In therapy, the term “projection” is used to describe the act of avoiding ownership of one’s behavior by trying to give responsibility another person, organization or thing.
When I see a business leader projecting responsibility for their success on digital marketing, I am quick to diagnose digital marketing projection disorder to help wake them up to reality and get them on the right track.
While digital marketing projection disorder is common, it is also very dangerous.
It is ignorant to expect things like online ads, websites, social media, etc. to magically bring you all the business you desire. People power behavior – behavior powers results. In business, there are three critical areas that must all be working to their fullest to make you money honey:
1) Operations – how well you do what you do. Whether you make and deliver a product or offer a service, your performance is a piece of the puzzle that makes you or breaks you. Happy customers = repeat business and referrals.
2) Admin – how well the business is supported. The #1 reason most small businesses fail is because of failure to collect. No money equals no business honey! Keeping cash flow positive pays the people and vendors who keep the machine running. Your admin procedures are critical.
3) Marketing – how well an organization’s people handle communications, visibility, client connections, service and sales. Marketing is NOT a Facebook page, a website, blog posts, or online ads – those are just example of things that could support awareness, communications, connections, service and sales. These things are tools, tools that need to be driven with strategy and expert execution.
Success is powered by the behavior of people. It takes people to lead operations, administrative work and marketing. You cannot expect tools to take you to where you want to go unless they are powered by the right people. While digital marketing can accelerate growth and success, there are a number of factors that influence results. If online ads are being driven to a crappy website, don’t project blame on the online ads. If a fantastic new website was created with all the best practices (design, copy, search optimization) and sales aren’t pouring in, it’s not the website’s fault, it’s lack of visibility work to drive traffic to the website. Positive behavior is needed to yield positive results. You have to look at the whole puzzle to really see where holes in success lie.
My digital marketing firm supports business leaders in their pursuit of success. When I see people struggle, it often starts with the behavior of the leaders – their willingness to make connections to generate business or hire people to help them do things in a quality manner or fix things that are barriers to their success. Whether we are offering web marketing services like social media marketing, online advertising management, search marketing, online PR or website creation, optimization and management, I always make a point to educate any new client that They are BATMAN, digital marketing is ROBIN.
Digital marketing has your back…it can support you with awareness, information distribution, education, even with customer service and sales, but you need to take responsibility for owning your super powers to succeed (and sometimes that means hiring help or being willing to change). 🙂
If you really want to go to the next level with your business, you have to be willing to grow and that means taking responsibility for changing behavior…your behavior, the behavior of people powering your business or the behavior of the people supporting your business.
We cannot have change until we are willing to change. If something does not fly, say goodbye! More on that in my Hoarding: Digital Marketing Diagnosis post.
Here’s to Happy, Healthy Marketing!
