June 17, 2024

Brooke MacLean Shares the #1 Factor for Business Success

Recently, Marketwake CEO Brooke MacLean was featured in an episode of Inbound Back Office, offering her insights on marketing agility: the #1 factor of success for any business. Keep reading to get actionable advice for marketers looking to stay agile in the ever-changing marketing landscape.

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Key Points Discussed:

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Marketing Agility: The Key to Success

Brooke starts by emphasizing that marketing agility is about breaking free from outdated routines and continuously adapting to new market realities. As a marketer, the importance of questioning existing practices and being open to change is unparalleled to make sure that marketing strategies remain effective and engaging.

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The Story Behind Marketwake

Brooke also shares the inspiring story of how Marketwake got its name. Our agency's mission is to help companies leave a significant impact, much like a small boat creating a large wake. This metaphor underscores our commitment to helping brands achieve extraordinary results through innovative marketing approaches.

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Balancing Data and Creativity

Brooke explains that one of the core strengths of Marketwake is the ability to blend data and creativity. We use data to inform our strategies while incorporating creative elements that capture and retain audience attention. This balance ensures that campaigns are both effective and memorable.

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Importance of Challenging Habits

In the podcast, Brooke also discusses the psychological aspect of marketing agility. Many organizations fall into the trap of doing things simply because they have always done them that way in the past. She advocates for regular reevaluation of marketing efforts to ensure they are still serving their intended purpose and adapting as necessary to maintain effectiveness.

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Tailoring Strategies to Different Markets

The conversation touched on the differences between B2B and B2C marketing. Brooke explains that while B2B campaigns may have longer sales cycles and require more sustained efforts, B2C strategies need more frequent adjustments due to faster market changes and shorter attention spans.

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Embracing Risk and Innovation

Brooke is a huge proponent of encouraging risk and innovation. She states that growth often comes from stepping outside comfort zones and trying new approaches. You have to trust your marketing team and give them the freedom to experiment and innovate.

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Measuring Success

Finally, Brooke discusses how to measure success in marketing. She advises against getting lost in data and instead focusing on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that align with business goals. Her recommendation: use data to identify trends and make informed decisions about when to pivot or double down on specific strategies.

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Listen to the Full Podcast

Check out this episode of Inbound Back Office for valuable lessons all marketers and business leaders can use! By prioritizing agility, balancing data with creativity, and continuously challenging the status quo, companies can stay ahead of the curve and achieve lasting success.

To follow along, access the transcript to the full podcast below.

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Podcast Transcript

Welcome to the Inbound Backoffice podcast, where we chat with smart agency owners about agency challenges. I'm Amy Foley, CEO of Inbound Backoffice, white label plug and play staffing and recruiting for your marketing agency. Today, I'm chatting with Brooke McClain, who is the CEO of MarketWake. And we're going to be talking about marketing agility being the number one factor of success. 

Welcome Brooke. 

I am so glad to be here.  

I'm glad you're here too. Thanks for coming on the show. Tell us a little bit about MarketWake.  

Yes, MarketWake, we're a growth marketing agency, and we're really, we're most known for helping brands with a holistic campaign strategy and performance marketing. Um, we combine data and creativity to really help drive results, uh, and we say we're growth marketing mostly because That is what we're the best at.

We're not great at just keeping on the lights or we're doing keeping the lights on or doing things just to maintain. We are very motivated by goals and very motivated by helping our brands reach those goals. And we also believe that Some of the best brands out there are agile, uh, in the way that they approach marketing and that's really where we come into play to help them be agile, to help them dream big, to help them, um, set lofty goals that maybe they weren't comfortable with setting and then figuring out a way to reach them. 

I love it. I love it. And where did you come up with the name market week? I really liked that name.  

Uh, yes, it was  naming a company is hard. It is not agreed. It is so impossible. Uh, it everyone was like, oh, it's easy. So I, I felt very called to start this agency. I was the CEO of a tech company before this, uh, and it was a software company that I had been a part of for years and years.

It was going through a pivot. And during that time, I worked with a lot of different marketing agencies, uh, To help grow that company. And in working with a lot of those agencies, I realized that they were either on the data side and the analytic side and not very great with creative and messaging, or they were very good at the creative messaging and branding, but had no concept of how it tracked back.

And so I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. And it kept coming back to, I wanted help to help people. Um, Make a mark in the world. And I was sitting there on a, at a, on a dock at a lake house. And I was watching all the boats go by and each one left a little bit of a wake. It was in no wake zone.

It was really early in the morning. It was beautiful day. And I was just  praying, contemplating, trying to figure out what this next move was going to be. And then all of a sudden, this little tiny bass boat came by and that it was going the exact same speed as all the other ones. But that tiny boat left a wake so large that it shook the dock that I was on.

And that's really where the name and the concept and our mission hit me of how do we help companies. Leave a wake so large that it impacts the world around them. And even the smallest act, the smallest businesses, the smallest individual can leave a massive wake in the world. And that's really where we were,  where we began. 

Ooh, I love that. I love a good name story.  Awesome. Um, okay. So marketing agility, tell us a little bit about what you mean by marketing agility.  

It means not doing things just because you've always done them before. And that is something that a lot of people say, Oh yeah, we don't do things just because we've done them before, but people are creatures of habit and habit is powerful.

I don't know if you've ever read atomic habits or the power of habit. There's a lot of positive to forming habits and routine. And it's something that we have to teach ourselves and practice because it does improve our lives. The problem with that is when we fall into habits that we are not cognizant of, and some of those habits become, well, this is the way that we do things.

And you don't even realize that a lot of times it is subconscious, but it starts to feel uncomfortable when people ask questions, why are we doing something? Does this really work? Is this as effective as it could be? And what we find is a lot of people are doing those not just because they're  They are bound by the tradition of it simply because there are routines to their day and their habits that they have formed that served them at one point that don't necessarily serve them now.

Um, so it is half of it is about marketing agility in terms of the tactics that we deploy. The other half is really in the psychology of how we kind of fall into those routines. And what does it look like to shake it up? Um, and so a lot of times when we come in and work with a client, we're asking a lot of different questions of how long have you been doing this?

Is it effective? How do you know if it is effective? Do you think that you and your team are willing to try something new? And then we come in and shake it up with the tactics of saying, all right, the market changes constantly. It is always evolving. What worked yesterday does not work the same way today.

And people's attention spans are short. I mean, it used to be. You could listen to a podcast for several hours and now it's. And so it's how are we packing in as much as we possibly can with shorter attention spans where we need to entertain. We need to engage people quickly. Uh, and we need to tell a story and that is so important.

A huge aspect of what we mean when we're talking about marketing agility is it is not just about telling people what you do. It is about engaging them with something that they haven't heard before. Getting past that initial desire to scroll that that dopamine effect that we all have to say. All right, what's next?

What's next? What's next? Um, so some of it is and helping people think outside of the routines that they formed.  Because maybe they're not serving them the way that they used to. And then the other part is explaining, Hey, whether you're B2B or B2C, we really have to help you entertain in a way that maybe your company hasn't entertained before. 

That's really interesting. Cause yeah, like I'm a very habit and routine oriented person, so I can definitely see how it would be very easy just to get into those routines and not even pay attention to whether it's. It's working or not anymore.  It's just what we do, not just what 

we do. And I mean the same thing with like workout habits.

If you work out consistently, if you do the exact same workout for a year or two, all of a sudden it doesn't serve you the same way. And you're like, Oh, it's so strange. I'm not getting the same results that I used to. And it's because your body gets used to it and it starts to anticipate what comes next and you're not really.

Yeah. Mixing it up enough. And so if even our bodies get used to a certain routine or a certain habit, then the masses certainly do. And we, that gets translated into the way that we work, um, and it eliminates the ability to be creative, whether we realize it or not. And creativity is all there's this quote that I love.

It's no, the rules like the pro to break it. Break them like an artist. And the reason why I love that quote is because we do have to know the rules. We do have to have our team. We do have to have a habit. We do have to know what our brand guides say and what our audience is and what messages work. All of that is very important.

But when we do the same thing over and over and over, it comes to be anticipated, whether it is our body or our audience or just The mechanisms in which we work, it becomes anticipated. And when anything's anticipated, it doesn't really sink in to the amygdala part of our brain. It just becomes white noise.

And so the break, those rules like an artist is not always, but sometimes when we break those rules, it shakes us up enough to say, whoa, whoa, whoa, we need to recalibrate, or let me pay attention to that. Or that is something that I will, I will. Think on and ruminate on later. Um, so a lot of what we do is say, okay, what is, what are those evergreen campaigns that are consistent?

And then how do we punctuate them with art, with creativity, with something that stands out?  

I love that. I love that quote. I'm definitely going to write that down and remember that  

it's so good because rules are important. Routine is important. Habits are important. And if you're always breaking the rules, then that in and of itself becomes expected.

So you can't do that. You can't even break rules consistently and think that it's going to work. It's really when there is consistency and you punctuate it with something surprising is when you get the most attention.  

Right, right. Is there a general, um, like,  I'm gonna say time frame, um, of like how often we should be re evaluating, like, what we're doing and seeing if it's working, like, because if you do it too often, I would imagine that that's not good, but then if you let it sit too long, you've done damage before you, you know, change it up. 

It really depends on your sales cycle  for B2B when the sales cycles are really long, sometimes three to 18 months, you can't change it as often because someone is, has an expectation of what the process is supposed to be. So in B2B, sometimes we're looking at annual campaigns or campaigns that look. Uh, maybe 16 months just because they're much longer sales cycle, um, in that obviously that you have to be producing lots of interesting and entertaining content because you're always needing to get people in your funnel, but it is a little bit longer of a process to deploy that level of, um, campaign or creativity.

In B2C it's different. I mean, those campaigns are, you have to be reevaluating every six months. I mean, monthly, weekly, daily, absolutely. Should you be looking to see what works and what doesn't? Um, but you can't change too fast or you don't really have time to understand what's working and what's not working.

And I think that that's another mistake people make is not letting  your marketing efforts.  get enough time under their belts to really understand if it works or if it doesn't. It's that shiny object syndrome where it's, Oh, this, this looks fun and this is trendy. And, and then all of a sudden you forgot your rules and you're breaking everything like the artist and there isn't consistency in your brand.

Um, so in B2C, it's, it's something that we Would like to say, Hey, let's do a campaign for a year and see how it works. And then we'll reevaluate with the next year to see what other type of campaign we can do to really help things stand out.  

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. Um, yeah, so I'm mostly in the B2B space.

And so, yeah, and you know, we work with marketing agencies. So within that, there are like tons of different types of, um, Industries that those marketing agencies can work with. So I, I understand that, you know, depending on the sales cycle for any one of those companies, you know, you could be reevaluating a different timeframes. 

Absolutely. And I don't know if you've read the book traction.  Yeah. So great. And one of the things that I love is, Hey,  there are wells of success and tap that well, as long as you can. And if you found an awesome audience and LinkedIn and a certain message is working  double down on that, that's effective.

And then once you start to see the plateau in your reporting, and that's why, uh, macro trends in reporting are so important because you'll start to see, you'll see it takes a little while for Something that you're doing to work and then all of a sudden it takes off. And then once you start to see that plateau and you're reporting, if you zoom out a little bit, that's when you know, Hey, we need to change that message.

So it isn't, it isn't this magic trick of, I don't know. Let's see what you, you can use the data to really figure out, Hey, when do you need to change the message? When has it become white noise? When are people not engaging with it the same way? And once you start to see that plateau. Trend over a couple weeks or months, then immediately say, Hey, we got to go back to the drawing boards.

We need to change our creative. We need to change our messaging. The plateau has arrived. Uh, so that's really when we say as market week, we're, we're combining data and creativity. That's how we're doing it.  

Okay. Okay. So, and then in the reporting, like, are there specific metrics that, you know, like sometimes we can go down the data rabbit hole  

and 

like, I've fallen into the trap of looking at Too much of the data and then not being able to make sense of it all.

Cause you've got like all over in this data and these metrics, it looks like it's doing well, but in these metrics not so much. So what should we be looking at?  

I am, there are some, there are even some clients that we have, or we're like, we're not even going to show you the data  weekly. You get it every other week because we're making decisions that have no pattern to them.

You can see it every two weeks. Um, and that's it. So we, uh,  Depends the worst answer.  What's your, if it's on ads, lifetime value of a customer, cost per acquisition, um, impressions, if we're looking at organic traffic, it depends on the channel that you're, you're looking at to say what is the most important metric.

And then every client's a little bit different. Some want MQLs, some want SQL, some just want brand awareness, and they want engagement with their brand, in which case that's impressions. Um, so it really depends on what. APIs  you both deem to be the measure of success in that specific channel or in that specific campaign. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. That makes sense. That makes sense. So what makes  marketing agility, um,  uh, better factor of success than maybe some other things that companies think are, you know, um, a very good measure of success. Well, I also 

think 

that 

being agile as a partner is underrated and unbelievably valuable. And a lot of agencies, and I experienced this too, when I was working with different agencies, they are beholden to the scope.

And I understand that absolutely the scope is very important,  but within the timeframe of a scope, whether it's six months or 12 months or 18 months, Life happens. Things change.  We have experienced that in the economy and in  just world news. And so when life changes quickly, we can't be beholden to a scope that was set months and months and months ago, because maybe that doesn't serve us for our clients anymore.

And so I think being agile as a partner to say we're available for the turn times that are needed. Or we'll even within the confines of a contract, we'll reevaluate whether these deliverables are right, or we'll reevaluate whether these channels are. Right. I think agility comes in what we do. And then also how we work with all of our partners and all of our clients to say, Hey, your needs have changed, or maybe their internal personnel has shifted.

That means we need to reevaluate. And so not being beholden to what's going on. Anything just because but really being open to say we will explore together and change according to what you need, even though there might be a contract around it. So I think agility and marketing and then also agility and partnership is really, really important because that's how teams work. 

Even in sports, that's how teams work. Hey, this play didn't work. We're going to try another play. And they're changing all the time. And if we think of ourselves as professional athletes in the world of business,  then it's really important for us to be able to change our plays when a new play is needed, without having to say, sorry, the scope says like, well,  how did the scope become the God here?

I have no idea.  Right, 

right. Yeah. And I think maybe some of it is like, you know, people are so attached to their, their ideas  that it's hard to let them go  and admit that like, I came up with this idea and it's not working. And that must mean that I'm not smart or something like that. Like, I feel like there's a lot of that.

That is so true. It's personal. 

Mm hmm. 

It's very personal. And you feel that a lot of  tying your  Value as a person in a marketer to a con to an idea. And when the idea fails, the question, am I a failure? Did I mess up? And I think that that is something that over time  wisdom comes in and hopefully you have enough experience to be able to say, Oh, this is separate.

And the, the looser I hold to my ideas, the faster I can find the one that wins. It's the idea that I have is not representative of me. The idea that I have.  Is just an idea and that idea might need to shift in order to serve our team the best.  

Yeah. I love that. Um, as an agency that works with different types of clients, what have you run into, um,  situations where a client  Is not easily convinced to be  agile. 

And how, how do you best handle that? Oh, yes. 

They're fun.  It's hard. It's hard. It is.  You've got some clients where they just need, they need so much data. And the hard thing is it's like, Hey, we don't have the data yet. Cause we haven't even been allowed to try it.  So I'm going to need you to trust us. Hopefully you've worked with us long enough to know that we're not going to leave you out to dry.

But we cannot prove this with data because we haven't tried it yet. And those are, I think, the hardest ones to convince because they need, they need all of the information before they make a decision. And a lot of growth comes in accepting risk and going with your gut. And it's an impossible thing to teach outside of just exercising that muscle of jumping before you know how far the fall is going to be. 

And a lot of times our job is to truly say, Hey, we've got you. We understand that this is a little scary. We will take the fall for it. We're not going to leave you hanging. We also feel very strongly that this is the right direction and we will get you the data to prove it. And if you're right, you're right,  but we will get, we will.

Need to wait to get that data that you need. Um, and then in other times it's showing, you know, case studies of, Hey, it's worked for them. It's hard to do that though. We try not to fall in the trap of it's worked for them because every client, every market is so different. And a lot of times when we run into clients, we're like, Hey, can you show us a case study?

It's yes, we can, but we cannot promise those results. We do not know if the same thing will work for your market. And this is. Different and or even if it's a similar industry, it might not apply. Um, so a lot of it is in less convincing and more comforting. Those less than willing to take the leap. There is not.

There are not enough words under the sun to convince certain people, but hopefully you can invite them into another form of journey because force won't work.  

Yeah, that's a great point. And I love what you said about the case studies. And I kind of can see that also happening. It like flip flopped where someone comes to you, they've seen another company have success with a specific thing.

And they're like, I want you to do that for us.  And you have to say, well, we could do this, but it might not turn out the same. Right? 

Yes,  there are so many factors to why that was a success and maybe the team here is different.  

Yes. Yeah. I have seen that a lot in, in my many years where it's, you just like try to replicate what someone else is having success doing and it just doesn't turn out the same.

And then again, it's just like, well, what did I do wrong? Well, you didn't necessarily do anything wrong. It's just not the same.  

It's just not the same. Literally, it's just not the same. And that's even, even to the clients always want references and referrals. And I get it. Absolutely.  Even in that it's not going to be the same experience as you are going to have because every single.

Person and client and relationship and scope. It's all so different. And in that difference is there's beauty. It's like, hey, I don't want to get you the results that that other company have. Maybe I can get you better results. So I don't want to do exactly what they did because maybe we can even beat theirs.

Um, so, yeah, I think I think fear. Fear of failure is a, unfortunately, the driving factor in a lot of decisions. And I think instead of fear of failure,  we encourage our team to help position it as,  uh, curiosity towards what success could look like. Uh, because I think that having an open mind and being curious and being willing, that is going to get you better results time and time again.

When you make decisions out of fear, they tend to fail.  

Yeah, and, um,  I am loving, uh, what you're saying about success, and maybe, like, I feel like a lot of people get hung up on, like, this certain picture of what success should look like, and so being open to, you know, many different versions of what success could look like, uh, is probably very helpful as well. 

Absolutely. Absolutely. And, and  helping,  helping people. And that's even in B2B, that's where top of funnel and bottom of funnel conversations come in a lot of, hey, yes, we are orienting towards, especially for B2B. Pipeline. We need MQLs. Absolutely. But we can't get MQLs unless people are on your site or on your landing page or engaging with social, which means we need to do some brand awareness, fun, entertaining content, even in B2B that you are not going to deem as a success, but I promise you It will dramatically impact the pipeline over time.

And that's a scary thing. That's another one where it's like, yeah, but I can't measure that as well. Like that, we're not getting those MQLs. And it's like, yeah, but where do you think the people are coming from? They're only going to engage with you if you're providing value in some way. And that's some of where the agility comes in to say, we need to move budget.

We need to do concepts. We need to, Create some more videos. We need you to just stand in front of your cell phone and do a selfie and be a normal human for a second. And those kinds of things, as crazy as it sounds, especially our clients in the B2B world, the second they start doing it and they humanize themselves, they realize, oh, wow, our MQLs just Went off, they just started popping off and we're getting way more inbound.

And how did that happen? And it's like, yeah, you humanize yourself at the end of the day, people buy things, not businesses, and you're still marketing to another person on the other end of that screen, even though it feels elusive and you want to be professional, but it's still a human and they still like their tech talks and they still like Instagram and they still like Facebook and they still like things that are entertaining.

Um, so yes, defining success. To zoom out a little bit and say, sometimes it's not something that is perfectly measurable, but it's vital for your long term success as a company.  

I love that. That sounds like an amazing note to end on,  um, well, thank you so much for coming on the show. I really love talking to you and I love talking about this subject.

Uh, why don't you tell us a little bit about where we can find you online? 

Absolutely. Find us at market wake. com. Uh, wake  like a ripple. Um, sometimes people look at week. That is a different, that is a different organization. Fantastic. Fantastic. Um, but you can find us at market wake. com and feel free to reach out anytime.

My email is Brooke at market wake. com and I will be happy to engage with you directly and, um, hopefully support you however I can.  

Wonderful. Well, thank you again, Brooke. And thank you everyone for listening to the Inbound Back Office podcast brought to you by Inbound Back Office, white label, plug and play staffing and recruiting for your marketing agency.

You can find Inbound Back Office at InboundBackOffice. com. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please take a minute to leave us a review and share it with other agency owners. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode.