Discover key insights to hold your agency accountable, cut wasteful spending, and focus for profitability. Learn crucial PPC metrics and how to align your audience, ads, and landing pages for maximum conversions. This is not your typical how to guide to conduct a PPC audit; those are too technical and difficult to follow. This is about developing a curious and strategic mindset: an audit can be easy if you ask the right questions. The ROI for Google PPC/SEM Ads is There Google paid search advertising, also known as SEM (search engine marketing) or PPC (pay-per-click), can be the fastest and ea ..read more

What is a fractional CMO in simple terms? The Strategy Kiln definition: A fractional CMO both develops marketing strategy and helps execute it in a part time leadership role as a contracted member of your marketing team. They are someone with broad as well as specialized experience in building brands and driving business growth. They’re different than a conventional CMO because they are part time and have other clients; these can be both advantages and disadvantages to the relationship. A fractional CMO will have an intense curiosity and desire to get to know you customer and how to get more o ..read more

What are the 5Cs in Marketing? Hint, there are 5 and they begin with "C" The 5Cs marketing framework is broken down below. We'll expand on them more later, but for now you should know they are: Context Customers Competitors Collaborators Company It forces you to think expansively about the entire universe your business operates in, with a focus on your external environment. A simple tool on the surface, it provides a way to understand the present state of your business so you can attempt to predict, react, and create the future. This article goes in depth into what the 5Cs in marketing are ..read more

Good strategy and bad strategy are always fighting each other. Sadly, it looks like good strategies are losing the battle; Forbes cites less than 10% of leaders exhibit adequate strategic skills. Richard Rumelt’s classic, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters, acts as an antidote to books with highbrow strategic jargon. It cuts through the “fluff” and provides clear and simple ways to analyze business strategies. This article summarizes key points form the book with frameworks and slides to help you execute the ideas. The focus is a bit more on the signs of bad strategy ..read more

"If everyone thinks you have a good idea, you´re too late." - Paul Hawken One of my favorite quotes, these words by Paul Hawken demonstrate the challenge strategic leaders face: they refuse to be late to the game and when they make bold decisions, not everyone likes them (it often gets personal) or their ideas. Strategic leaders are frequently met with harsh skepticism because of the uncomfortable change they introduce. Darwin Smith, the legendary CEO of Kimberly Clark who led their spectacular turnaround and outperformed competitor and S&P 500 growth considerably, was initially challenged ..read more

How do you know if a business is well managed? How can you tell which companies are the most successful and which ones are losing money? It turns out that social media provides some answers. The world of strategic management is a big one. There are so many influencers, authorities, and experts that it can be hard to know where to start. Lucky for you, we've done the work for you! We put together this list of 25 people in the space who should definitely be on your radar. These are all individuals whether peers have been recognized as top leaders in the industry. They're sure to offer some insi ..read more

The business world is constantly changing and evolving. To stay competitive, you need to always think of new ways to innovate and grow your company. Hiring a strategy consulting firm can help with this immensely. Strategy consulting firms are experts in the industry, have strong networks that can maximize your potential for success, and work hard to develop an effective plan for your organization's future. Here are some tips on how you should go about hiring one: 1- Understand the difference between strategy consulting and management consulting. While most organizations think that strategy co ..read more

Do you have a cohesive view of what strategic thinking really is? Personally, I didn’t, so I decided to map it out. The OCCAM Strategy Framework we’ll look at illustrates the tools, traits, and behaviors I’ve identified as critical, all on one page. You can download the slides here. Cultivating a strategic mindset Getting to the heart of strategy without “faking it” is a tall order. It’s more about a strategic thinking process vs. memorizing definitions. The “S” word (Strategy, in case you’re not following) is often misused and abused. Before we get into OCCAM, you need to be able to define, o ..read more

According to an article from Robert Kaplan from the Harvard Business Review, 95% of employees are unaware of, or don’t understand their company’s strategy (source). Does this statistic surprise you? I once asked a colleague who had had the word “strategist” in their title how they defined strategy. The response was “can I get back to you on that?” This person is not an example of a low performing employee, it's an example of the norm. We’ll cover why business strategy is difficult to grasp by reviewing prominent definitions from BCG and Peter Drucker. We'll examine why standard definitions do ..read more

Let's go in-depth with a Blue Ocean strategy example featuring Tesla We’ll see how Tesla’s model 3 became the best-selling luxury car in the world in 2021, beating the both BMW and Mercedes in sales. We'll give you a complete strategy canvas example in excel so you can easily make your own. You can download the strategy canvas template (in excel) and slides here. If you know Patrick Bet David, an entrepreneur and influencer, Blue Ocean Strategy ranks as #1 on his list of 10 must read books – you can check out his list here. First, what is the meaning of blue ocean strategy? Michael Porter and ..read more