Crazy Stupid Marketing
Did you ever see that movie, "Crazy Stupid Love"? It's a movie about how love can be so simple, yet so overly complicated at the same time. And in a conversation the other day, I realized that marketing is the same.
It CAN be so simple, yet most businesses overly complicate it.
So today, I want to talk about the PRACTICE of converting an overly complex marketing strategy that's NOT producing results, into a SIMPLE strategy that allows you to do what you really need to be found in the market.
A REAL Assessment...
A lot of people throw the word "assessment" around. We SAY that we're assessing things all the time in marketing. But what are we actually assessing?
I recommend assessing whether or not your marketing activities are driving sales.
And yes, you SHOULD be able to track that.
If we keep the marketing conversation ONLY in the realm of "awareness", two things happen:
It's VERY difficult to track, and
Your people can never tell what kind of impact they're having on the business.
Neither of these things are helpful in creating meaningful marketing efforts.
And if you want your efforts to be meaningful to the business's bottom line as well as the people, then we need to be able to show what it's doing.
So, if awareness is what you're looking for, how are you tracking it? And if you're not tracking on target, what are you going to do about it?
...Minus the Ego...
When it comes to the second part of that question, Ego amongst the team can heavily dictate what people are willing to do about a "failure". Heck, I've been part of teams that would rather CHANGE the target at the last minute rather than say, "we didn't hit it."
But THAT👆 doesn't do anything to prevent it from happening again.
Now, the tricky thing about Ego's is that they exist within every team member AND you can't complete eliminate them. And nor should you.
But if they are stopping you from making changes to your program, then you need to take a real hard look at the benefit.
I mean, if we're not reaching our goals, but we keep not doing anything different because we "know" what to do, then can we ever get where we're going.
That's a HARD NO.
So we need to check the Ego at the door. And if you're having a hard time with that, you really need a coaching resource to support the team in that transition.
...Plus room to Experiment.
But just doing the assessment and checking the Ego doesn't take us to the next level. So, what does?
Room to Experiment.
"But Tracy, how am I supposed to experiment if all of my marketing budget is allotted and my team is already working full time?"
I would ask, "what did your assessment tell you?"
If you're even in a state of doing an assessment, you likely learned that there are activities you're doing that AREN'T having any kind of impact of your revenue. So, what if you took that time and that budget and assigned it to a Marketing Experiments line item instead?
This isn't about working MORE or spending MORE.
It's about getting the time and spend in meaningful places.
And if they aren't in meaningful places right now, then we need to figure out what those meaningful places ARE through experimenting.
No way around it.
Some of your experiments will work. And some won't. Actually, MOST won't. Which means, you need to KEEP experimenting until you find the combination that works for you.
Bringing it All Together
Crazy = full of cracks or flaws; unsound or shaky.
Stupid = having or showing a lack of intelligence or common sense.
Nobody and no company CHOOSES crazy, stupid marketing. Intentionally.
It happens UN-intentionally.
And without the proper strategies in place to make sure things STAY intentional, things WILL get crazy and stupid.
You have to CHOOSE to take the actions that keep them intentional.
And if you're looking for someone to hold your team accountable on that, we should chat.
For more tips to avoid Crazy, Stupid Marketing...
Stay tuned for my new Newsletter that will be launching in September 2023 with the same title! The Crazy Stupid Marketing Newsletter will be a compilation of all the nonsense marketing efforts marketers see with foundational branding advice on how to avoid them for YOUR business.
To keep the ideas flowing, I'll also be launching the Crazy Stupid Marketing Conversation Series (starting in August 2023), where I'll be bringing expert marketing resources together to explore WHY some of these "strategies" are still so prevalent in the market.
And there MAY even be a podcast coming in 2024...you'll have to wait and see 😉
Until then, follow #crazystupidmarketing on LinkedIn for all the important updates!
