Add Some BBQ to Your Digital Marketing
Why are my Digital Marketing efforts not doubling revenue? I have hired multiple agencies promising me the moon and back and see no results. Why is competitor ranking? Shouldn't I just follow what they are doing and copy it? Can you show us the playbook you will be following? These are all things I hear constantly during introductions. I feel for them. I truly do. Business is hard already. There are times when you just want a prescription and an exact recipe to follow to know success will come in the end. Unfortunately, even though promised by some, this is not how digital marketing works. It is living and breathing. Digital Marketing is shifting daily and you must stay ahead by knowing your fundamentals but adding in the right amount of creativity and product-fit knowledge that makes you so unique that your ideal customer target and Google stand up and take notice.
Let me give you a perfect example of how to use the difference between prescription following and deep customer knowledge empathy can be used to your advantage.
One of my true passions in my life is BBQ. I don’t mean fu-fu food either. I love smoking and grilling real food well. I have five different grills and smokers chosen carefully for what they can do differently. I have an industrial fryer along with enough equipment and doo-dad tools to stock a good ole boy BBQ restaurant.
When I cook it is Army cooking. I don’t know how to cook in small quantities. No one has ever left my house hungry. In fact, my friends now know to come over with containers to carry an abundance of leftovers home. My wife rolls her eyes whenever I ask, “do you think we have enough?” It is never going to be enough in my head.
Create Something or Make Something – There is a Difference
My wife and I were talking about how I love to BBQ, and she loves to bake. It led to an interesting conversation about the difference between inventing something versus following instructions to make something. When you bake you must follow precise measurements, or it will never come out properly. Sorry to all the bakers out there but BORING! My rib recipe has never been the same twice because I do not follow any “rules”.
I start with fundamentals:
Each rub recipe starts with a salt and a sugar component but from there the sky is the limit to turning the concoction into something unique and amazing.
Each BBQ sauce has acid, sweet, and a binding element.
Each meat has an internal temperature goal to reach.
Anyone can follow the basics of the fundamentals and then scratch their head after the cook wondering why their BBQ doesn’t taste as good as they thought it would.
Meats do not cook based on an exact time at an exact temperature. You have to let the meat tell you when it is close to being done. The meat gives you feedback. Wind conditions, humidity, type of wood, and type of meat all affect how long it can take. Sauces and meats need to please two audiences – those who are going to be devouring your creation and the meat itself. You have the world of flavors at your fingertips but if you make a sauce with Carolina Reaper Chilis for a crowd not expecting to have their inner being burning then you have failed. If you coat ribs with the sauce too soon the sauce will burn and add a bad taste to the meat. You need to know both audiences and make both thrilled.
Are you THRILLING both of your audiences in Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing has fundamentals that are the base of audience acquisition and lead conversion. Everyone can follow those “rules”. Most stop there and then wonder why things are not working. They are not thinking of the two audiences they need to please – their ideal customer target and Google.
Mastering the blend of audience empathy, digital technology and creativity is the only way to build a true “Blue Ocean” (more to come on this later) product-market fit that exceeds your SEO market share and gives you the brand someone keeps wanting to learn more from.
There are times in business when you have to follow the rules. You need to follow a precisely measured sequence of events to accomplish the task. But accomplishing tasks is never good enough for me. I live for those moments in business that transform. When paradigms shift and something completely new is created is what gets me out of bed in the morning.
I work with clients that love the BBQ mentality. I want the clients who look at the recipe book and then toss it to the other side of the room and say, “let’s do this”
What do you say? Ready for some amazing BBQ?