We’re spending too much time searching for solutions to problems that don’t exist.
“What conversion rates should we be hoping for?”
Why, 100% of course.
“How do we improve our conversion rates?”
Follow best practice? Green buttons. Big headlines. Smiling faces.
Best practice tells me what others, before me, have done to succeed.
Researching ‘best practice’ methods is asking for assistance. It’s asking what has happened before and worked well for others. All others.
It’s asking:
- ‘What’s the best way to manage our Adwords account?’
- ‘What are the best titles for blog posts?’
- ‘What can we be doing that we aren’t doing now?’
And I hear it each week. ‘We’re following best practice in [insert Marketing field] but we’re not seeing the results we’d expect’.
There’s a belief that understanding what worked for others will work for you. I don’t go along with that view. Let me explain why.
Firstly, you (your business) are not everyone. Your audience are not everyone. You’re not in the business of being everything to everyone.
Sure, don’t bid on ‘turkeys’ when you’re selling chickens. Don’t write blogs entitled ‘what I learned at work today’. Don’t spend time doing things that don’t feel right.
Seeking best practice is seeking the medium of everything everybody does. What happens when we all follow best practice?
Rather than asking ‘what’s the best way to do [this]?’ ask ‘what response do we want to see when we do [this]. Then ask, ‘why aren’t we seeing it?’
Is it due to the small amount of time spent doing? It usually is.
I get the feeling that marketers are afraid to ‘do things’ for fear of reporting no immediate results. It’s the desire for ‘immediate results’ that leads us in our pursuit of best practice. Shortcuts to greatness.
Why aren’t marketers confident in their current work? Because the results aren’t there?
Are you judging the success of your blogs on retweets and shares? Have you considered that the audience you’re writing for may see you work as so valuable they don’t want to share it? A secret they don’t want to share with their competitors (who they’re aware follow them?)
Are you judging your Adwords campaign on sales results? When actually you should be looking at the attributable impact of your advertising on the entire buying process?
It’s the need for immediacy that creates our desire for ‘best practice’ understanding. Conversely, the desire for immediacy shackles the performance of our business online.
I’ve learned more about business and people reading Signpainters than I will a book about SEO. A book that shares the stories of craftsmen and their unique approach to work and their struggle against the technology that nearly made their trade obsolete. A book that inspires and changes the way you think about your own craft. That’s not about best practice. That’s about best intentions. And ensuring those intentions meet the needs of your audience and their audience.
Go create your own best practice. Start out firmly believing what you do is ‘for the best’. Test ideas. Share your practice. Do it consistently and on time. Do it with pride and conviction.
Seek advice, tips and tricks.
Share advice, tips and tricks.
Just don’t concern yourself with whether what you’re doing is ‘right’. Let your audience be the judge.
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