No great marketing lasts forever
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Last week I watched two movies, almost. I am a mom who likes her sleep, so I rarely get more than an hour by myself before I can’t keep my eyes open any longer. But last week I watched the entire Warren Buffett documentary and 1/2 of the Steve Jobs movie. It occurred to me, while watching the stories of these successful people that these two never got lazy. They were constantly watching, reading, looking for new ways or things to invest or create. Great marketers have to do the same thing. If your message worked last quarter, there’s no telling it will work again next quarter, so you have to be reading, and watching and trying new things at all times. The great marketers, Steve Jobs being one of them, have created brands that have withstood the test of time.
In order for a brand or a product to last a lifetime (because forever isn’t measurable), there are things that marketers can do to set themselves apart, many of these things are similar to what I observed in the two documentaries.
Observe
Wait
Be concise
Execute with near perfection
Wait
Repeat
Observe
When you take on a new market or you have a new product or you are looking to ramp sales in your existing space, the first step is always to observe the market, your buyer, your products performance, and the fit of all of those together. By observing all of these you’ll be prepared for competitor attacks, you’ll know if your sales teams have started to sell into a market that doesn’t fit your target audience, you’ll know how to set appropriate forecasts and not get ahead of your skis, in short, you will be ready.
Wait
One thing that I have learned in my 20 years of experience in technology, good stuff will still be good in a quarter. Its the bad stuff that only lasts a quarter or comes on the scene and disappears in less than 5 years. So, while you are observing, don’t be afraid to throw a bunch of thoughts into a list and then wait, see which one still makes sense 3 months from now. You can still be DOING, while you are waiting, but you can DO other things. You can continue to research, you can talk to more customers, you can work with product teams or build out staff, but don’t be afraid to WAIT before bringing your product to market.
Be concise
Once you’ve observed and waited and you are sure about your product fit and target market and the message. Just do it. Just get it out there, and be clear and concise in your message. Don’t put extra words around it. If you product was built to make educators lives easier, be clear that this product was built for educators, know that you might be missing opportunities for other markets, right now, but be okay with that. There is always time to add more functionality and break into new markets, do the first one right, or you won’t be around to do market 2 and 3.
Execute with near perfection
One thing I know for sure, you can not have both speed and perfection. You have to pick one. Or you have to pick a point on the sliding scale of speed and perfection. In general the 80/20 rule works well. To get something to 80% perfect, you still get the speed needed to take advantage of market conditions. Execution of your message to your market in near perfection is going to be the hardest part of this process. Not only do you have to have the right message, but it has to be in the right channel with the right medium and frequency, all while the channels, and mediums are changing. This is lead generation, and it is a great time to test and see what’s working, but make sure that when you are testing that you are testing your BEST message in the BEST channel via the BEST medium. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but if you aren’t giving it your BEST, you might not get honest feedback.
Wait
Now that you’ve done the research, executed well, now you have to stick with it. If your message to your audience changes too often, you won’t be memorable. There’s a reason furniture stores and fast food chains still use the same jingles from the 80’s, because we still remember them, and they’ve created an imprint on our brains. I am not saying that every campaign needs to last forever, but your broad messages like your tagline and your value statements, those should withstand the test of time.
Repeat
As you are working on execution the observation should not stop, but make a conscious effort to observe your market, do a deep competitive analysis and revisit your target market and personas at least once a year. This will help in your execution of campaigns, can help steer new product development and will keep your company relevant for years to come.
