There is something that everyone has that is precious, from Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to the homeless person living under a bridge. Everyone has the same amount – no more, no less. Most people would kill to get more of it. Most people waste a great deal of what they have of it. And it is the most precious commodity to every marketer. What is it?

Time. 

Everybody gets the same 24 hours in a day. No exceptions. Everyone’s time is valuable – at least to them. Some people’s time is, admittedly, more valuable than others. My attorney’s time is worth $5/minute. Mine gets billed out at around $1.67/minute. Your results may vary. The trick is, nobody gets more than 24 hours in a day, no matter how much their time is worth. So let’s follow the logical rabbit trail here. Time is precious. Time is money. To grab someone’s attention, requires that they spend time listening to/looking at/thinking about your message. Therefore, attention is the real coin of the realm. 

To get Bill Gates to pay attention to your message is a lot more difficult than getting some kid who watches TV while surfing the net all day. After all, Gates is a busy guy, and parcels out his time carefully. Attracting a heavy hitter like that to your message can be costly. But then again, the reward may be worth that cost. 

Not that it’s that easy to get Joe Average to pay attention (there’s that phrase again) to your message. You see, with upteen different cable/satellite channels, an infinite possibilities on the web, satradio, terrestrial radio, newspapers, magazines, instant messaging, et cetera – competition is brisk. You have to find a way to get your message heard. Once upon a time, it was enough to throw up a giant billboard. Then TV was the answer. Direct mail, webvertising, Spam – all have had their shot. Some worked. Some didn’t. Most worked at least a little, for a short period of time. Then they wore out their welcome with the public – or more accurately, they weren’t unique enough on their own any longer, to get a sizable audience just by their nature alone. 

What’s the answer? Here’s the secret: There is no answer, if by “answer” you mean a foolproof way to reach potential customers successfully without having to think. On the other hand, if by “answer” you mean “how do I combine all the known marketing techniques, media, and plans to cut through the noise and reach my customers, the answer is…every product/company/project is different. There is no “one-size-fits-all” answer. Period. No shortcuts. No easy cheat-sheets. There’s logic and it’s kissing cousins reason, research and testing, there’s blind luck, and there’s the tempting (but ultimately fatal) combination of voodoo, snowjobs, and B.S. – those are your choices. The smoke and mirrors stuff only looks like it’s working. It never does, at least not for long. The blind luck thing can carry you for a while, but the temptation is to start to believe your own P.R. That will eventually leave you with a failed marketing plan and a “what happened?” look on your face. The only truly successful way to market is through a combination of knowledge, research, testing, instinct, creative talent, and a willingness to try something just past “tried and true,” living in the danger zone of “boldly going where no marketing plan has quite gone before.” 

I’m here to tell you, it can be scarry out there on the ledge, with nothing to comfort you but the courage of your convictions. But it’s the only way to break through the “me-too” marketers and craft a campaign that gets the kind of results that turn prospects into loyal customers.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 16th, 2008 at 6:42 pm and is filed under marketing.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.