When your car performs poorly these days, you take it to an honest, well‐trained professional to figure out what’s not working, and the quickest, cheapest way to get optimum performance. You don’t just order up a bunch of parts and try putting them in yourself.
If you want to drive me completely batshit, call and tell me this: “We need a payperclick campaign in order to jumpstart leads and sales.”
On second thought, don't.
Seriously, though. Do you have a favorite marketing tactic? Maybe it’s one you tried a few years ago, and you were thrilled with the results. Now that times are tough, you want to try the same tactic again. You may find yourself saying something like:
“We need a pay per click campaign/ telemarketing campaign/ webinar series/ media outreach/ new website design in order to jumpstart leads and sales.”
That’s tactical tunnel vision ‐‐ grabbing at a solution before you have even analyzed the problem. And here’s why it may hurt you more than help you.
Before you even start thinking about marketing, you already have three things going against you:
- Your time is constrained
- Your marketing dollars are constrained
- Marketing has gotten more complicated in the last decade or so
The first two points don’t need explanation. To understand the third, think for a minute about cars.
No more shade‐tree mechanics
When cars had carburetors, anybody could adjust the idle by popping the hood and twisting a screw. If you were ambitious enough and could follow the manual, you could do some fancy repairs like replacing the timing belt.
You wouldn’t dare try that with today’s cars. You know better than to fiddle with a computerized fuel injector the way you might have with a carburetor. In fact, you need an expert mechanic with the right diagnostic equipment just to tell you which part of your car isn’t working right.
But thanks to those same technological improvements, cars today are far safer and perform better today than they did years ago. They last years longer. Overall, your cost of ownership is way lower.
Marketing has evolved the same way. In fact, it has gone further. If your car had improved as much as marketing has, it would have full autopilot, hold thousands of people, fly, and dive under water.
Takeaway
When your car performs poorly these days, you take it to an honest, well‐trained professional to figure out what’s not working, and the quickest, cheapest way to get optimum performance. You don’t just order up a bunch of parts and try putting them in yourself.
When your marketing starts to perform poorly, don’t order a bunch of parts that might make it run better. Take it to a marketing pro who can put it up on the rack and see what’s really wrong. Once you know the answer, maybe you can fix it yourself.
