Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
If you want to lose weight: you need to consume fewer calories than you exhaust in a day.
If you want to be a writer: you need to write more words than you share with your audience.
If you want to market better: you need to listen more than you advertise.
Progress is always two-fold. There’s the thing you need to do (the obvious action) and the thing you need to do it more than (the non-obvious action).
Stay Positive & Make Sure You’re Doing Both
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It’s quite rare that we get a true “more is merrier” situation.
Normally you read about “better” being better and “more” having a point that there’s a diminishing return.
Alas, the sneaky strategy here is that more better is what makes a brand win. Here’s a quick example:
You can use communicative tactics to impress your target with the value they will get out of your offering. It’s a positive tactic; one of reinforcement and escalation of status.
You can also use communicative tactics that scare your target with what they lose if they pass on your offering. It’s a negative reinforcement; one of scarcity and pre-experienced regret.
There’s one kind of marketer that picks one tactic over the other. Then there’s one marketer that decides to implement both because she knows her strategy is to treat different people differently.
We could probably think of myriad ways to connect with our audience. Rather than all the back and forth of internally (and with no shortness of bias) trying to prioritize them, we’re better off launching more tactics and testing them–aligned on the strategy of treating different people differently, of course.
It’s an entirely different marketing strategy when you go from “what should we say” to “who longs to hear this?”
Stay Positive & As Always, It Starts With Listening
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There’s the content that reaches the top of Google and gets to the person who typed in the exact question you’re answering. They clicked to your content but told no one.
There’s the content that reaches a few people and wows them–not with a breaking news piece, but the exact opposite. They clicked to your content and sent it to a friend that shares their appreciation for the topic.
Too often marketers try to blend the two content types for a piece of super content. How do you infuse SEO into a story? How do you create an emotional connection in less than 250 characters?
While it might get achieved and work for some (to me it’s sort of like winning a scratch ticket, it happens, but it’s rare you ever win BIG), it’s a far smarter strategy to treat different people differently.
Rather than see how much you can blend in one content piece, get another blender and make something specifically for them.
Stay Positive & Maybe Grab A Few Blenders While You’re At It
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Here’s something they don’t tell you: taking notes isn’t your job.
Nor is learning fast.
It doesn’t matter that you can pick up where someone left off.
Doesn’t matter that you can read instructions.
What they want is someone who is ready to surprise and delight–that’s your actual job.
Undoubtedly there will be learning involved and a fair amount of reflection on previous efforts, but regurgitating the past isn’t why they hired you.
Stay Positive & When Was The Last Time Your Team Said “Wow” or “Whoa”?
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Here’s a little secret about the path to achievement–whatever your goal.
The path is the one you’re walking.
To be more on the nose: it’s not about the path; it’s about the walking.
Stay Positive & Keep Those Feet Moving
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People love to bounce ideas off one another. Reason being is that they are looking for bits of reassurance.
I’d encourage you to give them spaghetti instead; it’s something they can take and throw at the wall themselves.
Worth noting: it requires you to listen and still be empathetic; to give them spaghetti that has a great chance of sticking. A far more valuable and rare offering than reassurance.
Stay Positive & Bon Appétit
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Consistency is the key to loyalty.
Consistency is the key to word of mouth marketing.
Consistency is the key to creating meaningful change.
Consistency doesn’t always get the spotlight it deserves. It also likes to hide itself behind fancy words like “innovation” “avant-garde” and “new.”
Here’s the thing about consistency: even the inconsistent can be about consistency.
One brewery says it will never brew the same style twice. It’s inconsistent, yes, but their inconsistency is consistent.
The coffee shop chooses to treat different people differently. It’s inconsistent, yes, but their inconsistency is consistent.
You can still innovate, try new things and create meaningful change by being consistent.
Stay Positive & See You Tomorrow, Too?
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