Business-minded Marketing: 3 Examples of How Marketing SHOULD Be Done

If you follow me, you’ll know that I’m always banging on about “business-minded marketing”.

I’m sure, however, some of my more casual readers are wondering…

→ What actually is business-minded marketing?

→ Why is it important?

→ How can I practice it?

To help answer these questions, this newsletter will describe three personal examples taken from recent client experiences.

Examples that will show what business-minded marketing looks like in action.

Example 1: Collaborating with Clients on Business Decisions

One of our eCommerce clients had been offering free samples on their products for years, never questioning the financial benefit or cost.

Whilst developing a new website for them, we questioned the profitability of this practice and analysed historical data.

It was not profitable.

In fact, it had a negative impact.

The % of customers who made purchases after ordering a sample was actually less vs. those who didn't!

Aside from this, this practice also negatively impacted the efficiency of business operations due to the time it took employees to send out regular samples.

We removed this option from the product page and anywhere else it appeared on the old site.

The conversion rate increased, as did the business' profit margins!

Example 2: Focusing on Business Metrics, Not Just Marketing Metrics

During our initial discussions with a recently onboarded client, they explained their commercial installation services are more profitable than their product offerings.

Even though their products generate more revenue.

→ The avg. profit margin on products = 30%

→ The avg. profit margin on installation = 60%

When segmenting their campaigns, a significant portion of the budget was allocated to promoting this service.

On paper, this meant our campaigns produced less return on ad spend (ROAS) than they could have.

But, instead, they contributed to a higher gross profit.

Example 3: Leveraging Customer Data for Product Development

We launched an ad campaign for a new skincare brand around 15 months ago.

From a standing start with significant investment, they saw a huge amount of traffic and revenue.

We noticed, however, a particular lack of repeat purchases for the (initially) best-selling product.

A type of anti-ageing cream with extremely high search demand.

The cream had, on average, a 6 month supply.

So, around 6-9 months after the campaign, we predicted that product revenue should gently start to see a steady increase.

That’s because customers would return for repeat purchases alongside a continued stream of new customers.

When this didn't perform as we had predicted, we theorised something was wrong.

So we turned to customer data.

As a newly launched brand, we insisted on collecting as many product reviews as possible through personalised email flows via Klaviyo .

This helped us garner quite a lot of reviews in a short space of time.

When we analysed the product reviews, around 15% of them mentioned that the product was either too “oily”, “greasy”, or another similar word variation.

We booked a meeting with our client and relayed our findings.

They listened to everything we had to say, went away, and created a new “non-greasy”, lightweight formula!

It’s only just (re-)launched — so we’re awaiting results on this one.

I’ll keep you all posted!

Key Takeaway

Many marketers and agencies would regard this sort of work as outside of their remit.

And that’s the problem.

Businesses often fail because their marketing and business strategies are not aligned.

So, what’s the key to business-minded marketing?

Collaboration and attentiveness.

Step 1: Understand your clients’ business objectives.

Step 2: Factor them directly into your overall marketing strategy.

Has anything piqued your interest in this newsletter? Comment – don’t be shy!?

Alternatively, if you’d rather discuss anything 1-on-1, reach out to me directly on LinkedIn or book a 30-minute consultation!