Level Up Your Marketing With The 70/20/10 Rule
It can be hard to strike the right balance in your marketing strategy. You want to continue with the tried and tested methods that work well for you, but you also know the importance of trying new things.
Should you focus your resources on your bread and butter marketing campaigns, or should you take a chance and invest more into testing and innovation?
If you need guidance on the best way to split your marketing budget, why not take advice from some of the world’s most successful marketers and try out the 70/20/10 rule.
This strategy allows you to maximise what’s working while testing new elements and remaining agile and adaptable.
How does it work?
Let’s take a closer look at how the 70/20/10 rule can level up your marketing innovation
Level Up Your Marketing With The 70/20/10 Rule
What Is The 70/20/10 Rule?
The 70/20/10 rule has been used by a number of leading brands around the glove, including Coca-Cola and Google.
Firstly I should clarify the rations detailed above aren’t a hard and fast rule but more of a guideline with a purpose to stimulate marketing innovation within a business. In a day and age where marketers can feel overwhelmed by the number of channels and techniques available, this approach can allow you to evolve your marketing strategy retaining a foundation based on whats working whilst enabling the flexibility to test out new ideas.
Here’s how the 70/20/10 rule suggests you divide your marketing efforts:
Dedicate 70% of your marketing investment to doing what you know works well, 20% to expand and test beyond those foundations further, and put 10% towards wild, out-of-the-box experimentation and innovation. Personally I see this approach as a way to pragmatically test new ideas with the added benefit of having measurement and metrics of success behind them to avoid getting caught in shiny object syndrome.
How To Use It In Your Marketing Strategy
The beauty of the 70/20/10 rule is that it can work for any business, big or small. All you have to do is adopt a growth mindset, be adaptable, and be open to trying new things.
The 70/20/10 rule is also known as “the rule of innovation” or the the “Now, New Next” strategy. Here’s a more detailed breakdown of each division:
70% – Now
The largest portion of your budget should remain with your tried and tested marketing techniques – the reliable activities that bring tried and true results. This is likely to include things like Google and Facebook Ads, existing social strategies, SEO, and email campaigns. These established efforts ensure you lower your risk and results keep ticking along as expected.
20% – New
The next chunk of resources is funneled to discovering new marketing techniques but still focuses on relatively “safe” activities. It’s a chance for you to get curious about what you can improve or how you can do things differently across your ‘Now’ marketing efforts. This might include a new format such as testing video or reels over static images in a platform you already use.
While you’re looking for new opportunities and insights, you still need to rely on data and analysis to guide you. This is where you can test a new audience, try out a new format, platform or content type, or experiment within an existing platform you use.
You might not see an immediate return on investment from these activities, but if you measure and tweak your marketing efforts, you’ll find key ways to improve and enhance your campaigns.
10% – Next
The last 10% is where the real fun begins! This is your opportunity to go a bit wild: try that brand new platform, launch a podcast, write a book, jump into the virtual reality metaverse and see where it takes you.
It’s all about trying the groundbreaking ideas that you haven’t tested yet and can help you get ahead of the game and be the one to watch in your niche.
The activities you dare to try in your 10% may one day be part of your 70%. By getting in early and exploring the unknown, you’ll be able to identify the marketing activities with the most potential, keep ensuring innovation in your approach and stay well ahead of the competition.
Balancing It All Out
The 70/20/10 rule is a great way to balance your predictable, short-term growth activities with those riskier projects that can significantly impact your business over time. It provides the stability of the known while giving you a bit of freedom to go let your hair down with something new.
Just remember, whether you’re working on your now, new or next, measurements, metrics, and analytics are still your best friend. If you rely on guesswork more than concrete data, it’s time to upskill.
Looking for some help to divide your advertising methods into the right buckets? Marketing is a vital activity for any business, but it can be a real time-sucker. Especially if you aren’t sure how far to push the boat out for the 10 and 20% portions!
Have a chat with us to see if we might be a good fit to work with your business
