Evolution needn’t be Life or Death

In the natural world, species evolve generation by generation.  That’s a little slow to be practical for your marketing programs. Not to mention the part about winners living and losers dying. 

Your marketing can evolve to become more successful, but it isn’t wise to trust to chance (remember the living/dying thing?).  The alternative is experimentation. TEST TUBES  [OK, there’s another alternative, which is to just put 100% of your resources into “trying something new ” but then you’re back to that living/dying thing again.]

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” may work in some areas, but not marketing.  The marketer’s motto should be “If you don’t constantly improve your successful marketing efforts, everyone else will copy you and pretty soon your share of market will shrink away to nothing.”  It’s not catchy, but it’s true.

You experiment by pilot testing changes to your marketing.  If your experiment produces a better result, you implement it, and if it doesn’t, you discard it and try something else.  It’s a sort of “evolution to order.”

You’re probably not disagreeing with anything I’ve said, but I’m betting that you can’t remember the last custom-designed experiment you tried.  USED CAR SALESMAN Don’t count marketing solutions you bought or rented from someone else—if they’ll sell to you, they’ll sell to anyone, and phhhht-there goes the competitive advantage you’re seeking.

You need to be constantly trying out new landing pages for your search engine marketing, or alternative designs for your website, or new radio commercials, or different brochure designs, or holographic business cards, or new giveaways, or new sales promotions, or…all of the above. 

Not enough time or resources?  Then don’t do it all—but do something!  DINOSAUR Because if you don’t, you’ll be joining the dinosaurs and passenger pigeons on the evolutionary scrap heap.

Need some help in managing your experimentation?   Your CMO will be happy to help you evolve!