How to get the most out of MAD

How to get the most out of MAD

What you can do before, during and after the MAD project to get the full benefit.

Imagine you’re running a marathon.

Beforehand, you train hard and prep your gear.

During the race, you’re fully concentrated on the run, sipping water and pre-planned snacks to power you through and keep you at your peak.

And when you reach the finish line, you rehydrate and stretch - then celebrate because you KNOW you’ve made that marathon the best you could.

Well, our MAD project is a little like a marathon! To get the most of the project, you need to do the prep work before, be completely committed during, and there are things you need to do at the end to round it off nicely.

You may be wondering what the heck a MAD project is. Or, you might be here as you've already read our content and are inspired to get your marketing automation strategy ship shape.

Take a look at 'Everything you need to know about MAD' if you are feeling somewhat clueless.

In a nutshell, the MAD project gets you realigned to your goals. It provides you with the ultimate customer journey, and a heap of content that helps you attract, engage, sell and wow new customers! Plus it educates you along the way, so you can continue to create impact in your business.

Once you are on the verge of signing up for MAD, or even after you have reached out and kick-started the conversation with us, there will be a few things you want to get thinking about. And, perhaps even prep for - if you want to get the most out of the 6-months working with us that is. 

So, let's get into those things in this blog!

Before starting your MAD project

It's good to get your head in the game - we will ask you about your problems, pain points, goals and objectives in the kick-off call. So, if you have no idea what those are, it's going to be a little one-sided.

Note down what has worked before - and what hasn’t

If you’ve tried and tested certain strategies in the past, you’ll have an idea of what has worked for your company and what hasn’t. 

Don’t keep these golden nuggets to yourself. The more we know about your previous results, the better equipped we are for nailing down the perfect strategies for you going forward.

Write down any campaigns you’ve used (both failed and successful), goals you’ve aimed for and strategies implemented. If you can pull stats from your systems (automated or not) that's even better!

Do a content audit

Most businesses know that they need content as part of their marketing strategy, and many will have some sort of content already. But you’d be surprised at how many don’t actually know what type of content they use, what content is on their website and what content is planned for the future. 

Take a content audit of your website. If you already have a content plan with all prior and existing content on it - GREAT! Gold star for you! We'll be asking for you to share that with us. 

If not, don’t worry. We'll get you working on a content audit as part of your project homework. The audit will include blogs, lead magnets, newsletters, etc.

Make a list of the keywords and topics you currently focus on and any that you think are relevant to use in the future. (We will be asking you for this, so it's always handy to get ahead.)

In the MAD project, we create a new behavioural content plan with you. So if you aren't over the moon with what you have in place now, you will be once we get stuck in.

Gather baseline stats

You can’t track progress without knowing where you started from. We'll be asking for a variety of statistics to get a good sense of where you are before working with us.

All of this will help us see where the strengths and weaknesses lie in your strategy. Plus, you will be able to compare them against stats down the line to see how successful this project has been.

The standard averages we will want to see at the first instance are as follows.

Email campaigns:

  • Click rate
  • Open rate
  • Bounce rate
  • Conversion rate


Website:

  • Top pages for page views
  • Top blog posts
  • Top traffic sources
  • Lead generation (number of leads entering your mailing list)


If you are unsure about what data you need to collect, or how best to present it, we can give you a template to complete. (Just get in touch.)

Be clear about your overall goal

A footballer striking without a goal to aim for, is always going to miss.

In order for you to score in your MAD project, you need to start with a goal in mind. And not just any goal. It needs to be both clear and tangible. 

What do we mean by this? 

Clear speaks for itself. You and your team must understand exactly what you are aiming for; try not to overcomplicate things. Tangible relates to measuring. You must have a measurement that will tell you if you’ve reached your goal or not. Maybe it’s a specific amount of sign ups, or leads, or sales. This is where your baseline stats come in handy. 

If you’re unsure where to start with setting your goal or you’re struggling to nail down a precise target, don't worry. You will work together with the Ninjas in your kick-off call to figure this out. It could be right in front of you, but you are too close, or have to many priorities to see it clearly. 

Make sure you have buy-in from everyone

There’s no 'I' in team, right? 

Talk to your team about the project. Think about who's going to be involved, and who will be signing off on things. Both your marketing and sales team will play a part - and we will help you understand how to work effectively together. 

Please make sure whoever oversees the direction of the business is hands in. It's really tough when the company leaders aren't onboard, and we want to make sure this project runs smoothly for you!

Get everyone necessary involved at the beginning. Make sure they are aware of the common goal, and you’ll find it easier to navigate deadlines and get expert input from different departments while you’re working on specific tasks.

During your MAD project

Once your MAD project begins, you’ll be hitting the ground running with all your prep work! It might sound obvious, but a MAD project involves work from both Ninjas and from you. Here’s a few things you can do to make sure the project runs like clockwork. 

Pass us some key information

At the beginning of your MAD project, we will ask you for some basic information, depending on the level of MAD project you have committed to, such as:

  • Baseline stats
  • Details for the main contacts during the project
  • Your company's brand guidelines
  • Logins for your marketing automation software and Google Analytics


Getting this information to us right away saves us needing to chase for it further down the line when you’re trying to crack on with project work. 

Attend the calls

Attending the calls we book in is critical.

You will have a Project Overview document for your work with us that outlines each call, what we will be covering and homework due from both side (that's us and you). We will set out the majority of call dates in the beginning so we have a long-term plan. 

There will no doubt be a few calls that need to be rearranged due to unexpected absences or clashes. Rearranging these as far in advance as possible will keep the project on schedule. 

And making sure you and your team attend the calls to get all the information is important. Calls are recorded for referring back to - but being able to ask questions about campaigns, lead magnets, content creation and homework on a live call is unbeatable.

Do the homework

As we've stated in our MAD project info, no matter what level you sign up to, there will always be a need for input from your side. So, we set you homework.

At the end of each call, you’ll walk away with some sort of task to complete. We'll provide you with templates, guidelines, and anything else to help you do this quickly and easily. Plus, a deadline to help you plan for. We are ALWAYS on hand to support you, it really is a team effort.

PS. The dog can’t eat a Google doc, so that excuse won't fly 😉

Leverage your full team

Remember me telling you to make sure everyone is in the know about your project?

Well this is where it comes in handy. Don’t try and do everything within your marketing team. There will be times when the expertise of other teams - sales, in particular - will be needed. Reach out to them, get their knowledge and use their insight to whip your campaigns into top shape.

Struggling to guess your way through something that other people in your company already know is just unnecessary pressure on the project. 

Ask questions, please!

Ask, ask and ask again! Remember in school, the teachers would say: “There’s no such thing as a stupid question”? MAD is like being in school again (but waaay cooler). Ask us anything. Don’t dwell on something you’re unsure about - that’s a sure-fire way to lead to delays or confusion down the road. 

And don’t feel you need to wait until you’re on a call to ask either. Email us as soon as a question comes to mind, whether it’s about content, implementation, design or strategy. This means we can get right back to you with some help and you can crack on with your work. 

We don’t give out detention in this MAD school, but we do like to keep everyone (including us) accountable 🙂

After completing your MAD project

You'll love seeing the project completed with all the work we've put in together come to fruition. We'll have a handover call to make sure you have everything you need to continue you your awesome work without us. 

There will be a full folder with all the templates, recordings, content and more so you can have everything in one place. We won't fully abandon you though... That's not the Ninja way. We like to do a post-mortem down the line to see how things are going.

This means we will take a look at your data and compare it to the baseline stats collated at the start. Then we can advise you on next steps, and hopefully raise a cup of tea to your success!

Here's what you'll need to do at the end of the project:

  • Collect and review all your stats consistently
  • Use your strategic know-how, taught by the Ninjas, to create plans for optimisation
  • Put the templates and strategic documents we created to good use. For example, your content plan can be continued to keep you sending fresh, valuable content to your list and engagement at a high
  • Don't drop the ball! We'd hate to see all the work you (and the Ninjas) put in go to waste because you fall into bad habits, or you don't keep the momentum up. 

Ready to join team MAD?

If you were expecting to handover the reins to us Ninjas without any involvement, I'm sure you've come to realise that's not how the cookie crumbles. 

This project is as successful as the effort that goes in. Prep work, homework, and aftercare means your project, and you business, is getting the attention is deserves.

When it comes to marketing success, it doesn't just happen, it is worked for. Let's work on it together and create something amazing!

This way for Marketing Automation Domination

Book you free MAD consultation with the Ninjas. We will find out exactly what you need from your project, so you can make the decision on how to move forward. It's time to get MAD!

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