Effective marketing eludes most people for a couple of reasons. The first is because we, as marketers, have become lazy and enamored with vanity metrics. It’s far easier to brag about impressions and reach of our campaigns than to hold our marketing dollars accountable for metrics that matter. Increased accountability increases predictability. A predictable marketing system begins with accountability.
Another reason effective marketing eludes us is because we confuse actions and assets, which is a dangerous mistake for marketers.
Here’s how this typically plays out: we look around at what our seemingly successful competitor (or some guru) is doing and mistakenly believe that if we copy their actions, we will be successful as well. This rarely works, and the reason is simple – we mistakenly believe that the actions we see our competitors taking are responsible for their success. The reality is, it isn’t their actions (posts, videos, campaigns, etc.) that are responsible for their success, it is the assets they are building.
Let’s say our successful competitor is good at promoting themselves on Instagram. Beautiful photos fill their feed daily. And it doesn’t seem to matter what they post; their followers actively engage with the content. Copying what they’re doing seems like a great plan (which is exactly what most entrepreneurs and marketers do). But what if we’re terrible at photography and as a result none of our images look good? Will copying their actions (posting on Instagram everyday) create success for us? Probably not.
The approach we should take is to look a layer deeper than their mere actions.
We should start by asking ourselves, what is the actual asset they are building? Within the answer to that question is where the magic lives. You see, once we know the answer to that question, it frees us up to work within our own gifts and abilities. So, the asset that your successful daily Instagram posting competitor is building is a highly engaged audience, and their medium just happens to be Instagram.
Now the question becomes, based on my strengths and unique abilities, how can I build a highly engaged audience?
But if we stay busy copying our competitors’ actions, we’ll never identify the assets we should be building in the first place.
Joe Bouch, CEO
At 78Madison, we believe if you can identify why your brands truly exists, and what value it holds for the customers you’d like to embrace, long-lasting relationships are imminent. Want to learn more? Lets start a conversation.