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A Dose of Watertight Wisdom

We have a back catalogue of over a decade of posts, almost all of which are still relevant and useful today.

Latest posts…

How marketing supports sales: volume, margin and lifetime value

Marketers are often asked to generate more leads in response to a business growth goal. This is volume growth, but it’s not always the kind of growth you need or want. In fact, marketing (working closely with customer service and sales) can support different kinds of growth – existing customers, warm prospects as well as engaging with the right prospects.

Creating seamless marketing, sales and service teams

10 years ago the CIM predicted that by 2022 there would be no such thing as separate marketing and sales departments. It turned out to be wishful thinking, but it is no less important today that customer services, sales and marketing work hand-in-hand.

There are all sorts of reasons why they are often separate, but the best reason for them not to be is that they are supporting the same customer journey.

What matters most to effective marketing, context or competence?

Competence of course is a key factor in determining how effective your marketing is. It’s a combination of experience, knowledge and skills. However, a marketer is unlikely to thrive and be truly effective, however good they are, if the business doesn’t provide the right context.

Flow Foundation 1

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The latest posts…

Assessing organisational receptiveness

Assessing organisational receptiveness

Why is it that the same marketer can thrive in one organistion and shrivel in another? Assuming a similarly decent product, market, budget, etc. — when it comes to marketing, we think there are two other key ingredients to look for from the leadership team and key players in other disciplines. Let’s look at the impact of differing levels of leadership support and engagement.

read more
How marketing supports sales: volume, margin and lifetime value

How marketing supports sales: volume, margin and lifetime value

Marketers are often asked to generate more leads in response to a business growth goal. This is volume growth, but it’s not always the kind of growth you need or want. In fact, marketing (working closely with customer service and sales) can support different kinds of growth – existing customers, warm prospects as well as engaging with the right prospects.

read more
Creating seamless marketing, sales and service teams

Creating seamless marketing, sales and service teams

10 years ago the CIM predicted that by 2022 there would be no such thing as separate marketing and sales departments. It turned out to be wishful thinking, but it is no less important today that customer services, sales and marketing work hand-in-hand.

There are all sorts of reasons why they are often separate, but the best reason for them not to be is that they are supporting the same customer journey.

read more

#WatertightWednesday Write-ups

How do you get buy-in to your marketing budget?

< Back to the Blog Many people not in the marketing team have a view that marketing budgets are not always well justified. They can come across as more of a cost rather than being activities from which the business can derive real – even long-term – value. So how...

What is marketing strategy, and whose job is it?

< Back to the Blog What is marketing strategy? Roundtable discussion (58 minutes)How do you draw the distinction between strategy and tactics? More importantly, what do others in your business think strategy is and who needs to be involved? Where marketing strategy...

How to shift the perception of marketing in your organisation

< Back to the Blog How do your colleagues perceive marketing? Roundtable discussion (56 minutes)How do your colleagues see marketing? Do they see it as strategic? Central to everything in the business and firmly at the core of operations? Or is marketing a...

Find all of the write-ups here

Building a Marketing Team

The important role of critics and champions in your business

< Back to the Blog My daughter and I have been singing the Strictly Come Dancing theme tune to each other with excitement all week. We've watched it together since she was born and we're looking forward to this year's launch show tonight. Chatting about the judges,...

Using Metrics to get Buy-in From Your Colleagues

< Back to the Blog For any marketing role I’ve been in and with any marketer I talk to, metrics and measuring marketing success is a key issue. We’re often asked about the number of leads we’re going to generate or how many people we’ll get to an event. These are...

What skills does a marketing director need?

< Back to the Blog If you’re aiming for the most senior marketing position or are already there, what skills make this role a success? Our roundtable discussion this month looked at this topic through three lenses: bridging business strategy into marketing...

Listen to all the podcasts from the Watertight Wednesday roundtables here

Posts by Framework

Flow Foundations

How do you get buy-in to your marketing budget?

< Back to the Blog Many people not in the marketing team have a view that marketing budgets are not always well justified. They can come across as more of a cost rather than being activities from which the business can derive real – even long-term – value. So how...

How to get buy-in on your marketing budget

< Back to the Blog Getting the backing of your board for the marketing budget you need to do a good job is a key skill of a client-side marketer. If you're getting push back on your budget requests, here are three key ways to get better buy-in. We invite you to...

What is marketing strategy, and whose job is it?

< Back to the Blog What is marketing strategy? Roundtable discussion (58 minutes)How do you draw the distinction between strategy and tactics? More importantly, what do others in your business think strategy is and who needs to be involved? Where marketing strategy...

Touchpoint Leaks™ 

How often do you repeat yourself in your marketing?

Are you worried about repetition in marketing? We often encounter an uneasiness and sense of mounting pressure in businesses where marketing includes putting out high quality content. Perhaps they've made a commitment to a baseline of weekly blogs, monthly videos,...

Logic Sandwich

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The Time Triangle

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Influencer Icecream

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Profit Purpose Matrix

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Posts by Touchpoint Leak™ 

The Touchpoint Leaks™  framework is introduced in Chapter 2 of the Watertight Marketing book. You can use this to create a Touchpoint Leak™  Traffic Light Report to find your focus Leak. Then please use Part Three of the book, and these posts to #tweakyourleaks

"Watertight has made a massive difference to me and our business... I’m a sales person but knew we needed the support of marketing to further our growth. We’ve achieved 500% growth in 4 years; I attribute a lot of that success to working with Watertight."

Kevin Mashford

Sales Director, Paramount

Leak 1: Forgotten Customers

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Leak 2: Poor On-Boarding

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Leak 3: No Emotional Connection

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Leak 4: No Gateway

Six internal business benefits of blogging

All this week, I'll be blogging about blogging - sharing tips, hints and musings on how to make a blog the hub of your new business operation. A business blog is one of the simplest ways of overcoming Leak #7 (Information Overload) of the Thirteen...

Hard-sell only works once

< Back to the Blog This post was written in 2012 and approved at the time of writing.  KashFlow (www.kashflow.com), providers of online accounting software for small businesses, exhibited at business events in their early days. I interviewed them to appear as an...

Leak 5: No Critical Approval

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Leak 6: No Proof

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Leak 7: Information Overload

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Leak 8: How (format)

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Leak 9: Where (channel)

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Leak 10: When (timing)

Hard-sell only works once

< Back to the Blog This post was written in 2012 and approved at the time of writing.  KashFlow (www.kashflow.com), providers of online accounting software for small businesses, exhibited at business events in their early days. I interviewed them to appear as an...

Understanding the Awareness Equation

I’m often found telling businesses that they’ll never find a marketing silver bullet, or a magic formula to sales success. But, there’s one exception, and that’s The Awareness Equation. Applying it to your marketing is extremely powerful. It is the secret...

Leak 11: Who (Influencers)

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Leak 12: What

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Leak 13: No Emotional Impact

Six internal business benefits of blogging

All this week, I'll be blogging about blogging - sharing tips, hints and musings on how to make a blog the hub of your new business operation. A business blog is one of the simplest ways of overcoming Leak #7 (Information Overload) of the Thirteen...

Hard-sell only works once

< Back to the Blog This post was written in 2012 and approved at the time of writing.  KashFlow (www.kashflow.com), providers of online accounting software for small businesses, exhibited at business events in their early days. I interviewed them to appear as an...

Understanding the Awareness Equation

I’m often found telling businesses that they’ll never find a marketing silver bullet, or a magic formula to sales success. But, there’s one exception, and that’s The Awareness Equation. Applying it to your marketing is extremely powerful. It is the secret...