The Best Marketing Strategy I’ve Ever Built

First, I think some context is necessary to understand how this experience played out.

Some of you might know I have two parts to my business at Circle 34 Advisors. First, I’m the fractional CMO to a handful of carefully selected companies, and I also provide advisory and guidance services to digital agency owners navigating today’s highly competitive agency environment.

Sometimes these agencies ask for my help with specific clients, and this is where this particular engagement came from. One of the agencies asked me to help them create the marketing strategy for one of their clients—a bail bonds company.

The Set Up

Yes, you heard that right. A bail bonds company.

Usually, I work with B2B companies. This is primarily because I like the application of marketing to long sales cycles, complex sales, and high-ticket averages. I found the challenge associated with attracting, engaging, and then closing this type of business to be exceptionally challenging for most companies.

But I also believe that humans make purchase decisions the same way, whether they’re buying $1M worth of software or a $50 flashlight. They decide emotionally first; they have to feel safe, and then they rationalize the decision. The only difference is how long it takes to get to their decision, and the risk usually dictates the timing. Obviously, big purchases are a lot riskier than small ones.

So, when my agency friend challenged me with working with the bail bonds company, I had to jump at the chance.

The Back Story

After taking their leadership team through my standard review and qualification process, it was clear they got it, wanted it, and had the capacity to understand my approach. They valued marketing, my experience, my methodology, and the work associated with what would be my recommendations.

They were already a great company. They were already doing well. But they wanted to grow faster. They recognized their marketing wasn’t strong enough, organized well enough, performing well enough, and they weren’t positioned well enough to squash their competition.

So, I went to work.

I’ve done this for hundreds of companies across a wide variety of industries. I’ve used a similar methodology and approach. Yes, it’s been refined over the past 20 years, but it starts with the customer, their buyer journey, and the basic principle—they have to feel safe.

You have to answer a basic question.

How do you make a company meaningfully different when, to the customer, everyone appears to sell essentially the same thing?

And the best marketing plans don’t start with channels, campaigns or budgets. They start by creating a compelling reason for someone to choose you.

But that’s not what’s interesting about this story.

What’s interesting is how AI, specifically ChatGPT, helped me turn the marketing strategy for this bail bonds company into the best marketing strategy and plan I have ever created.

My Personal Assistant

I’ve been using AI, specifically ChatGPT and Claude, for years now. This isn’t something new for me, but this time, I used it like it was my personal assistant.

Research this, design that, write this, take this idea and give me additional ideas to consider,  analyze this, review that- I used it like it was sitting in the office next to me, and we were working on the plan together.

Let me give you a few examples because this also changed how I recommend this client spend their marketing dollars too.

Not only were the results lightning fast, but they were also comprehensive and thoughtful but they got me thinking in some directions that I might not have gone on my own.

Now, my ChatGPT has gotten to know me over the past few years.

It knows I’m direct, no-fluff; it knows my methodology; it understands my buyer journey model, the Cyclonic Buyer Journey; it understands my Growth Builder System and how I use it to look at generating revenue across organizational silos.

Everything it suggests is aligned with my thinking, my approach, my methodology, and my deliverables for clients.

Let me give you a few practical examples.

The First Example: All Bail Bonds Companies Look Similar, and The Services Are Commoditized

Commoditized services in highly competitive markets are usually a non-starter for me. But in this case, they were so passionate about wanting to do anything to break through that I had to take on the challenge.

Quickly, I noticed most bail bond companies compete around the same messages: fast service, 24/7 availability, financing/payment plans, experience, trust, and getting someone out quickly.

All important. None particularly differentiating.

The challenge wasn’t creating more or better marketing. It was making this company more remarkable. Now I used that word carefully. My ChatGPT knows what I mean. This isn’t a differentiation strategy; this is Seth Godin’s Remarkable. Saying and doing something NO OTHER bail bonds company can say or do. It’s not easy. But It’s mandatory.

There are a couple of steps to getting to remarkable.

The Second Example: The Persona Profiles

Creating these personas has never been easier with AI tools. They are more detailed, more complete, more accurate, more data-based, and more real than ever before.

In fact, I’ve had to combine or even eliminate some that are either similar or less significant because too many personas can dilute a message and make it harder to create a Big Story and a set of compelling Remarkables. Trying to be too much to too many people is a marketing trap.

By understanding the personas, you realize that someone looking for a bail bonds company is rarely having a normal day. They’re scared, confused, embarrassed, angry, or overwhelmed.

That changed the strategy.

This company wasn’t really selling a bond. They were selling guidance during one of the worst moments in someone’s life.

The Third Example: The Big Story

This leads to the second example. Every company needs a Big Story. That story that you can tell in 10 seconds. That story that gets people’s attention. The story that connects with them emotionally and draws them in. The story that prompts them to say, “Wow, how do you do that?”

This company was already positioned operationally to support a larger, more strategic and more emotional message. Their systems, processes, team, culture, and leadership team had built a company ready to grow aggressively.

With my direction, my personal assistant and I were able to cycle through a large number of headlines, subheadlines, and overall Big Story packages. With the direction to not sell bail, focus on the emotional, and ensure there’s differentiation when compared to all the major competitors—the result was outstanding.

The strategic idea became: Getting them out is only the first step.  That led to the broader positioning you explored: “Everyone Else Posts Bond. We Help Families Rebuild.”

Whether or not that exact line remains the permanent tagline, the insight changed everything.  Competitors focus primarily on the transaction. This company could own what happens before, during, and after the transaction.

Now you have a Big Story that’s emotional, compelling, and memorable rather than an advertising slogan.

The Fourth Example: They Have To Be Remarkable

This is where the plan becomes especially interesting. Instead of simply saying this company was different, we created tangible evidence. While I’d love to share the specific

Remarkables with you in this article, I’m going to refrain from sharing the details to protect the intellectual property of the client.

However, I will share that they now have four pillars that clearly and dramatically differentiate their company from all their competitors.

Each of the pillars touches on an aspect of their business that is critically important to their clients. I used my personal assistant to create aspirational details for each of them, logos that give them physical identity and connect them to the company’s overall brand.

This work would have taken weeks back in the day at Square 2. Copywriters would have had various iterations of the names and the operational details. Graphic designers would have taken days to come up with the branding elements. Both were done in minutes, and the result was on point, graphically compelling, and most importantly showed the client a physical representation of how to be Remarkable and perhaps how to tell their new story to the community, their clients, and their prospects.

The Fifth Example:  Visually Illustrating Complex Concepts

I mentioned how well the AI tools did when it came to content and copy, but it excelled when it came to graphic design too. This plan was filled with visual representations of concepts that historically had to be described. The detailed visuals only come when the tactics are being executed.

A few examples include paid ads, social posts, website mockups, email templates, direct mail, special promotional kits, event participation, and more.

But in this plan, I used AI to show concepts of paid social ads, new website concepts, attorney lumpy mail campaign ideas, content marketing concepts, website conversion upgrade concepts, and more.

All utilizing their existing brand guidelines and all helping to make what can be complex concepts personal, relevant, and a lot easier to understand.

In short, it took what can be a highly conceptual plan and made it real.

They could easily see their company with its new story, with its new tools, with its new email,  website, social, and paid search campaigns ready to go. Work that would have taken a graphic designer a week to do was done in minutes.

The Sixth Example:  Creating The Orchestrated Marketing Tactics

Ultimately, any solid marketing strategy needs a set of marketing tactics. You need the right tactics, and you need the right amount of tactics to generate the desired results.

But I typically find companies running what I call “random acts of marketing.” Tactics that are disconnected from each other and often lacking a Big Story and emotionally compelling aspects that drive conversion.

In this case, my personal assistant and I orchestrated all the required tactics into a set of compelling campaign ideas that focused on engaging past and current clients, outreach to prospects who have expressed interest, sharing the new story with intent based marketing tactics and leaning into a referral network marketing effort to develop a community of more than referral partners, but trusted advisors who know, like and trust this company.

The marketing tactics we’re all executing today are like tools in the tool belt. We all know you need search, paid, social, email, web, events, and a set of other tactics, but it's how the carpenter uses the hammer that makes her a master.

The same is true here. How you deploy these tactics into orchestrated campaigns is key. AI was an invaluable tool to make sure that all the tactics were considered, the campaigns were comprehensively orchestrated, and perhaps most importantly, each campaign was designed based on expected performance, data, and analytics that provided a solid set of assumptions around performance before we even sat down to review them.

The result was a system.

A system for growth. A system for repeatable, scalable, and predictable growth.

A system that was supported by the Growth Builder System Framework and provided them with not only a plan, but a map to follow as they took my recommendations and began to execute them.

For this client, the system focused on improving speed-to-lead so they could do better with the inquiries they had. They realized this could be every bit as valuable as generating more traffic. The system focused on improving Google reviews to drive not only search but also AIEO and how reviews could influence conversion. The system leaned into transforming their attorney referral program into a community of trusted advisors that differentiated and elevated their position with their clients and prospects.

The plan wasn't simply designed to generate leads. It was designed to improve the entire revenue system.

The Seventh Example: How The Marketing Budget Was Reallocated

This wasn't really a contribution from AI but an outcome of my experience with AI during the strategy development process. 

As with most marketing plans, a budget is created based on the tactics recommended in the plan. 

There are hard costs associated with printing, ad buys for platforms like Google or Meta, technical services like website hosting, software like HubSpot, or events. Then there are supporting services that include copywriting, graphic design, program management, project management, etc. Typically, these are supplied by an agency or by in-house people; sometimes freelancers are used as a third option.

In some cases, strategic oversight, advisory, and guidance services can be provided by a fractional CMO like me or a full-time director of marketing. Agencies can also fill this role with a marketing strategist. 

As I worked up their budget, I put almost nothing in the graphic design and copy writing line item. Maybe you already know why. Yes! I'm recommending they reallocate money that would have traditionally supported copy writing for email, content, website pages, social media posts and ads. I'mn also recommending the reallocate money for graphic design.

I'm suggesting they move most of that money to the ongoing optimization, guidance and advisory services from experts to review the performance of their individual tactics and their overall program. 

I'm suggesting they move money to the creative concepting around ongoing campaigns.

I'm also suggesting they move money to the ongoing project and program management to take that lift off of anyone currently working on other areas of the business. With no dedicated marketing leadership at the company, having someone own the execution and the actual results from the collection of campaigns is invaluable and something that's missing in most of the companies I work with. 

So, while their overall budget won't be much less than in past years, the budget allocation will look a lot different based on the capabilities of AI. 

Why This Was The Best Plan I've Ever Created

This wasn’t the best plan because it had the most tactics. It was the best because every decision connected back to one strategic idea. It was the best plan because the client clearly saw exactly how the marketing tactics were going to be executed.

It was the best plan because they could see how the remarkable were going to be highlighted in the tactics. It was the best plan because they saw specifically how the tactics were going to generate incremental inquiries and how the new story and positioning were going to help them turn those inquiries into new clients.

As I said to my client before I presented the final plan.

“I’ve been doing this for close to 30 years, and this is the best plan I’ve ever done. If you don’t like it, I’m coming down and opening up my own bail bonds company to compete with you.”

Their response when the plan was presented.

“We’re hard to please; we’ve seen a lot of marketing strategies in the past from a lot of consultants, and we’re rarely satisfied. But we have to say, this is amazing work; it clearly has well-thought-out concepts, there’s much more here than we expected, and we’re impressed—something that’s hard to do. Thank you!”

Final Thought: Marketing Strategy Should Make the Company Better; AI Should Help You Make Your Marketing Strategy Better

Let’s be blunt. Clients don’t value strategy. They don’t want to pay for it. They definitely don’t want to pay the true value for it. They’ve been burned by agencies, consultants, and internal people who have created what they call “strategy,” and the results have never been translated into more leads, more sales opportunities, more new clients, and revenue growth.

But a good marketing strategy should be transformative. It should be worth tens of thousands of dollars, and it should be the roadmap to take the company to the next level.

It should be directly connected to the tactics that need to be executed and perfectly, tied to the results required to drive the company’s business objectives and metrics.

To do this, you need a framework, a process, and a methodology like the one I use. But you also need AI to make sure the plan is comprehensive, perfectly aligned, and backed by data, facts, analytics, and a reasonable set of expected results.