Marketing paralysis is a surprisingly universal, ever-present and daunting challenge for many businesses.
Paralysis is a debilitating state where uncertainty reigns and fear of making the wrong move inhibits our decision-making. Many companies feel this more acutely in marketing than any other discipline.
Marketing isn’t complicated, but for various reasons, it does bamboozle people:
Does it seem unnecessarily confusing? Yes.
Are there an infinite number of solutions? Always.
Is it the anachronisms? They don't help.
Is it made impenetrable by agencies and consultants? Without a doubt.
There’s certainly plenty of marketing bullsh*t out there. Speaking to marketers can feel like speaking to your boiler servicer, going to a bike shop, or working out where to invest your pension. The 'experts' can tell you pretty much anything, you don’t know whether to trust their solution or their price, and each person you speak with has a different answer. So for those of you who don’t regard yourselves as an expert in marketing, the whole area can seem overwhelming.
If you are striving for growth, overcoming marketing paralysis is vital as it manifests in various forms: inability to choose between marketing strategies; fear of failure; lack of knowledge; not knowing how to resource the plan; not knowing who or what to trust with your money; not knowing what returns to expect.
As you can see, at its core, it is rooted in indecision, lack of clarity, and a reluctance to take calculated risks.
Marketing is actually very simple: start with deep understanding and empathy with your customers, find authentic ways of connecting with them, come up with a plan, make it happen, see how well it works, tweak as appropriate and continue.
Breaking free
So how do you move forward with confidence and purpose? It is primarily about behaviours and this is how we tackle it:
No faffing around: Work with energy and urgency to tackle challenges head-on.
Get under the skin: Delve deep to uncover the root causes of issues and address them at their core.
Stay solution focused: Utilise best practices to devise effective solutions to the problems.
Always be effective: Only commit to actions that add tangible value.
With purpose and a proactive approach, you can escape the cycle of inaction. This is how you can do that:
Clarity: The world is saturated with information and options. Get a clear understanding of your goals, your target audience, and the market dynamics. Then you can build a plan that will work, and focus on making it happen.
Energy: Inertia is the enemy of progress. Do everything with dynamism and confidence, particularly in your marketing. You’ll need to inject plenty of energy to build momentum.
Don’t be obvious: The better you understand your problem, the simpler the solution will be. The most effective solutions are unique to you, because the precise problem you are solving is also unique. Get to the heart of the problem and answers will naturally appear.
A simple guide to overcoming marketing paralysis
Get clarity on your customers and their world.
Inject energy into your decision-making and action plans.
Don't be afraid to consider unconventional approaches.
Prioritise high-impact activities.
Identify the most critical areas for improvement and allocate resources accordingly.
If it feels like marketing paralysis is a formidable obstacle, follow these steps and know that nothing is insurmountable. Marketing doesn’t need to be complicated or costly. Finding ways to effectively connect with your customers can be under, rather than over-engineered.
If you’ve built a sophisticated marketing engine, like a car that that needs to plug in a diagnostic machine, then this approach may not be for you. However, for the vast majority of us, we can open the bonnet of our marketing, look at what is going on, ask some pertinent questions, come up with a plan, make some changes and get the engine purring just fine.
