How To: Stop Your Marketing Team from Chasing Squirrels
In a world of constant distractions, how are YOU keeping your marketing team focused?
Whether the "marketing team" is just you (as a solopreneur), or "people in the company" (if you're a start-up without a dedicated marketing team, or you actually HAVE a full-time marketer (or more) on staff, chasing squirrels is one of the primary reasons organizations DON'T have a marketing function that generates ROI.
And just like out in nature, there are a TON of squirrels out there.
So, how can you prevent your team (and yourself) from wasting time, effort, energy and budget on chasing squirrels? Read on :)
What's Keeping You Distracted?
First and foremost, it's important to understand that, because all PEOPLE are different, each business team is prone to chasing specific squirrels, and not others. So likely, you won't find your team chasing ALL of the below squirrels. That's the good news.
The trickier bit is, if you've never tried to identify YOUR squirrels before, you don't have a skill of doing it yet. So you might look at the list below and think, "nope, I'm good in all of these areas". But if your marketing dollars AREN'T generating ROI, then there's at least ONE of the below squirrels you're chasing; so be honest with yourself.
NOTE: Lying to yourself in these scenarios is NOT helpful. And it's also important to remember, from a solutioning perspective, that if you're not ready to be HONEST, and hear the hard truths, then you're NOT ready to accept the challenge of solving the problem💡
OK, let's get to the list. Here are some of the MOST common squirrels that people chase in the marketing industry:
Shiny New Tools (AI anyone?)
Virality
Trendy Social Media Platforms
Buzzwords (and other fads)
Instant Results
Competitors (to the point of becoming a copy)
Data (above all else)
Influencers
Quantity (over quality)
The RIGHT Way
So, which one is your Achilles Heel? Or it may be a combination.
We'll dive into each of the categories below, but feel free to skip around if you're already pretty confident you know which are relevant for you. And if you're NOT sure, check out each summary for some symptoms you might be experiencing which can help you narrow it down.
Let's start the show!
Shiny New Tools
This one is at the top of the list for a reason; there's ALWAYS a new, shiny technology that promises to make all your marketing woes go away.
Be honest now...how many have YOU tried? Only to realize they didn't really change anything?
Personally, I've seen this most often with CRM systems. People move from one to the other, over and over, and the experience is pretty much the same each time. MEH.
I think this is something that MOST companies experience in today's day and age, unfortunately. Due to the value our society has decided to place on technology.
But if you don't know what it's supposed to do for YOU, then it will NEVER be able to do it; whatever IT is.
Symptoms: you switch tech stacks a lot, your first search when trying to solve a problem is to find a tool to do it / automate something, you've done an ROI analysis on a tech implementation and found it wanting.
TB's Prescription: BEFORE you implement ANY other tools, ensure you know WHAT you are trying to achieve with that tool for YOUR business, within YOUR brand. And measure the results.
Virality
In most parts of our lives, there's no way we would want to chase a virus (unless, of course, you are a virologist). We definitely wouldn't go around kissing strangers that we knew had COVID. And yet, here many companies sitting, chasing the goal of "going viral".
But we've all seen the types of things that go viral.
And we've also seen the decline of a lot of them.
Ever bought something because it was "so hot right now"? And then were disappointed.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're not trying to be THAT with your products / solutions.
Symptoms: you copy things that you see have gone viral and try to duplicate them, you specifically TRACK things that go viral
TB's Prescription: Assume that you will NEVER go viral. And then ask yourself, how do I plan on expanding my reach and connections so people have a trustworthy relationship with my brand?
Trendy Social Media Platforms
What's the newest one? Chatter? Are we still considering Tik Tok new? And X seems to be in constant flux.
Feels like a chase, right?
I think we're at the point where new social media platforms are going to continue to pop up. I mean, it's so easy to create a platform these days, you could probably even create your OWN social media platform if you wanted.
The point is, there will ALWAYS be a new one.
But that doesn't mean that YOUR brand has to be there.
Symptoms: as soon as you hear about a new platform, you're over there creating an account (and then that's pretty much all you do), you've ever felt overwhelmed at the thought of showing up on ALL the social media platforms
TB's Prescription: Go to the places that match YOU. No human exists in two places at once, and your brand doesn't have to either. 👈 THAT mindset will allow you to choose to spend your energy in the places that get you the most results, not just "be everywhere".
Buzzwords (and other fads)
It's the reason that people started claiming their products had AI (without it necessarily being true). It's how phrases like "growth-hacking" or "sales enablement" become a thing.
Sure, using a catch-phrase can be fun. But if it's not YOURS, it's just another way you're copying the market; instead of standing out.
And while, sure, it might get people to your website from an SEO perspective, but they're still going to figure out what's true and what's not. And if it's far enough through the buying process where the illusion breaks, well, that's not healthy for your brand.
Symptoms: you've set up a RSS feed for specific key terms, you've updated your website (or your LinkedIn profile) at least once to slide in new buzzwords
TB's Prescription: Ask yourself what YOU think about the buzz word. Is it something you believe? If not, DON'T USE IT. In fact, you might want to create content that discusses the buzz word from YOUR brand's perspective. For an example, check the TLB Blog for "Imposter Syndrome".
Instant Results
Ok, can we all understand yet that this is NOT A THING in Marketing?
There's no such thing as "instant results". Marketing is NOT noodles.
I get it actually; we live in a world of immediate gratification. I can order something on Amazon one minute and it arrives at my house the same day.
Anyone else remember when you had to go to a store to buy something? And then you'd get there and they didn't have what you were looking for?
Yup, it was a thing, Gen Z's 🤣
But that experiencing? The one where you had to look, to try things on, go other places? THAT'S what real marketing is.
And honestly, I think it makes the "FIT finding" feel all the more successful.
Symptoms: you've ever expected a single marketing program to drive ALL the leads you need for the year (a tradeshow perhaps?), you're confused why your digital ads haven't driven any revenue yet, you're expecting your website to be a lead generation tool
TB's Prescription: Just...STOP IT. There are no instant results in marketing. So you can chase them; but you'll keep being disappointed. Trust is EARNED through experiences. So go out, create experiences in an authentic way, and earn it.
Competitors
OK B2B Tech Companies...calling you out on this one.
I've heard one too many tech companies tell me that their "marketing strategy" is to copy their competitors keywords and create an SEO strategy around them.
Is it your plan to always be second best?
Because that's what's happening here. You're unconsciously telling The Universe that, "my competitor knows better than me, so I'll just copy them".
Again, that puts you into the category of CHASING. Not leading.
Personally, I would rather be a LEADER in my industry, even if that's in a tiny niche of it 🤷♀️
Symptoms: you're tracking your competitors search terms and optimizing your efforts around them, you spend more time tracking your competitors than tracking yourself, you find yourself competing on price almost exclusively
TB's Prescription: Know Thyself. First and foremost. Sure, it's good to know what your competitors are doing. But for the purpose of standing OUT from them. Not in being the same. And definitely not in being in a race to the bottom (from a price perspective).
Data
Since I started in the marketing industry 20 years ago, there continues to be more and more data available for "decision-making". But is it solely the DATA that's driving us?
I mean, most businesses are started on a WHY. A hypothesis of sorts.
A hypothesis on which we CAN collect data.
But not ALL data contributes in a meaningful way to proving (or disproving) your hypothesis.
There's a lot of data you can chase that WON'T help your decision making. And you need to be cognizant of whether the data you're tracking is HELPING you, or HINDERING you.
Symptoms: you've ever found yourself in analysis paralysis, you have a marketing team member who is solely responsible for collecting and analyzing data, you're tracking data that someone told you to track but you're not sure why
TB's Prescription: Don't track anything unless you know why YOU are tracking it. If ChatGPT told you what your KPI's "should be", go back to the drawing board and figure out if it has any value to YOU. And feel free to throw stuff out.
Influencers
Influencer Marketing is one of those fads a lot of people are chasing these days. And sure, it sounds cool to have a famous person promoting your brand.
But if you're building on someone else's reputation, you're NOT building your own.
You're putting your brand in the hands of someone else, and YOUR brand isn't their top priority. Their OWN brand is their top priority (and rightfully so).
Outsourcing always comes with risks. But outsourcing your BRAND? Are you SURE that's what you want to do? Is it a dependable long-term strategy?
Symptoms: you buy stuff solely because someone you follow says it's good, you've often thought someone else said something better than you could, you think that if you're "more like someone else" your brand will be more successful
TB's Prescription: Be yourself and own your value. An influencer isn't BETTER than you. They aren't better at sharing your brand value. They aren't better at connecting with YOUR customers. You are the best at both of those things. But you have to believe it.
Quantity
Oh, another very common squirrel in marketing. If we just had MORE content, more likes, more hits, more opens...MORE, MORE, MORE, MORE, MORE.
So, we produce MORE.
And somehow, it doesn't EQUAL more. At least, in terms of revenue.
And then, once we realize we don't have the resources to continue to make more, we start making decisions to get MORE, instead of to get BETTER. We enable AI or tech automation to create MORE without a human because it's more cost effective.
But the logic above still holds. To the point there's SO much content there's no way people can consume it all. And we become just another post someone scrolled past.
Symptoms: you've automated any marketing processes to get MORE volume in a shorter amount of time, your KPI's are related to distribution quantity, the number of activities you're doing are so great you can't even track results on all of them
TB's Prescription: Quality beats quantity every time. And you can't actually have both. So, choose quality. And know what MAKES it quality.
The Right Way
There are a lot of solution providers out there who are selling "The Right Way". The right way for you to build your business. The right way to create scalable marketing. The right way to lose weight. The right way to shop for cars.
It's all bunk.
If there was ONE right way to lead a successful life, every single human experience would look exactly the same.
And it doesn't.
And every single business would have been built exactly the same way.
And they weren't.
Because there ISN'T one right way. But there IS one way that works for you.
The problem is, those solution providers? They didn't discover YOUR way.
They discovered THEIR way.
And sold it to you.
Symptoms: you're looking for solution providers who have the "answer" for you, you're sure someone else has already figured "it" out and you just need to find who that is, you've implemented a solution exactly as it was designed and DIDN'T see the intended results
TB's Prescription: Stop looking and start DISCOVERING. Ask yourself questions. Including, "what would I do?" And TRY that. And if it doesn't work, do the same activity again, and again, and AGAIN, until you DISCOVER what does 💞
In Summary
There are a lot of squirrels to chase in marketing. And as far as I'm concerned, ain't nobody got time for that.
Layoffs are happening constantly. And they'll continue to happen if we're wasting all our marketing time CHASING.
It's time for you to LEAD.
And if you need an Authentic Marketing Advisor to guide you on that journey, well then, that's precisely what I'm here for 💖 Let's chat.
