On Doing Less

And doing it better

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a breakfast presentation on digital marketing trends. At one point, the moderator asked the panelists a question: what should marketers pay attention to in 2016?

The responses were many and varied:

“Milennials”
“Retargeting”
“Being in more places, since your customers now are”
“Omni-channel”
“Data-driven decision making”
“Real-time content marketing”
“Internet of things”
“China and Chinese platforms”
“Video”
“Data management platforms”
“Start-ups”

And those were just a handfull of off-the-cuff answers — not an exhaustive list, by any means. After the session was done, I couldn’t help feeling the same way I imagine most marketers are feeling these days—overwhelmed.

It’s just not humanly possible to pay attention to everything.

As a strategy agency, we spend our days meeting with marketers, technologists and other senior stakeholders to understand what’s going on in their digital universe. Every company is different. But what we observe often reminds me of this:

It wouldn’t be too much of an exaggeration to say this looks like the back of the TV at my parents’ place.

Taking inventory, it is common for us to see:

• Sprawling websites with multiple owners and hundreds of pages, which have been tacked on gradually over time.
• Disconnected campaign microsites like drifting islands in the ocean.
• Deserted social channels that feel like someone forgot to tell the host the party ended years ago.
• Paid media dollars delivering unclear or questionable results.
• Teams stuck with technologies that have been mandated by “someone else”.
• Silo-ed customer data.
• Various email lists left relatively unattended like wilted gardens.
• Pet projects which have landed on people’s laps from above.
• Vanity metrics to measure something for the sake of measuring something.
• Multiple suppliers duplicating work due to a lack of coordination.

All of which begs the question: how does all of this look from the customer’s point-of-view?

I imagine it’s probably like navigating through a vast, poorly planned metropolis. You can find your way from point A to point B eventually. If you really try. But not efficiently. And not without getting lost a few times along the way.

Photo of Jaipur by Dmitry B: https://flic.kr/p/dsuPxU

Ecosystem Sprawl

We call this phenomenon ecosystem sprawl. And we believe that it’s pervasive and vastly under-diagnosed.

So what causes it?

We pin the blame on what we call the mindset of more — an emphasis on doing more, rather than stopping and asking “why?”. It’s an easy trap to fall into. Especially these days when there is an urgency to be bigger, better, and faster and therefore more modern marketers pursue:

MORE tactics
MORE channels
MORE data
MORE content
MORE audiences
MORE touchpoints
MORE messaging
MORE technology
MORE innovation

Regardless of the size or type of organization, everyone we talk to is being asked to do more digital. And it’s easy to understand why — digital is changing the world, disrupting industries, re-inventing the way we all live.

Plus, marketing has always been a discipline that tends to look to novelty and newness in order to feed the organization’s appetite for growth and competitive advantage.

The increasing pace of change, the pervasive anxiety of being left behind and the sheer amount of new possibiltiies many marketers are now faced with illustrates how the mindset of more is very hard to avoid.

To add more fuel to the fire, there’s also all the advice and counsel modern marketers are exposed to constantly: the endless stream of tips, ticks, tactics and “strategies” delivered by gurus, agencies, vendors, newsletters, blogs, articles, tweets, alerts, webinar, events, etc. adnaseum to the point of exhaustion.

I haven’t met a single marketer who doesn’t feel overwhelmed by everything they feel like they should be paying attention to. And this anxiety takes a real toll. A recent Digiday article sums up succinctly what most of these poor overwhelmed marketers end up doing in this climate of more:

They’re just chasing the latest trend or platform, or worse — taking what worked at another brand, usually a hot one, and trying to apply it to theirs without having an understanding of the fundamentals or their brand’s purpose. Time and money are being wasted.

No One Is Immune—Not Even Me!

Despite the fact that we’re a small business and thus have our own natural limits—and despite the fact that we are very aware of the pitfalls of more-ism—we’re not immune either.

I’ve written before about the anxiety I’ve felt as a founder. I described it as a sort of business version of FOMO. A constant restlessness based on a fear that we are aren’t doing enough.

This anxiety led us, a few months back, to embark on a content marketing initiative that we didn’t really have the time to do well. Eventually it felt like we were contributing to the noise instead of adding enough value. So we pulled the plug and regrouped.

It was a stark reminder for all of us of the seductive power of the mindset of more.

A Race That Can Never Be Won

In the end, chasing more is like trying to win a race on a treadmill—exhausting and pointless.

So if you’re a marketer and you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, try to follow these steps:

1. Pause often. Get up from your desk and take a walk. Tune out the noise. Don’t give into the FOMO. Do your best to ignore the sales pitches and the flood of new tweets. Odds are you won’t miss anything. In fact, you’ll probably be better equipped to make clear, focused decisions.
2. Practice asking “why?”. And teach your team to do the same. The essence of strategy is choosing what NOT to do. And those choices become clearer the more you ask “why?”. Test the tactic in front of you against your company’s vision and objectives and unique strengths. Read this post from the sage of common sense if you need some inspiration.
3. Practice saying “no”. And empower your team to do the same. The questions of “why” loses its power if they’re not backed up by the will and courage to say “no”.
4. Remember that doing less means you can do it better. No one can do everything. Doing less means you and your team can put more attention, time, energy and resources towards the things that really matter. Your customer—and you’re bottom line—will thank you.

And of course, if all else fails and you still need help fighting past the mindset of why and leading your team forward with focus, remember—help is out there.