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Marketing is a habit

Posted on November 6, 2007
Filed Under Articles, Marketing, VAR |

Ashley Poynter and I wrote this article…

Marketing is a Habit. Just like exercise, eating healthy or smoking, marketing is a habit.

People adopt habits by choice or by accident, but generally, the more complex the habit, the more on-purpose it is formed. Avid runners get into a running habit usually by setting aside a time to run and then keeping to that time, day after day, week after week. Not-so-avid runners are those who have not made running a habit. They get in a couple miles once every one or two weeks. The avid runner has cultivated a running culture. The casual runner has not.

The same is true for organizations with strong marketing cultures and those with weak cultures. Organizations with weak cultures throw marketing into the mix every now and again when they feel the effects of a lack of marketing. This practice has no long-term effect but relieves only the temporary burden of an empty pipeline.

“Marketing should not be a part-time thing; it needs to be a full-time thing. And in the absence of your voice, your target audience will listen to whoever is doing the talking,” said Michael Davis, president of Savid Technologies, (www.savidtech.com) a technology solution provider located in Tinley Park, IL. “There’s no doubt your competitors are doing some talking, so developing a ‘full-time marketing’ habit is more critical than ever. Companies that employ the part-time marketing strategy are going to see part-time results.”

Davis believes most companies are dissatisfied with their own marketing because they are poorly prepared. “Think of a casual runner trying to run a marathon last minute. They are poorly prepared and will struggle through every step. Most will fail. Some will die. Marketing isn’t just sending out a newsletter. It’s doing the prep work by defining the strategies and the intangibles that define value in that marketplace.”

Lack of confidence in marketing skills is often the single bottleneck that prevents companies from taking that first step into the marketing abyss and beginning the necessary prep work.

Defining objectives, strategies and tactics and doing competitive analysis is one a way of “stretching” out your marketing skills before you go to take that first run into the marketplace.

Bad habits can be just as detrimental as good habits are beneficial. Companies that poorly define or that create overly complex and unmeasureable marketing projects are reinforcing negative habits that hinder success in the long-run.

J.R. Samples, president of AccountabilityPartners.com – a management consulting firm acknowledges that marketing is a complex habit to develop. Part science and part art, every company markets itself differently.

“We’ve all heard that doing something 21 times in a row will turn that behavior into a habit,” said Samples. “The hard part is sticking with it long enough to make it a habit. If you work on developing a marketing habit—and build the proper marketing mindset– you’ll soon find that you’re going above and beyond your marketing minimums.”

Most companies, unfortunately, quit before they hit the magic 21 times. Samples advises companies to start small and work their way up into complex campaigns. Simple marketing programs have a higher likelihood of success. Over time, many small successes build marketing into a successful habit.

“Break your commitment into smaller pieces, if necessary, so that business development is always a to-do on your calendar even when your schedule is completely packed. At the end of the month, assess what you’ve accomplished. Did this system work for you or do you need to try something different? Once you’ve found a system that works, stick with it until it becomes automatic.”

Change is a habit, too.

Being able to effectively change gears is not something that generally comes naturally. Change is an uncomfortable process. However, companies can learn to do it effectively.

“In marketing, nothing ever goes completely according to plan,” said Dan Neff, president of Aquent-IT-Solutions (aquent-it-solutions.com). “People’s reactions differ; areas of anticipated resistance don’t come to pass; the external environment shifts; or one of many other variables. This changing situation requires a marketing organization to be nimble and adapt to change as a matter of course. An iterative, agile approach to execution is a valuable habit to develop giving you the opportunity to make course corrections at each iteration based on your discoveries from earlier iterations. Our strength is our ability to rapidly adapt to change. It is part of our culture.”

A series of tiny improvements instead of a single sweeping change is often a better way to build a marketing habit. Neff believes starting with a simple but workable foundation that a company can build off of is a better strategy than jumping full-force into an over-the-top marketing scheme.

“Marketers need to think in terms of iterations that remove risk from their programs and use these iterations to validate the program and refine the program before committing the rest of the budget,” Neff said. “A series of iterations gives the marketing team experience at crisp execution and builds good habits. Once the marketing habit is in place, marketing becomes much more natural to execute. Developing the right habits is essential for organizations that want to survive in an ever-changing marketplace.”

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