Latest / Imperfect Marketing / Episode 115: Brief: Staying Focused and Innovative: The 10% Experimentation Rule in Marketing

Transcript

Episode 115: Brief: Staying Focused and Innovative: The 10% Experimentation Rule in Marketing · Imperfect Marketing

• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Imperfect Marketing.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, kendra Corman.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: We are delighted that you're here with us today to listen in, because we're going to be talking about an essential question for you as a service provider out there, and that is how do you strike the right balance between maintaining focus on your core marketing strategies and experimenting with new approaches?
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: I think this is one of the hardest questions that people find to answer.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: I get questions about it all the time.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: How can I stay focused with all these new shiny things out there?
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: What if I'm going to miss out on something?
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: I get it.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: You're worried, you have a fear of missing out, or FOMO.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: It's a serious condition that I think everybody struggles with, and, yep, i too definitely feel that way.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: I suffer from shiny object syndrome and understand the horrors that can occur when you lose your focus.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: In the ever evolving world of marketing, it's crucial to stay on top of trends and continuously innovate, but it's equally important not to lose sight of what's already working for you.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: So how do you manage this balancing act right?
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Well, let's start with the notion of focus.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Focus is about understanding your core marketing objectives.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: You want to understand your target audience and the strategies that have been successful in reaching that audience.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: If you're just starting out, you may not have a ton of things that have been successful yet, but that's all right.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Figure out one that you like to do and also where your audience is right, because they say it's about doubling down on what works.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Okay, refine your strategies and make consistent efforts to improve.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: That's the key right.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: The consistent efforts to improve Consistency.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: It's key, okay.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: But then there's the call of the new, the untried, the potentially game changing tactics right.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: This is where experimentation comes in.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: And in marketing, it's not about wild gambles, okay.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: It's not about just going and taking a try on something.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: You want to think about measured risks.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: You want to test new ideas, learn from the outcomes and then apply them.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: It's about embracing the possibility of failure as a stepping stone to success.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: So the key question is is how much of your resources should you dedicate to experimentation?
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Now, as a general rule, i recommend 10%.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: 10% of your resources.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: That's time and money, right, trying out new marketing strategies, tools or channels.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: It's significant enough to allow for meaningful experimentation, but not so large that it jeopardizes your main marketing efforts.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Why 10%?
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Well, it's safe yet substantial.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: It encourages innovation without causing disruption Okay.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: It allows you to explore new marketing avenues, learn from your successes and failures and then decide whether or not it's worth integrating these new strategies into your core marketing plan.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, so the goal of this 10% is not necessarily immediate ROI, so you're not necessarily going to see an immediate return on your investment, and that's okay.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: It's about learning, adapting and uncovering potentially more effective ways to reach your target audience.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: If an experiment doesn't yield the desired results, that's not a failure.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: It's an opportunity to learn and refine your approach, and things change.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: So if you experimented with something six months ago or a year ago or two years ago, that doesn't mean you can't experiment with it again, because maybe people are just catching up with you Now.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: For you, this could be testing new content formats, exploring different social media platforms, testing and emerging technologies.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: It could involve experimenting with your sales process or customer service channels, or changing the wording on your sales page or your webinar sale page, or changing your webinar topic.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: The possibilities are endless, but the principle remains the same Dedicate a small portion of your resources to innovation.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, use those insights to gain you gain to enhance your overall marketing strategy, right?
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: So I want you again to just think about this as a way to approach your marketing.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Now, another reason for the 10% is if you are a course creator or you know a coach and you're launching a new program or you're relaunching a program, right, you only want to change a small percentage of what you're doing to see if it gets better.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: That's again the key to that 10%.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Okay, it's about testing, it's about evaluating and not losing focus and not throwing the baby out with the bathwater, right?
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: So don't ruin things that are working because you want to change everything up, because then you don't necessarily know which change drove what happened.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: The good and the bad, right.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: So, as I wrap up today's episode, remember this a well-balanced marketing strategy is like a well-balanced diet.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: It's not about choosing between the tried and true with the new and exciting.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: It's about finding the right mix that nourishes your business.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: It stimulates growth for you.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Until next time, i want you to remember that marketing is not a perfect science, as we all know.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: It's a combination of focus and experimentation, consistency and innovation.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: So thanks so much for tuning in.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I will see you in the next episode of Imperfect Marketing.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Have a great rest of your day.