I’ve spent some time recently talking about “minimum viable marketing”. You can read more about the concept here, but once you’ve made progress on the minimum viable, the smallest thing, the least…it’s time to look at the maximum viable. The biggest thing. The most.
The point of the “minimum viable” is to save time and energy. Otherwise we run around, constantly distracted, trying to do all of the things all at once.
But once you’ve figured out the minimum thing which works…the core message that resonates with your people…that’s when you need to do more of it. That’s when you lean in.
Now let me be clear: maximum viable marketing might feel like “doing more stuff”. It could involve doing a high quantity of things, but they all connect back to that core message, that one thing your best client absolutely needs.
It could also mean doing even less, but doing it with more intensity.
Here’s an example. Say you identify your clients feel alone, and are struggling with the pace of constant change. They appreciate what you and your team provide to help them feel connected and reassured.
So you decide to create a client community.
The community group becomes the central place where you and the team can share, connect, and help. You share content, run sessions, hold in person events…but all of it circles back to this community place. The clients begin telling other businesses like themselves about it, and the referrals start to come in, so there are multiple wins: but the community is the core. That’s the minimum. Maximising on it means leaning into that community as part of every single thing you do in your firm.
Maximising on it could include things like:
- Sharing blog posts which answer the questions your clients are asking
- Recording personal videos to address situations clients are sharing or asking about
- Creating resources which go deeper into the issues which are being discussed by all your clients
- Holding a weekly accountability or co-working session so your clients can act on their ideas
- Creating an in-person get together as an opportunity for clients to transfer the online relationships into deeper ones
- Developing an annual conference for your clients and others in the industry or category they’re in, bringing all of this content and impact together
You see the progression: you had loads of ideas at the beginning. You could run a conference! Write blog posts! Be more present on LinkedIn! But because you’ve concentrated on the core message your clients most needed, you focused your efforts on one central place…and from that came what made sense. What fits with that core need.
You start wide, go narrow, and then go wide again.
So once you’ve asked whether you know your minimum viable marketing action and are working on it – then ask, is it working?
