When Making Important Marketing Decisions, Informed Decisiveness Beats Reckless Impulsiveness Every Time
At the end of nearly every great Western flick, there’s a climactic gunfight in which the stoic hero faces off against the dastardly villain. Laser-focused and steady-handed, the hero has his shot strategically measured and lined up, knowing exactly when and where he’s going to strike. The villain, however, is reckless, in a blind rage and acting on pure emotion. With a crazed look in his twitching eyes, he slowly inches his trembling fingers closer to his holster.
We all know what happens next: the bullets fly and the hero is the one left standing triumphantly when the dust clears, while the loose-cannon villain rarely makes it to the end credits. But all Hollywood embellishments aside, a steady, focused approach beats reckless impulsiveness in most situations — especially when it comes to a brand’s marketing efforts.
Though no human life is at stake, key marketing decisions have a great impact on the life of a brand and should never be made hastily. That’s no way to hit your target audience or lofty goals, but it’s a great way to get outgunned by your competition.
Shooting First & Asking Questions Later
Some marketers shoot first — rushing to solve a problem or capitalize on a marketing opportunity without having a plan to back it up. Later, they ask the question: why didn’t it work?
Whether a CEO, Marketing VP, or small business owner, some in charge of their brand’s marketing have a tendency to jump on the latest trends or initiate tactics they’ve never tried before without really diving into the how, what and why of doing so.
Some may not even have heard of “search marketing” or “social media influencers” but the moment they do, they immediately want to flood their site with keywords or contact the first Instagram influencer they see, thinking that great results will magically follow.
You may think that quickly whipping up a website, sending out a mailer or starting a social media page can cure some of your engagement and brand awareness woes. Unfortunately, taking half-hearted, uncertain measures is not how successful marketing works.
Sure & Steady Hands
Being a person of action is actually a good thing, but action is most effective when it is proactive rather than reactive. When you rush to react to a situation and hurry something out, and it doesn’t work, all you do is losing valuable time and resources that could’ve been spent developing a real strategy. Then you have to start all over.
Conversely, taking purposeful steps to create a targeted multi-layer strategy based on in-depth research and proven methods not only saves time and money but improves your odds of campaign success. That informed decisiveness beats unsure impulsiveness every time.
By making sure all of your marketing collateral is aligned, timed and integrated with your overall strategy, you’ll ensure that your messaging is cohesive and consistent across all channels which is what customers expect from their favorite brands.
This goes for your communications efforts as well. When a crisis or opportunity comes, you should have a plan already in place outlining how you’ll respond, whether putting out fires or capitalizing on a current event. Rather than a splintered approach, your earned media, press releases and other communications pieces should complement your marketing efforts to make sure everything is working in unison.
Meanwhile, hasty decisions and piecemeal actions often don’t consider how to measure success. Steady, strategic planning relies on results that can be measured so that you can judge the efficacy of your efforts and make real-time adjustments to ensure constant improvement.
Forget the “Big Guns”…Hire the Best Gun
Outside agencies are metaphorical guns for hire. When they don’t have the resources, know-how or time to do it themselves, businesses hire agencies to solve an immediate problem or help improve their aim at the target audience through innovative marketing solutions.
Unfortunately, a lot of businesses take what they think is the quickest and easiest route by impulsively hiring niche agencies, or the “big guns” that specialize in the brand’s specific industry or area of focus, such as education, healthcare or non-profit work. The thought is, because that’s all they do, they’re able to churn out deliverables that everyone else in the industry is using; so it must work, right? Not necessarily.
In fact, niche firms are so immersed in one subject that they often develop tunnel vision, offering stale, recycled ideas, while moving you through their assembly line. The point of marketing is to stand out from your competition, not act and look just like them.
If you want cutting-edge ideas and outside-the-box thinking, your best gun-for-hire is more likely one that’s well-traveled, taken on multiple industries and has the experience to deliver one-of-a-kind solutions that sets your brand and its marketing apart from other brands and the clone marketing that niche firms are known for.
Strategic Aim That’s Always on Target
At M:7 Agency, our only niche is winning, and it’s our diverse experience with multiple industries that gives us insight, ideas and options you won’t find with a niche firm.
Steady-handed and steely-eyed, we offer fully integrated, omni-channel marketing and communications solutions backed by in-depth research and proven strategies. In fact, a purposeful, targeted strategic approach is at the center of everything we do.
Rather than unsure impulsiveness, we believe that informed decisiveness is essential to building successful campaigns and getting real results that help elevate brands so they stand out from the competition. Ready to hire the best gun to hit your marketing and communications targets? Reach out to M:7 Agency today.