You might not get it right the first time.
Baseball batting averages are often quoted to highlight the fact that you will not hit it out of the park each time you are at bat. In fact you will have more missed swings, than home runs. It is no coincidence that Babe Ruth held both the career home run record for 39 years, as well as the career strike-out record for 29 years. And with that comes the irrefutable fact that this guy believed that he could make that connection, and that the result was worth the risk of the miss. But you have to keep working at it.
When it comes to demand generation for your business, it is no different. You have to keep swinging in order for your chances to improve. And it is those companies that continually look for ways to correct their swing that end up moving ahead. In the case of startup Wooly Pocket, they recount the fact that they completely re-did their website 4 times in the first 18 months, spending $7,000 the first time, $15,000 the second time, and so forth until they got it right. Now these guys were not hacks. One of the co-founders was in fact a business management consultant.
Another great example is from Neil Patel of KissMetrics who spent $252,000 on conversion rate optimization consultants. Interestingly, his effort also took place over an 18 month period. And again, Neil Patel is an established expert in digital marketing. So, not exactly someone who was making rookie mistakes. Rather, he was continually trying to better his swing, with a firm belief that he could make the connection.
Unfortunately, there are many businesses who have the potential to build a better pipeline. Yet, they are reluctant to keep swinging. It can be costly, and the learning process can be a bumpy ride. But the alternative of not swinging translates into an opportunity cost of not hitting enough. The key to the whole process is to apply enough analyses of the results, and make meaningful conclusions. It is key to answer the age old question: Are you doing the right things? Or are you just doing everything right?
Iteration is the key until you get it right. What you do first is not as critical as what you do second. And yet, there are countless businesses who have a “one and done” approach. They may invest good effort to create their website, and they are done. And the website remains there like a statue being weathered by the elements. It may have had good potential to generate new business at the start. But with inactivity and the passage of time, its potential to attract new business slides to the back of the bus.
To get it right, you must develop a marketing tempo that fits the constraints of your particular business and market. It is not a quick and easy process. It is more like a treadmill. And in an increasingly noisy world, now is not the time to make do with a one-and-done marketing approach, that just sits there with unquantified results.