One of the toughest things for an entrepreneur to learn is that you can’t control everything; sometimes, you just have to make the most of the situation that’s given to you, to position yourself to succeed or at least to maximize your odds of success. As an entrepreneur, you cannot change the currents of the market; you can’t necessarily shape the trends or altar the direction of consumer behavior. All you can do is position yourself within those currents—and to try to make the biggest splash you can.
As the market moves in a given direction, there’s likely not going to be anything you can do to change its course and send it rushing in your direction. What you can do is place yourself within it, in such a way that you can be highly visible, very easily found. In many ways, that’s what marketing is all about.
Two Approaches to Marketing
The question is, how can entrepreneurs maximize their marketing reach, and get the best return on their marketing investment? There are basically two schools of thought, two ways to approach marketing in the digital age. The first, more traditional approach to marketing is to buy ads—to essentially purchase impressions, spending money to get your brand in front of consumers. This is effective to an extent, but only to an extent: At best, you’ll see incremental sales upticks.
The Internet offers entrepreneurs a chance to make a far bigger splash, though—to position themselves not just to be found but to be engaged with, remembered, understood. You can, in effect, position yourself for a big win. You can aim not just to get impressions incrementally, but to get them exponentially.
There are a couple of specific strategies that I have found to be effective here. One of those is to use humor. Humor is intrinsically relatable. People will remember it; people will share it with their friends. A brand that embraces humor creates a true experience in ways that other brands might not. Another, slightly more delicate approach is to use controversy—taking an unorthodox stance to help set you apart from other brands in your niche.
Making the Most of Each Opportunity
If it sounds like I’m endorsing a content-based approach over paid promotion, I’m not. I think you need to have both. Buying ads and website traffic ensures that people see your brand, positioned in the currents of the market—but when they see it, what kind of an impact does it make? That’s where the humor and the controversy come into play. These are the things that help you to potentially go viral; they help position you to take a big swing, and hopefully score a big win. Instead of buying impressions one at a time—one, two, three…– you can aim to go straight from zero to 100.
It’s not guaranteed, of course—but it’s sweet when it happens. And it’s often a risk worth taking.
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