3 Things

Influence is everywhere and everywhere doesn't get the credit.

Several years ago Strategy 3 worked on a campaign for a client who was celebrating a milestone year.  Their budget was bigger for the big year and money was being spread around to just about everywhere.  The expanded net being cast resulted in an exponential growth in sales.  It was difficult to say what worked best, but it was obvious the everything method was doing a good job. 

Most small business marketing budgets are limited, and money can’t really be spent everywhere all the time.  But the lesson here is that a good marketing mix is key to the best results.

Decisions aren’t always made when someone does a search  [insert product or service and city name] on Google.  Maybe there was an immediate and sudden need followed by a quick search and phone call (which is why emergency ads can be great for Google search) but much of the time we are influenced in multiple ways before we actually make the final buying decision.

I tell clients all the time, it’s usually never one thing.  When I moved into my new office, the gym across the street welcomed me on Instagram.  I thought it was really nice.  The proximity was a huge bonus, then a friend told me they were great.  I eventually joined.  My mirror and the short shorts I wore that summer don’t get the credit for me joining the gym; it was a combination of influence and need.

What a 1993 rap beef can teach you about recycling your content

In the summer of 1993, two songs hit the airwaves at almost exactly the same time. Tag Team dropped "Whoomp! (There It Is)" while Miami group 95 South released the nearly identical "Whoot, There It Is" just a few months earlier. Same phrase. Same energy. Different crews.

Both record labels swore it was a coincidence. And honestly, it probably was. The phrase "whoomp/whoot, there it is" was already floating around Atlanta and Miami nightclubs, passed between dancers and partygoers like a secret handshake. Nobody owned it. Everybody used it. It just took two groups to put it on wax at the same time to make the whole country lose their minds.

Here's the twist: neither song killed the other. Both charted. Both got radio play. Arsenio Hall even had them both on his show and let viewers vote on their favorite — with proceeds going to 1993 Midwest flood relief. Two versions of the same idea, and there was room for both of them.

Most businesses know what they want their website to do: generate leads, support growth, attract better-fit opportunities. But a site can line up with internal business goals and still feel off to the people landing on it.

That usually points to a more basic question that has not been answered clearly enough: who is the site actually built for? Not who the business wants to attract someday. Not who leadership hopes will matter more in the next stage of growth. Who is most likely to arrive now, and can that person quickly find what they came for?

Ambition is not the problem. Sequencing is.

A business planning its next stage of growth often has a new or expanded audience in mind: larger accounts, higher-value work, stronger partnerships, better recruiting, or more authority in the market. Those are legitimate goals, and a website should eventually reflect them.

The problem is what happens when those future-stage priorities start driving the site before the present-stage audience is well served.