A common mistake that even the best marketers commit is creating marketing collateral that is far too complex for any practical purposes. Usually, when a company is small and yet on the rise, marketing communications start out simple and built around an ideal; but as the business and brand grows the messages evolve along with it till it reaches the point where it is nigh impossible to remember what the original idea was.

And if you find yourself baffled at your marketing’s loss of focus, imagine what your audience is going through.

At this point where you find your marketing has become passive, you want to strip away all the noise and keep the bare actionable bones that actually promise impact. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you go about doing that:

What is Actionable Marketing?

Actionable marketing is the opposite of passive marketing. Think of it in the same way that you would think about a call-to-action: Clear and Concise. It tells your readers what to do, how to do it, and spells out what they get in return.

Actionable marketing empowers your audience to add to the experience they have already had by elevating it to the next level through continued association with your people or your brand.

Passive marketing, on the other hand, fails in this regard. Sure, people may see your flyer and become aware of your brand but that is about it. There is no motivation to do anything further with the information. You haven’t told them what to do and you haven’t given them a reason to care. Also have not made clear what you can do for them that nobody else can. Passive collateral just won’t do.

For your marketing to be actionable, every element of your communications--from color design for your flyer to the words that go to your brochure--must be aimed at convincing the audience to take a well-defined action. Think of it like a mass scale CTA, and, yes, it pays off.

The Byproducts of Actionable Marketing

The first thing to note about actionable marketing is that it is targeted. You must know who your audience is, their demographics, what they like and dislike, and especially what their needs are. After you have this down you can direct them to take a specific action.

If you are not already doing this, then you better start. Prioritizing action in your marketing requires that you ramp up your efforts in that regard.

And in this lies the real benefit of actionable marketing--your knowledge of the audience gives every effort a life or its own and opens the doorway to increased opportunities in the form of up-selling, cross-selling, and increasing the overall lifetime value of your customers.