Break the Rules to See What’s Important
It saddens me when businesses spend gobs of money on various tactics because they feel an obligation.
People change. Behaviors change. Trends come and go. Traditions ebb and flow. Part of our job as communicators, marketers and creatives means actively looking for ways to improve, and sometimes that means breaking from tradition to pursue a new opportunity or way of doing. Listen to these keywords as clues to see if your company might be stuck in a rut.
“We have to ….”
As in, “We have to update our email newsletter.” Sometimes there are things a company has to do, but I challenge that unless it’s a compliance or other legal requirement. “Have to” isn’t always true.
“We always ….”
As in, “We always send a holiday card.” It’s great to send a note thanking customers, employees or vendors for partnering with your business. Changing the timing of when you send the recognition won’t get buried in the piles of season’s greetings messages. Try Thanksgiving, New Year’s or (possibly) better, a random day on the calendar to say, “Thinking of you just because.”
What you’ve always done brought your business to where it is today, but will repetition propel you into a better tomorrow?
“People will know if we’re not there.” I see this a lot, especially when it comes to trade shows, real estate magazines and school sponsorships. Here’s the thing: we all want to believe that our customers think about us often. That said, it’s expecting a lot to assume someone attending an event or flipping through a program is going to take inventory of all the advertisers and question why any one company is absent.
Raising your hand to address mixing things up sounds scary. Let’s be honest – there’s risk because there are potential consequences. However, there are two things to keep in your back pocket.
Look at the numbers instead of a small sample of sentiment. When the “rule” gets broken, people will inevitably say they heard from a customer or a vendor who mentioned not seeing/hearing/experiencing whatever it was you traditionally did. Many take that third-party feedback as proof the old way was right and the new way is wrong. Look at the numbers when you can. Did sales remain comparative? Did your reallocation into a different opportunity generate more engagement than the handful who provided that anecdotal feedback to your colleague?
You can always go back.
Maybe breaking from tradition was a mistake. Maybe customers really did look forward to that yearly promotion you changed or the event you used to host. It’s okay. You can do it again. Because you broke the rule, you found out what was important.
Stagnation leads to the same old same old.