Well, of course you didn’t actually miss your chance.
You can still deliver; still show up; still put your hard work out into the world.
You can still be generous; you can still host the event; you can still do whatever it is you thought you missed your chance on.
No, maybe not in the exact time you had hoped and maybe you missed a deadline, but stating you missed your chance is simply a copout, a way of hiding, a really cruddy reason to not see something to the finish line.
Here’s the deal: grab some chalk and draw your own finish line.
Then launch. Go. Host. Ship.
You may need to pivot the work a bit, but that’s really the easiest part. You’ve done the hard stuff already.
Alas, the hardest part is in front of you: to admit that chance you thought you missed has been in front of you the whole time.
My daughter had a pineapple with sunglasses tattoo on her arm for about five days.
Most of the work we create is even shorter lived than that.
That email copy won’t live on much past today.
The content that you got someone to open up likely won’t open it up again in a few days.
Not to say the temporary things aren’t worth putting time and attention to; I’d be upset if she got a vulgar temp tattoo or if it was placed on her face instead of her arm.
The fact is, we spend too much time evaluating the temporary things and not investing the time into the meaningful, longterm things.
By all means ship work on the regular and with intention, but carve enough time for relationship building or working on something that’ll last longer than a week.
Advertisers love clicks. They’re easy to measure and report on. It’s easy to sell executive teams on, too, because the inherent belief that “clicks” still has is that they are positive engagement. From there, it’s an easy hop, skip and jump to believing that the clicks meant the content resonated and that the person who clicked is more likely than ever to convert, and so on.
If you asked a marketer to describe a perfect click in a qualitative way, they might say that the click created a memory. If you dug more into what they mean by memory, they would explain that the clicker felt empathy, a connection, and saw something worth remembering.
Not to say that ads don’t do this. Some do to some people who click, but not all people who click. (Chances are they won’t be able to describe the ad, but they can detail things that happened after clicking it.)
The unwelcomed reality then is to deploy other methods to verify if a click actually created a memory.
One way to do that? Call a customer who clicked and made a purchase (or in some way shared their contact information with you) from a few months ago and ask if they remember the ad they clicked. Ask them to describe it.
Bear with me as I reveal my point.
Doing what I just said to do is quite ludicrous because it’s not the ad itself that made a brand experience memorable, it’s that plus everything that happens after the click.
Which means that measurement reports that only tell you about clicks do a terrible job at telling a story of how well marketing works. That would require you to follow up with measurements of site experience after a click, and then the emotional reaction of opening/receiving the thing that was purchased, and then hearing from the purchaser what they loved about the thing and then finishing the story with metrics around purchases made from referrals.
All of those experiences is marketing.
Anything less can still be helpful, but not as helpful as an honest look at the journey…which requires a lot of effort and a lot of 1-1 interaction with customers or clients.
The question begs itself: which kind of marketer do you want to be? which kind of marketing team? which kind of organization? Are you an advertiser or a marketer?
Stay Positive & No Wrong Answers, But Some Are Better Than Others (If You’re Willing To Put In The Work)
1. You are not the target. Raise your eyebrows and poke the soft spot if you hear others say things like “I think” or “I like” when determining a path forward with marketing material. Instead use and listen for “The target is going to think X” or “I can see the target liking Y.”
2. Test with the target. Putting any content out in the world without having a person who is the intended audience review it beforehand is just sloppy. Establish a council of customers or make friends with the target and put your marketing material in front of them for a gut check before it goes out in the world.
3. Beat your deadline. It’s not just you who benefits when you submit work early (note: most of the world works first come first serve whether it’s advertised as such or not.) That buffer of time between completion and deadline enables someone (maybe you, maybe not) to add polish or consider ways to elevate it further, as well as time to test with the target.
4. Ask if it’s worth it. Not to find an easy cop out from doing the work, but to make sure you or your team is doing the work that matters most. Fully entertain the question. Is this lead gen ad worth it? Is arguing about this button size worth it? Oh, and if you’re unsure, visit law #2 again.
5. It’s personal until it’s not. The work you’re doing? It should be personal. This is your art. You made this. But that feedback? That’s not personal. Call it having thick skin or call it working smart – once you’ve shipped, any critique or review isn’t personal.
We can kid ourselves that a tiny attribute will make a difference, but it’s all a sham.
Either 1. it’s an effort to delay the risk we’re about to take or 2. we’re trying to scratch our ego that we’re making a difference.
When it gets to the nitty gritty, details matter, but not all of them.
There are certainly details that won’t make a difference.
Is a person really going to change their behavior on the millimeter spacing difference between your website link and the CTA?
Will a potential guest change their opinion about visiting your restaurant if the vinyl is on the right side or left side of the door?
There’s no shortage of tiny details we can argue about and make decisions on. Some matter significantly. Alas, many still don’t.
(I could have spent another 20 minutes finding a slightly better image for this post. I could have discussed it with a group. Got more options. Argued about what ones you would prefer to see. If I was having a bad freelancer or bad agency craft this for me, that’s what would happen. Alas. Those who are remarkable spend their time on the things that matter most and they keep moving and shipping.)
Stay Positive & Don’t Get Trapped. Ship Your Work.
