What's the answer? More is the answer.
Many small businesses and marketers spend a lot of time figuring out what they should do. “Should we advertise on Facebook?”
“Will this video be too cheesy?”
“Will our customers be turned off by this?”
And my favorite...
“Everything is too expensive, so we're not going to do anything.”
But here's the thing: While these businesses and marketers are busy talking in circles trying to find the perfect way to promote their brand, any efforts that they actually do follow through on are not going to have as much impact.
Why?
It's common knowledge today that our attention spans are incredibly fast. With Instagram stories, 7 Seconds of pre-roll YouTube ads and many other forms of micro-content, businesses need to stop agonizing over getting content perfectly right every time.
Instead of focusing on making the perfect piece of content and spending tons of time and money to produce and promote things you feel are polished and “professional” looking, you should simply publish more content.
While this may sound like a sloppy marketing approach, it's actually the winning strategy. It’s the reality we're facing. No one cares about the 3-minute video you took 8 months to produce. People don't make decisions off of a commercial or blog post or billboard. Today's consumer is constantly absorbing and learning (even if they don’t realize it) about brands that match their lifestyle and can provide steady drips of value over time.
Even if you think your content isn't the best it could be, I urge you to click “publish” as often as you can. Don't be shy. Understand that marketing is a long-term blend of art and science. Put yourself out there in an authentic way. Evolve and polish your content in real-time as you go.
Connect with your consumer on a human level by being human yourself. Post that 30-second clip from your iPhone of you showing a piece from your new jewelry collection. Capture the audio from you giving some advice on how to keep your car maintained during winter. Ask an employee to film your presentation at the next Chamber of Commerce meeting. This isn't complicated, but it's scary for people.
Fight the urge within your company and within yourself to hold back until your content is perfect. Grab your phone and get to work. The world is not going to wait while you wonder.
If you’re interested to learn more or would like to connect with us to discuss where you stand in your marketing efforts, shoot us an email at hello@toucanadvertising.co, leave a comment on social or tweet at us @toucanads.
Toucan is a New Orleans advertising agency.
