Stop marketing like a Fortune 500 company. Start marketing like a startup.

One of the most common mistakes I see entrepreneurs make is trying to emulate the strategies of Fortune 500 companies. Either that or they try to copy what others have done in the hope that it delivers the same results for their business. Stop marketing like a Fortune 500 company. Start marketing like a startup.

A recipe for failure.

Don’t believe me? Let’s try an experiment and I’ll show you why.  I have to travel 2km on the road I am on, turn right and then take the next right to get to my next appointment. Does that get you to your next meeting? I thought not. It only works if both the starting point and the destination are the same. It also assumes that nothing changes between you setting out and arriving at your meeting.

It’s the same with PR, marketing and publicity strategies.

No defaults

There are no successful strategies by default. Each strategy relies on variables that are specific to the company, it’s products and/or services, the brand promise, timing, ideal customer and desired outcome – to name a few. The most important thing is to find the strategy that delivers a commercially valuable outcome for your business. I was at an conference a few years ago where the CMO of a multi-national company was asked about a viral video success. “How did you do it?”, he was asked. “It was our 100th try!”

Startups and small businesses don’t have the budget or runway to fail 99 times. But, using a lean approach to public relations, marketing and publicity minimizes wasted investment, avoids tying up valuable resources on something that will likely fail and allows lessons to be learned from small data analysis. Testing combinations of the many possible strategies with small control groups before scaling the ones that work. It is the same approach that many successful startups use with their business model development product development.

Avoid temptation

So next time you’re tempted to emulate the marketing and public relations strategies of your favourite Fortune 500 company resist it.  Avoid a strategy that worked for somebody else’s business and find out what works for yours. Start approaching communications like a startup.

Stop marketing like a Fortune 500 company. Start marketing like a startup or small business today.  Book a COMMS.BAR Strategy Session today and start marketing more effectively.