Something to Think About

Here’s the reality of marketing in a world transformed by digital media: You’re going to make horrible blunders.  Waste time.  Toss money away.  Screw things up.  That’s just how it is when you’re dealing with technology and communication channels that have paper-thin track records.

In the previous era, when big media buys formed the core of your marketing strategy, you had to worry about being stupid.  Hundreds of thousands of dollars were tied up in producing a TV commercial, and millions went into the media buy.  If you screwed it up, you were as good as gone.  Now the dollars to get into any number of digital channels are far lower.  And, since nothing’s set in ink – just pixels – it’s not a huge deal to modify things as you go.  So it’s all right to be wrong.  In fact, get used to it.

Here’s the good news.  When you are wrong, you’ll find out quickly, and inexpensively.  You can fix it, learn from the mistake, and move on.   So if you commit to making more mistakes than your competitors, you’ll end up knowing more than them in the end.

And maybe if we all learn enough, someday we won’t feel so stupid anymore.