The market today is full of mediocre companies, following protocols in a mediocre way, creating mediocre content, and getting mediocre results. And what is most alarming, and keeps people stuck in inertia, is how comfortable being average can be. Adopting this mediocre stance has a lot to do with how people learn to do their jobs nowadays. With everything so easily available online, in portals, videos, and tools that make work easier, it seems we are being handed the fish more often than we are learning to fish. But how good is the fish?
In digital marketing, this is clear every day. There are endless series of “10 things you must do to build your digital presence,” “Instant tricks to grow your sales,” and other vague ideas with little practical substance that would actually help and improve day-to-day experience. Is gathering social proof good? Yes, but only if that proof is real and there is a clearly defined goal behind it. Is creating a company blog good? Yes, if the blog is written by someone with experience in the subject, and not by just any marketing intern, or outsourced to that agency that churns out off-the-shelf content like a bakery turning out batches of bread. Is sharing the latest market news good? Of course, if that news is relevant and has an impact on the people you want to talk to. It’s very simple: if the first thing you want to do when you wake up in the morning is brush your teeth, you won’t start by collecting testimonials from people who brush their teeth, doing in-depth research on tooth brushing, gathering data on people who do it in the morning, or looking for content about types of toothbrushes. You’ll brush your teeth. If the way you brushed your teeth that morning doesn’t prove satisfactory, the next day you change your method. And the next day it happens again, and the next, and the next, until you feel comfortable and confident with what you are doing. No matter how much research and market knowledge someone has, what matters is experience: what they have done over and over again, and the consequences of each new attempt. So beware of stage marketers! Someone goes up to a pianist and says: • I’d give my life to play the piano the way you do. The pianist replies: • I did. There’s no trick. There’s no shortcut. You have to learn to fish.
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