Spring 2020: Hell of a Learning Experience

Niche, niche, niche! This has always been my guiding force in marketing. I not only preach it to my clients, I live it in my own business. Since I launched Forethought in 2009, our expertise and focus has always been in industries like healthcare, education, and finance. We specialize in B2B and internal communication strategies. There are 3 reasons why I chose these industries:

Altruistic. I am strategic, thoughtful, creative, and a great listener—all the qualities that make a great marketer. I am really good at what I do but when I chose this career path, I struggled because I felt my role didn’t “give back.” How was a marketer doing any good in this world? So, I made a promise to myself that I would be selective with the organizations I chose as clients. I would seek businesses whose role is to genuinely enrich people’s lives.

Seasonality. At the agency where I began my career in advertising, many of the client industries were seasonal. Halloweens were ruined because I had to wait on buyers to finalize the product list to feature in Thanksgiving campaigns. The peaks and valleys felt like these wild ups and downs of being either crazy busy, working late and totally exhausted to trying to find something to do. At Forethought, I chose to ensure that the client workload was consistent and reasonable, which also worked well for cash flow.

Passion. If you love what you do and who you do it for, you will never work a day in your life. The industries we collaborate with all happen to inspire me. Healthcare – I find value-based care, epigenetics, population health and gaining insights for what’s on the horizon in the healthcare space fascinating. Education – how individuals learn and assisting them in shaping their future is a beautiful thing. And Finance – having the support to buy a dream home, acquiring a small business loan to hang a shingle, or saving for college are all beneficial to appreciate a good quality life.

As our country moved into a state of being quarantined, the industries I chose years ago became even more important. I chose businesses that matched my values at the core. Now, a fourth reason – Essential. What I have learned is that in addition to ensuring that Forethought strike a balance from various revenue streams, and ensuring the industries are ones that we are passionate about, it is also important that a significant portion of the revenue stream is coming from essential industries.

Essential – who knew it would be so important?