In Best Practices, Mediocre Results , Robert Rose claims marketers who focus on measuring up to others are less willing to take risks and less likely to stand out. Here, he offers tips about how to move beyond best practices—and become more than just average.
6 Ways To Move Beyond Best Practices
1. Turn worst to best
As an exercise, take your worst performing tactic (maybe it’s print) and ask yourself, “If tomorrow this was the only way I could market, how would I do it differently?”
2. Turn best to different
Pretend you learn the conversion rate on your best content marketing tactic ranks dead last among your peers who use the same tactic. What would you do differently?
3. Burst your bubble
What would you do if demand for your product or service fizzled out (e.g., demand for camera film)? How would your story change to meet the challenge?
4. Join a new clique
What if you applied best practices from another industry to your business? Learn what’s going on in an industry completely different than your own. What ideas can you borrow?
5. Ask the choir for a song suggestion
Have you mined company employees outside of marketing for wonderful, crazy and out-of-the-box ideas? Find the hidden innovators in your organization and find ways to get them involved.
6. Differentiation, not “incrementation”
Remember that differentiation means being “different” than your competition. Instead of asking how to tell a better story than your competition, think about how you can tell a different one.
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