For years, I've been building marketing campaigns that have a small mistake in them. They've performed exceptionally well, driving growth, driving awareness, driving sales. I had to flip my view upside down to drive incrementality in my results.
Campaigns were based on insights that supported my customer theories.
How did I pivot?
I started looking for holes. I started looking for insights that proved my hypothesis wrong. Along the way I learned three key things that helped push these results further:
1. Become the Customer: I don’t get caught in “thinking” I know the customer, that’s only 90%, the last 10% is seeing, experiencing and understanding the impact and the benefits for the customer to properly communicate “the why”.Use the products, dive into research, competition and focus on field-level, hands-on engagement.
2. Don't be Afraid to Fail: Test, learn and optimize. You’ll learn more from what doesn’t work than what does. I know what you’re thinking, you don’t want to waste the money. I assure you it will cost you more if you keep doing the same things on repeat.Trying new audiences, ad units, creative and channels. There’s no growth in playing it safe.
3. Share What you Know: When you share what you know, people ask questions, offer insights and reciprocate. Investing time in relationships and education opens up a dialogue to new perspectives, and exposes blind spots.
