Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016 Issue 4 | Page 5

Use Google’s Eight to Make Your Business Great! 2. Launch, then keep listening and asking. Seek real-world input and perspective on your marketing plans, prospect, product or services. Working so closely on marketing our own business we sometimes fail to see the forest for the trees. Your marketing objective should be to help deliver what your customers wants, needs or desires so it is important to see how your customer really sees what it is you have to offer. H ave you ever considered how Google has been able to withstand the test of time and continually innovate new technology and products for their millions of users and followers? What is it about Google that helped their company grow, innovate and influence all of our lives? Recently I read an article on Google’s Eight Guiding Principles that has been the driver of their culture of innovation. By examining Google's approach to business and innovation perhaps we can learn and apply some or all of these principles to our own business and even stretch our innovation muscle into marketing in business. Google's Eight Guiding Principles: 1. Think 10x – At Google there is a belief that true innovation happens when you try to improve something 10 times rather than by 10%. The next time you are developing a marketing plan, project or program take time to project how it may be possible to improve your marketing efforts by 10 times. What would it take to really push the envelope in your marketing efforts? One strategic way to do this is to always add “yes and” to your marketing strategy and ideas. Create your marketing statement or objective and keep saying yes and to see where this line of thought leads you. 3. Share everything you can! Google believes that collaboration is essential to innovation and they put that in practice in all of their meetings. Getting a group of marketing creative’s, the sales team, project managers and leaders together can be a challenge; especially when perspectives and desired outcomes can differ, even subtlety. Talk about everything that is going on in your business, around you, outside your business and with your competitors. Broad discussions can help you find ideas that can propel your marketing efforts and campaign in insightful and valuable new directions. 4. Hire the right people! Of course that is obvious and Google is renowned for hiring talent across all spectrums of skills, experience and expertise. In the marketing world it is invaluable to be surrounded by creative, innovative, open, positive people, especially those who possess great instinctual insight into people and trends. Listen to what they see going on in the world and see if that may be something you can translate into your marketing efforts. 5. Use the 70/20/10 model. Google sees that 70% of projects are dedicated to their core business, 20% of projects are related to their core business and 10% of Google projects are unrelated to their core business. Strictly Marketing Magazine July/August 2016 5