A: All three share the same enemy. Boredom.
That fact underlies the one irrefutable law of marketing.
Call it "Bob's Law:"
A marketer will become bored with his own content three years before his prospects even notice it.
Now here's the rub: surrendering to Bob's Law has consequences.
Early abandonment of marketing content (because you're bored with it) has the same effect as early abandonment of a diet or exercise regimen (because you're bored with them). Namely, no effect.
B-to-B marketing guru Ardath Albee takes note of the effect in her recent blog post, "The Power of Monotony in Content Marketing. "Boredom affects all marketers for the worse, Albee says. "We think once we've shared an idea with our target audience that they've latched onto it and understand all it implies."
But this belief is mistaken. "Changing your focus on a whim, because something new and shiny comes along, only creates friction with your leads because they must now choose to make the effort to re-orient themselves with your new idea."
As a marketer, you must resist the overwhelming urge to abandon your content simply because you're bored.
In brief, you need to combat Bob's Law.
There are many reasons, Albee points out, why it's foolish to abandon content early. Consider just three:
- We understand our content much better than prospects do.
- It takes up to 12 exposures for any new idea to stick.
- 95% of executives say their top challenge is resistance to change.
As a marketer, you're not recommending benefits to one lonely prospect. You're really suggesting organizational change.
"It's doubtful in a B-to-B complex purchase that only one person needs to be convinced to embrace change," Albee warns.
"Without cementing our ideas with our prospects, affecting change is made even more challenging. Our marketing content needs to focus on making them so conversant with our ideas that their ability to persuade change is elevated."
When all's said and done, persuading prospects to change is the real reason to combat Bob's Law.
