Some people presume that a successful marketing campaign is something you can buy in a box or in a digital download for $97. And if you do that, and follow the instructions inside to the letter, you’ll get rich.
But it doesn’t work that way. No matter what marketing strategy you buy, and no matter which promotional guru trains you. The level of success you achieve with your campaign can only be equal to who you’re being in the world.
A marketing campaign isn’t just something you throw at the rest of the world and expect it to stick. It’s true that promotional programs can be universalized for easy implementation to some extent. But the manner in which a given marketing strategy is executed will (necessarily) be unique to each individual or firm.
How you execute your marketing campaign is rooted in who you are and how you are in the rest of your life. In other words, the way you live is the way your marketing campaign is going to be executed in the world.
Whether you’re lazy or organized, impulsive or cautious, your accustomed methods of being will inevitably be expressed in the execution of your marketing. That’s a good part of the reason people see different results even when they employ the same marketing strategy as other folks.
If you’re looking for ways to boost your inner game in hopes of seeing stronger results from your marketing efforts, it may well be that your willingness to adopt a flexible personality will have a substantial and positive impact on the outcome of your marketing campaign.
Be flexible with your ideas
Being flexible in your marketing campaign means looking at what the markets want and bringing it to them … rather than trying to push what you want to give your audience. An idea might be really cool, but that doesn’t necessarily mean your target market will respond to it.
Perhaps nobody knows this better than a young entrepreneur from New Zealand named Sam Ovens. When Ovens sold his software company in order to launch a fast-growing consulting business, he ended up earning more than $100,000 per day from his online courses.
Ovens has since become a multi-millionaire. But he wasn’t always successful. When he began his entrepreneurial efforts many years ago, Ovens sold everything he owned and spent his last dime to create a web-based service he thought was a fail-safe winner.
When the enterprise failed, he realized that he had never really taken the trouble to consider whether anyone would want his service. Because of that failure, Ovens developed a negative self-image that he had to overcome before he attained a breakthrough.
It was through his mistakes that he gained the wisdom that transformed his way of being in the world. Once he changed, so did his level of success — but it only worked in that order.
Providing flexibility to your marketing team increases success
People who are flexible in life are happier and more productive than those who are rigid and resist change. That’s why many firms are encouraging flexibility in the workplace. They want their employees to be happy and productive because that contributes to the overall success of the business.
To promote a flexible environment, some companies allow their staff to work from home, and allow them to take time off for appointments, or work an adjusted schedule a few days a week so they can take their kids to school. Some employers will provide their workers with a standing desk if they’re having back problems; they work with their staff to fine-tune policies, procedures, and systems.
If you’re providing flexibility in some of these ways, it also makes sense to be more pliable about the way the marketing team executes your promotional strategy. If you only allow it to follow a rigid plan with unbending rules, then you’re apt to miss out on opportunities for success. Because a marketing strategy ought to be adjusted continually as the data comes in.
It has to go with the flow of events and developments, and rigid rules don’t always allow for such adjustments.
Be willing to let go of offers that aren’t working
Sometimes great ideas don’t translate to success in terms of results. If an initiative isn’t working for you, it’s okay to let it go.
Being flexible means being willing to let go of ideas you thought were fabulous but didn’t play out the way you’d expected. When that happens, take the lessons and formulate better ideas.
This goes back to giving people what they want, rather than what you want to give them. Many marketers miss this crucial point, and according to Forbes.com, 65% of marketers aren’t giving people what they want.
Ask for, and be open to, feedback
Another facet of being flexible includes being open to receiving feedback from others, especially your target market. The feedback will provide you with the information you need to gauge how your market is responding to your offers.
When you can redirect your campaigns to work with the downstream current, you’ll meet less resistance. When you’re flexible enough to make changes based on incoming data, you’ll see success. No matter what marketing strategy you choose.
