It’s January, the month where the gyms are packed, fitness rules, and ad campaigns take an odd turn towards diets. But as much as we’re trained to make weight loss resolutions, your business should be looking to lose excess baggage as well.
I’ve written fairly extensively on how most brands tend to shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to social media.
Almost always, the largest culprit to online marketing failure is bureaucracy. It’s the reason why small businesses can excel at social media, while adoption is slow for large brands.
Online marketing requires a company be nimble. Your ability to make changes, react to online trends, and keep up with technology will forecast your success. The Internet changes, technology grows. Moore’s Rule states that our technological advances will double every two years. Can your marketing keep up?
The larger a boat, the longer it takes to turn. Similarly, the more bloated your company, the harder it is to adapt.
I titled this post “Welcome to 2010… Now Trim the Fat” because I wanted to make a point. Employee bloat is holding back your business. Processes that are long and drawn out, hurt your marketing. Being unsure is no longer an option.
A by-product of the paradigm shift towards online marketing is that decisions can be made with data. We can test what works and what doesn’t work – we can do it quickly. Avinash calls it failing fast.
Every decision doesn’t need to go through a committee. The Internet has made it easy to make educated decisions quickly.
Want to figure out which product you should promote? Ask your customers what they like.
Need to know whether something on your site is working? Run a eye tracking test.
When your business isn’t nimble, isn’t quick to adapt – you fall behind. You lose opportunities to better your product, your business, and to retain your consumers.
How is your department, business, or team streamlining for 2010?
