Cynics Should Find a Clinic--Keeping the faith in the digital world
Candise Miller  
 

This is about getting back to basics and remembering why you started a career in marketing to begin with. Too many people in our business have lost the faith and belief in the products we're selling, which is the very thing that determines our success. We are barraged with angry, untrusting clients, having been burnt by too many digital scoundrels/Boca Bandits. We are facing declining return rates for our efforts in a place where we are held infinitely more accountable for performance because all too quantifiable results are so easy to come by.  Sophisticated tracking methodology is a blessing in that we are the unique gatekeepers allowing marketers to pinpoint the what where and why of each and every customer.  Yet, more and more we see it as a curse that permits our failures to overshadow our successes, when we should be immersing ourselves in this information to refine our craft.

Consequently, the turn-and-burn routine stems from pervasive apathy and reactive methodology amongst so-called online marketing professionals.  They grow tired of trying to keep pace with what truly works in a business riddled with constant and often turbulent change.  So, they abandon the idea of developing the long-term, truly innovative and responsible marketing techniques, and resort to the turn-and-burn approach just to survive and make a living.  But the turn-and-burn habit by definition is what causes such high turnover in our industry, why so many operations crop up like weeds and die off with every seasonal change.  There's a good reason your freshman marketing professor taught you about the 80/20 Rule...IT'S TRUE.  The essence of 80/20 is that return business is your lowest hanging fruit (and the ripest), which is the easiest sell in the world because it comes from a successful business relationship you've already developed.  Why continue to reinvent the wheel just to get a lousy thousand bucks in the door?  Don't accept just any customer only to bring in short-term revenue, while often compromising your integrity in the process.  Cultivating quality clients as a long-term investment pays exponentially greater dividends than the "take all comers" approach that brings them in the door, but leaves them out in the cold shortly thereafter.  Bringing customers in is only 20% of the equation, retaining those customers is what separates the expeditious from the merely expedient.  Spend your time where you have the most credibility--return customers are already sold on your product.  Capitalize on that, and you'll find that you're spending less time chasing your tail and more time actually helping someone while developing legitimate marketing expertise. 

The only sure antidote to our cynicism is by personally investing ourselves in quality, credibility, and innovation.  Personally invest yourself in your clients' success, and you will reap what you sow.  Let technology empower you, not enslave you—technology merely provides the means to implement a core methodology.  Regardless of how many bells and whistles it has, technology cannot sustain flawed or underdeveloped strategy.  Technology is only half of the solution, and far too often we let it become our crutch.  We can learn something valuable from our offline brethren, which is to employ even the most basic marketing principals as the core foundation for strategy in our own unique environment.  In short, you’ll land the right accounts and find lasting success when you start believing in your product again.  When you believe in your product and in yourself, your clients will too.

I invite you to write in with your comments, questions or suggestions!

Candise Miller, Vice President of Sales, MatchCraft

candise@matchcraft.com
www.MatchCraft.com