How “Less Is More” Applies To Marketing, Too

There has been an explosion of digital marketing channels in recent years, along with a push for brands to master omnichannel strategies. While this can be a wise approach for companies with ample budget and personnel, it can actually backfire for others. Here’s a look at why many organizations are better off adopting a “less is more” mindset with their marketing, and the smart strategies this can encompass.

Master Of One

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You’ve probably heard the old saying that a “jack of all trades is a master of none.” This may not be true for seasoned marketers, who have dedicated years and tears to their discipline and oftentimes have mastered a wide range of skills. But, for the average practitioner, it absolutely applies. If you spread yourself too thin trying to manage content development for inbound marketing, SEO practices for better search rankings, digital advertising for brand awareness, social media activity for engagement and omnichannel campaigns to tie everything together… it all might just combust.  

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The fact is, doing any of these tactics well requires time, budget and expertise. When a company is lacking any or all of those factors, they’re far better off scaling back and focusing on just one area they can execute competently. For example, let’s say you’ve tried to keep all the aforementioned balls in the air but are struggling to maintain them all. Take a look at where you’ve had the most success.

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More than likely, it will be an area in which you or someone on your team excels. If you get a lot of leads from your digital ads, for example, consider dialing down your other tactics and focusing more fully on digital ads. If you handle one area of marketing well, you’ll get drastically better results than if you’re lackluster with many.

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Consider The Customer

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Trying to take on too much with your marketing can be exhausting for your team and disappointing in terms of ROI. But it also can have a net negative impact on the customer experience. Think about it like this. You just discovered Alpha Beta Supplements when you were searching on Google for organic supplement brands. You check out the website and fill out a form to receive a free supplement guide, but aren’t quite ready to buy. So you navigate away to another site.

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There, you see a retargeting ad for Alpha Beta. While this tactic can be useful, it only works if the company knows how to craft a tailored ad. For the purpose of this example, Alpha Beta doesn’t. So, the messaging is generic and doesn’t speak to what you care about. You then check your email and see the “free supplement guide,” which turns out to be a poorly constructed, mile-long email drowning in copy. You delete it. The next day, you get another email - also missing the mark. If this pattern continues, you become so annoyed by Alpha Beta that you vow to never use their products as long as you live.

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This might sound exaggerated, but companies do this all the time. Without an understanding of marketing and their buyers, and the resources to effectively market to those buyers, customer experience will suffer. Once again, you’re much better off taking care with one prong of marketing than going down this road of mismanaging a variety of tactics.

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Eager to adopt a “less is more” approach, or to work with a partner who is experienced and can truly handle marketing with more breadth and depth? We’d love to talk with you!