to the right, the more pauses there are in a journey. The more you slow yourself down, the more you consider, and the more you consult, the more the watertight marketing model comes into play.
• Things people consider when making a buying decision:
  • Financial burden – is it simple or financially complex?
  • Time – is it something you can get the benefit of quickly?
  • Number of people involved in the purchase decision
  • Functional Complexity – how does it work?
  • Emotional Weight
• Marketing is there to slow things down. Good marketing creates moments for purposeful pauses where someone stops, thinks, and actively chooses to move forward.
• Good marketing means that a salesperson can be one step ahead with an outstretched arm that is inviting somebody to move forward. Bad marketing means that the salesperson feels like they have to stand behind them and push them.
• Be confident about saying NO from the outset because often you get slowed down by taking in work that is easy then you realise it is easy to win because you don’t want it.
• What is below the line of visibility should stay below the line of visibility.
• Your ideal client needs to be iterative. It needs to be built into your annual planning.
• A book that really spoke to your needs to be read a few more times and in a few different states. Come back to it and read it more deeply to find out how all the bits of it fit together.
• Having a set of thinking tools and frameworks helps people understand what is going on. Structures set you free. It is where creativity happens.

Having a set of thinking tools and frameworks helps people understand what is going on. Structures set you free. It is where creativity happens. @BryonyThomas #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet

The Buzz – Our Innovation Round

Here are Bryony’s answers to the questions of our Innovation round. Listen to the interview to get the full scoop.

1. #1 thing to be more innovative – Get some really good structured thinking tools and models. It helps you organise your thoughts and there are often angles and lengths that allow you to spray your thoughts and structure them to see how it all fits together.
2. Best thing for new ideas – Writing the book.  
3. Favourite tool for innovation –  Post-it Notes. 
4. Keep project / client on track –  Having the MD or chief executive fully on board with the project. Make sure that there is a really cool set of learning that goes through the whole business. Make sure that the whole team has that broad jigsaw box view of what’s going on.
5. Differentiate – Be a decent human.

To Be a Leader

Write a book. Even if you don’t publish it, it will make your thinking clearer, better, and stronger. Putting yourself out there is a sign of leadership.

Reach Out

You can reach out and thank Bryony through her website, and on Twitter.

Suggested Guest

Bryony suggested I interview Warren Knight, the author of Think Digital First. So Warren, keep an eye on your inbox for an invitation from us to the InnovaBuzz podcast, courtesy of Bryony Thomas.

Links

• Website  – Watertight Marketing
• Twitter – @BryonyThomas
• LinkedIn

Book

• Watertight Marketing: Delivering Long-Term Sales Results

Cool things about Bryony

• She started her marketing career when she was 19, managing telephone fundraising campaigns for UK’s best-loved charities, and secured her Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma.
• She became the divisional director of marketing for FTSE 100 company, Experian, at the age of 28.
• She loves pink wafers and a strong cup of tea with milk and no sugar.

Write a book. Even if you don't publish it, it will make your thinking clearer, better, and stronger. Putting yourself out there is a sign of leadership. @BryonyThomas on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet

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