Have you heard the story about the business owner who created a Facebook page and doubled his business overnight? Or the start-up that grew to a half million pound turnover purely through Pay Per Click advertising?
Of course you have. We have all heard those stories, or at least stories just like them. They are great stories for us to talk about and the media love them. A big part of what makes them such great stories is the rarity value – they hardly ever happen.
The dream that it could happen to us is almost irresistible, and it's like the miracle diet pill.
It’s simple, painless, requires no long term work or commitment and delivers fantastic results. Playing the lottery has the same appeal – as the launch advertising said “it could be you”.
But we all know deep down that it probably won’t be us and it would be dangerous to pin all our hopes on a miracle.
Even if there is a miracle marketing solution out there, which one is it? Just like combinations of lottery numbers, there are so many choices it’s hard to decide where to invest marketing time and money.
The best option is more mundane than a lottery-style gamble - solid strategy, good plans, greatimplementation and measurement that helps us learn and improve year after year. It’s less exciting and it’s harder work but done well is proven to deliver results.
Oh, and there’s usually room for a lottery ticket or two just in case it's our lucky day.
Chris Hutchinson - Aardvark Marketing Consultants
