What makes a Marketing Program CRAZY?
You might have heard of the Crazy, STUPID Marketing Show. It's live on LinkedIn every Tuesday at 3pm Eastern. And if you have, you might have wondered,
"What does it mean for Marketing to be Crazy?"
Well, search no further, friends. Because that's what we're diving into today.
And if you've ever read any of my articles before, you'll know that I LOVE to start with a definition...so let's go!
Definition of Crazy
I love to use the definition of Insanity when thinking about what the "crazy" things that people do in Marketing, which is:
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
Hands up if you've done this before, specifically from a Marketing perspective.
There's no shame in it. I've totally done it too.
Trying and trying and TRYING to:
get the "right" subject line an email campaign to get a prospect or client to DO something,
get the "right" image on your digital ads so more people will click through,
find the "right" color for that button on your website so people actually click on it,
post the "right" brochure content on your social accounts to generate engagement,
finding the "right" tradeshow to attend where people will actually buy.
The activity we're doing is: 1) testing subject lines, 2) testing images, 3) testing colors, and 4) posting content. But those activities don't seem to get us anywhere.
But we just keep DOING them. Because we need to be doing SOMETHING...right?
But what if we DIDN'T spend time on THOSE👆 things, and instead spent our time on the things that matter? What else might be possible?
A Catch-22
For those of you who haven't heard the phrase "Catch-22", it describes an illogical or self-fulfilling rule that creates a no-win situation or a circular logic trap. And Marketing is FULL of them. Let's use the email subject lines as an example.
Our goal is to OPTIMIZE the consumption of our emails. And so we pick the first point of contact to focus on (the subject line). We're going for HIGH engagement, but at the same time, we need to ensure the emails get through spam filters.
To achieve high engagement rates, we know the email needs to be compelling and stand out from other emails in our prospects inbox. That might mean we would want to try to use elements like images, names, or certain keywords. Maybe we like to make specific things stand out with CAPITAL LETTERS (something I totally do). But these elements very often trigger spam filters, which means our prospects won't even see them (unless they're cleaning out their spam filter, and then they normally go straight into the digital trash).
THIS👆 is the type of Catch-22 that keeps people (and businesses) stuck in the cycle of doing the same thing from a Marketing perspective that doesn't actually GET you anywhere.
CRAZY 🤪
Doing Something Different
Now, I'm not saying that you can't play with your email subject lines. Or your images. Or your colors. But it IS important to understand how much TIME your team is spending on it, and the results it's getting you. In other words, the ROI (Return on Investment) of your actions.
But the more powerful action comes in the form of...
QUESTIONS.
And in particular, asking better ones.
Oh, and taking the EGO out of the answers.
Also very important.
Using our email marketing example, let's dive a little deeper :)
The Power of Questions (and how they help)
There's a three-pronged approach that I recommend when it comes to asking questions. We need to ask:
MORE Questions
DEEPER Questions
TARGETED Questions
The first one is pretty self-explanatory. Asking MORE questions will get you MORE data. And if you find yourself asking the SAME questions over and over, try adding a new one to the mix.
When we talk about DEEPER questions, we're looking at going beneath the surface. The most effective question here? WHY. With our email marketing example, asking the question of "WHY does the subject line not seem to impact our open rates?" will likely create more insight than asking, "HOW can I tweak the email subject line to be more effective?"
But neither of the two above will make much of an impact without getting to level three and asking TARGETED questions, which are questions specifically related to the Marketing GOALS you're trying to achieve. For example, if your email program is targeted at clients vs. prospects, there's a big difference in what might "work" from a subject line perspective. And if you don't know what it means for your team for email to "work", then it really doesn't matter if the subject lines are "optimized".
The Power of Ego (and how it hinders)
Ego is the king of creating / exacerbating paradoxical situations. And it PREVENTS us from getting into the meaningful level of question asking. It manifests in a variety of different ways:
Resistance to Change (I read this in a book and we're going to keep doing it)
Overconfidence in Past Experience (this worked so well in the past)
Fear of Failure (what if we change and the next thing doesn't work as well?)
Command & Control Structures (it's my way or the highway)
The list goes on, but we'll stop there for now.
The COVID-19 pandemic was hugely successful at revealing Ego in our workplaces. People wanted everything to "get back to normal" as fast as possible.
That's Ego at play.
It's all about staying the same. Sometimes, it's even about going BACKWARD.
But questions are meant to help you move FORWARD.
And the best way to get your business OUT of being stuck in Ego?
Go back to asking questions 💖
The Remedy to Crazy Marketing is YOU
I feel like, in today's day and age of immediate gratification, we're constantly looking for someone else to solve our problems for us. Maybe it's because, for so long, people and companies have been telling you that.
Except in this scenario, it's not possible.
Your Crazy Marketing efforts can't be changed by someone else.
YOU have to decide to change them.
Now, if you want support with the Questions and the Ego, that's where a coach can come in handy.
But if you haven't decided that you don't want to waste your time, effort, resources and budget on Crazy Marketing, then it doesn't matter how good a coach - or how good a service provider - you find, it will always end up BACK in Crazy.
And it WON'T be Crazy Good 😉
If you're ready to let go of the repetitive marketing tasks you're doing that AREN'T serving you or your business, let's chat.
