Your Business is Challenging the Status Quo...but is your Marketing?
The reason most businesses are created is to challenge a status quo.
Some need isn't being met in the market, so we create a solution for it.
And then, slowly, THAT unique founding principle gets lost; gets overwhelmed by doing things that OTHER companies have done, following someone else's path, until you're just another one of many.
I had a conversation with a gentleman at a tradeshow once who told me some amazing things about why their software stack business existed. They were targeting a very specific industry problem that their team was specifically curated around. When I asked what their marketing program was, he said, "Oh, we find out what our competitors are SEO-ing for, and we copy it".
Where's that face palm emoji...
I don't think most people realize what they're choosing when they make these types of "strategic" moves.
What you're choosing is to actively bulk yourself together with your competitors, making you all look the same. Which doesn't help YOU stand out. AND it doesn't help potential buyers find the right solution for them either.
It actually helps NO ONE. Except maybe your competitor.
But what does it look like to challenge the status quo when it comes to marketing? And not just for the purpose of challenging it, but for the purpose of most effectively showing your business value? Let's explore.
Challenge the Status Quo...by NOT doing the same thing as your competitors
Let's start with the scariest one, shall we?
I remember once asking my boss at The Brick why they did do many TV ads. His response? "Because that's what companies in this industry do".
Flyers. TV Ads. Free Delivery. Free TV with a Mattress purchase.
Yup, all the same things.
I thought it was funny once, chatting with someone who "hated The Brick, and would only ever shop at United Furniture Warehouse" (who was owned by The Brick but run under a separate banner). You know what makes the difference in that scenario?
Your Brand Experience.
Even thought UFW and The Brick were under the same ownership, and used the same marketing techniques, it was the In-Store Experience that separated the two. Maybe that person had a favorite human to deal with at UFW. Or had multiple good buying experiences. Or maybe they had one BAD on at The Brick. I don't know. But I'll tell you what, their choice was NOT based on whether or not they saw and ad or a flyer💡
When we get caught up in thinking about what our competitors are doing, we start to believe that what they are doing is the ONLY OPTION. That everyone advertises SaaS services in the same way, so we just need to learn THE way and then execute it. But the more time we spend in someone else's way, the LESS time we spend in OUR way. Creating the experiences WE want. Having the conversations WE want. And we become just one of the many.
But when you're NOT doing that. When you focus your time, effort and energy on YOU as a brand, and how you bring THAT to market in the most authentic way, well...not only are you naturally going to discover ways of standing out, you're ALSO going to build internal confidence in your product and service; which is invaluable in marketing and sales.
Last week, someone shared with me that selling is simply a transfer of confidence. As a sales rep - or marketer - I'm in the business of transferring my confidence to YOU, the buyer. But, if I don't have any confidence to transfer, because everything I do is based on copying other people...well, that doesn't sound promising from a sales perspective.
Challenge the Status Quo...by trying something you've never done before
Last week on the Crazy, STUPID Marketing show, we took a poll about how many of the Marketers in the room had a campaign fail?
The results?
100%
Yes, 100% of the experienced Marketers in the room had a campaign that failed. And not just one. Many.
When we got to school for Marketing, they teach us a bunch of things that people have done before. Things that have worked. Things that have bombed. But what they DON'T teach you is that one of the contributing factors to the result is the brand itself. Did the campaign MATCH the brand? Or not? It's not JUST the tactic that matters here. It's the ALIGNMENT that matters.
So, sure. If there's something you learn about in your travels that sounds like something YOU would do, give it a try. SEE if it's something you would do. Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. But you won't know if you don't TRY.
I like to look at Marketing as a R&D function (research & development). It's about experiments, learning, growth and evolution. It's NOT about just posting stuff on social media because "that's what everyone else is doing".
Challenge the Status Quo...STOP doing things that don't work for you anymore
The COVID-19 pandemic broke marketing. But not because marketing changed. Because PEOPLE changed. And when the PEOPLE who are consuming your marketing changes, so must your marketing.
But it's scary, right? When you've based your business on attending tradeshows for 15 years, how do you just STOP going to tradeshows?
This makes me think of the day I dropped Nicholas off at Pre-K and he said he was scared to go into the classroom. He couldn't quite verbalize WHAT he was afraid of, but it was clear that he had fear. So I asked him, "do you think you could practice being BRAVE today?"
He thought about it for a moment, and then replied, "YES!"
Which is making me giggle to myself now, because he just decided that the Harry Potter Sorting Hat would put him into Gryffindor, because he's so brave 💖
To bring it back to marketing, this is about being brave. Which is a lot easier when you're in the mindset of challenging the status quo 😉
Which, again, is what your business is built on, right?
So, all we need to do is tap back into THAT feeling, and I'll tell you, it gets a lot easier once you start to practice again 😊
Honestly, most companies WON'T do this.
They won't check their ego for long enough to say, "hey, this isn't working any more. Let's go back to the drawing board, because we know how to do that!"
Bringing It All Together
You created your business from scratch.
That creationary power is still in you.
It's possible to turn it back on when it comes to your marketing.
Sometimes, all you need is a little poke ✨
If this article is the little poke YOU needed to re-hash what your marketing is doing for you, let's chat. Having a Tornado of Creation (that's me) on your marketing team helps tons 💖
