General Patton's Marketing Secret

"A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week."
-General George S. Patton.

Great post today from Pamela Slim, authoress of Escape from Cubicle Nation. I have never read her blog before, but it's terrific, and I'm going to be reading it from now on. She also has a great name, by the way. Her advice: when figuring out how to market a service, use an approach that you personally enjoy.

There's a lot more to this advice than meets the eye. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that they have to adopt whatever approach works best, and they don't stop to consider that they're actually going to have to be the ones doing it. Day after day after day, they need to bring a lot of enthusiasm, energy and creativity to their marketing. If they dislike it, that's basically impossible. They're going to procrastinate, go through the motions, and ultimately, never really get out of low gear.

In the end, perhaps, it's more important to figure out an approach to marketing that works for you. Do you enjoy it? Are you good at it? Can you bring some creativity to it? Can you, finally, own it? In her post, she puts it this way:

Choose a couple of marketing methods and really work them. Your criteria for selection should be A) has the greatest likelihood of getting you the results you want and B) is the most fun and energizing to do.

It's a lot like thinking straight about getting married, or choosing a college. It doesn't matter if your choice is "the best". There isn't any "best." There is, however, best for you. And in the case of marketing, best for you means something you will willingly, passionately execute right now, instead of next week, which in reality, means never.

Comments

[Sam Meers]

I love the focal point on urgency. Thanks for sharing.