Dancing for Goldfish

Why competing for shorter attention span's won't work in the long run of Marketing

Every day I get a  series of calls, Messages, emails, you name it. Generally there in regards to condensing a story that was produced- with the intent on focusing toward either a niche Group of people, or the general public; hoping that by throwing a bunch of darts one will stick to the board.

The current direction of marketing is oversaturated with the Industry consensus that the average person's attention span is shorter than that of a goldfish. Uniquely enough, The rate of information retention is even worse. Having dealt with this for quite some time; I've often ask myself, and then eventually my clients "if we make the story too short, we can't get all the ideal information in there effectively." 

The premise of a desired sales pitch is obvious, The call to action is obvious, but we're not connecting with the audience as deeply in the same way. 

This may lead to a couple of sales (which are only comparable in market percentages to that of impulse purchases at a major retailer), but your long run numbers are going to suffer. Which means you'll end up spending more with a cheaper rate of conversion. The problem is you didn't take the time to connect with your audience no matter how broad or narrow that spectrum is.

Now with any market, there's eventually a breaking point, A turnaround point, or a group that does things differently and gains a greater market appeal over shorter period of time because they take the TIME to tell a compelling story. While biting the upfront costs for long run conversion.

Content is key as many people have come to understand, but valuable content is the Holy Grail of Marketing.

When a company or group work with a client that is willing to take the time, energy and resources necessary to tell a good story. Their rate of conversion will ultimately be significantly more than those who tell a quick-cheap-story designed to raise adrenaline.

Most people are under the impression that the market demands: 

Money now. Results now.

When in fact the brand growing route is: 

Story now. Results tomorrow.

When you take the time to connect with people in a meaningful fashion- versus spitting out quick deals, for faster cash. The long run results yield better results.

Building a brand is a lot like farming.

You want to test the soil (market), 

you want to identify the season best for your crops (what's trending, what's not), 

then you want to prep the land (survey), 

you want to plant your seeds (market test), 

you want to water your seeds (share results and target audiences), 

you want to keep watch over your crop/ maintain (market fluctuations), 

and eventually you want to harvest (make sales).

By not following these procedures, reevaluating strategy, identifying

market fluctuations and learning to build a brand; this collection is likely to capsize unsynced companies. 

In addition, wasting the client's money at no avail.

So in essence, if you're not taking the time to connect clients and customers in a meaningful fashion. In the long-run, all you were really doing was dancing for goldfish.

And Goldfish don't Blink.

(If you're a blog reader or Vlog watcher: Let me know if you have any thoughts)

Have a Solid Day!

-Steve

a year bald (February)

So, February was an interesting month. Starting with a solid interview with Comedian Larry Starks, whom I was networked with by Joe Allen (work/travel colleague via Prepspin). So, I'd been trying to coordinate this interview about 3 times; the first was late November after we returned from the Trip to Florida covering basketball for bd Global. The Goal was December.13th; come the day for the interview - I also had intention to shoot the last scene for my short film: LIVE from Baghdad!

That was earlier on in the day. IF you've kept up with the Vlog, that didn't turn out how I'd planned and put me in a rut based on the events of that day. 

My drone took off on me due to magnetic interference and on top of that, it landed in a lesser part of town where I was flying it and was then stolen while attempting to recalibrate from a rough landing.

So I rescheduled the interview and then things came up again - work as usual.

So on the third attempt, we got it done. I got a full hour and 20 mins worth of dialogue with Larry and I cut it down to the prime points for the needs of the interview.

You can check out more of Larry Starks on: (StarksTV.com)

From there, I reached out to a group in Baltimore that I'm hoping to work with around mid-summer while I planned being out that way for Beast Coast 2017 (Parkour Event) anyway. I won't disclose whom specifically, but it's a larger project initiative for a small media company to tackle. Maybe not initiative wise; that's simple enough. But the audience I'd be able to reach with the message would be amazing; making that sort of impact on such a large scale would really be something else for sure.

In addition, I'm still training and doing my weekly parkour progressions and working on ShopTalk as well; training my body and mind with different activities to stay focused on the greater long-term game. 

I'm also getting way more fluent at shaving my head and can get it knocked-out in about 7 minutes flat now; much better than needing help and branching off on my own at 15-20min shaves.

The Basil Farm is coming along as I've been using every weekend to travel to Waynesburg, KY and get each next step in the process knocked out a little bit at a time. In fact, I'm excited that the last frost is coming soon and I've nearly got the pallet fence completed (heavy winds took out a few pallets this past weekend; we'll get it handled). However, it's coming along nicely. And I've got part of my seeds started in 72 cell starter kits; only have 10% of the basil and all of the tomato seeds started out of 4 types of basil, tomatoes, peppers, onions and radishes. 

My Basil Farm is Going to happen. :)

The rest of the month has been training, planning, networking and honing my skills in new facets for delivering more value to the world a little at a time. I'm Hungry! + I get into silly-antics still.