True Blood is a show on HBO that happens to be one of the few programs I watch regularly. This past season, the town was overrun by an evil force which caused the townspeople to act straight up bananas. They were running around the town basically naked, talking crazy and acting as though they have no sense about them at all. Only a few of the townspeople are unaffected – mainly because they are not quite fully human. (You know, they are your everyday run-of-the-mill shape shifters, telepaths, vampires, etc) Two of the unaffected towns people, Andy (the alcoholic cop that is always fighting for redemption) and Sam (the shape shifter that appears to be at the center of why this evil force has come to town) are caught in the middle of the madness – and Andy is realizing that Sam may understand more about the situation than he does. The following is a snippet of their conversation:
Andy: “One time (my nanny) told me this story that in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. I think she told me that because she thought I was one of the blind, but... You got the burden of being the one-eyed man. I envy that."
Sam: “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Andy: “I don’t either.”
As a fan, I won’t use this forum to get into how meaningful that exchange was to the plot – but have to admit that Andy’s statement made me think about the state of online marketing today…(and yes, I’m a super nerd and I tend to apply EVERYTHING to online marketing… )
Think about how many of those in online marketing jump on trends, marketing efforts, social media experiments, viral media blitzes, you NAME it – and do so without really thinking about how they can prove the value in those efforts. You could be spending time and money on an effort that produces a return of 1%, 5%, or even worse -35%, and not even know it. Talk about blind marketing…
Innovation is necessary, and being an early adapter to new technologies can pay off big. So in the ‘land of the blind’ in the online world, how do you become the ‘one eyed man’?
The key is to find a way to measure success. Before you start ANY new initiative, know how you can measure the success of that initiative. Some are the typical growth in sales, conversion rates and increased site visitors – but measurement gauges can also be if your customer retention rate or even if your mentions on twitter increase… it really can be anything!
Ahhhh but back to Andy – his words “You get the burden of being the one-eyed man” are so true… it is not always easy, or fun, to put a measurement value on any effort. That’s because you now have a way to see if you succeeded or failed – and no one likes to be accountable... but those that are, typically excel in their given field. Those that are blind don’t necessarily fail... but then again, how can they know how they are doing without a measurement system? So when you are challenged by your RS at FetchBack (or anywhere) to set goals and measurements for your campaigns, know that we do it so we can both be the ‘one eyed’ folks.
