No Need to Boil the Ocean

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If you are continuously working on your craft, chances are you get a bit frustrated now and then with how far you are from perfection. Marketers who are honest with themselves could probably list a dozen things that they could do better. The perfectionist in most of us is tempted to try to work on everything at once – “to boil the ocean,” as they say.

While we should always try to do everything we do to the best of our ability, if you really want to make lasting improvements, I think you need to focus. Pick one thing that your organization, team, or even you can improve on and really work on it.

Let’s say your biggest weakness in your marketing strategy if your website. Taking a website from nothing more than a weak electronic brochure to the tool that is the centerpiece of your marketing strategy, is a monumental task for any marketer. To make matters more complicated, even though you rely on the website, it may not be under your control. Maybe it’s even the IT department that has ultimate responsibility for the site.

First learn everything you can about the area you have targeted for improvement – in this example you need to learn everything you can about what makes an effective website. Watch webinars. Read best practice white papers. Don’t be afraid to talk to marketing vendors who work on websites for a living. You can learn from them and you may even enlist one in your quest for the perfect website.

Share this learning with others in your organization, especially those whose help you will need to enlist in your quest for perfection. Share the learning not with an eye toward convincing them, but from learning together. Seek their opinions, not an opportunity to give them yours.

Then, together, map out a strategy that moves you to where you want to be. Sometimes small increments work best. Trying to do too much can wear out your colleagues and ensure that your efforts never get off the ground.