Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Is Your Marketing Campaign Stuck on "Groundhog Day?"

Did you hear the exciting news a couple of weeks back? The world's most famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, did not see his shadow when he emerged from his den this past February 2nd. According to legend, this means that we can expect an early spring instead of six more weeks of winter. The question is: Are you ready to move forward with your own marketing initiatives, or are you still hiding in your den?

Apart from old Phil himself, Groundhog Day is perhaps most fondly associated with the movie of the same name starring Bill Murray. Ever feel like you're repeating the same situation over and over again? If so, then you'll sympathize with Bill Murray's character in the movie Groundhog Day, even if you don't like him much.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow...

That's TV weatherman Phil Connor's problem -- he's just not a likable guy. He's an arrogant grump who resents his assignment to cover celebrity groundhog Punxsutawney Phil's prediction for the season. The only way his February 2nd could get any worse would be if it happened again. And then it happens again, and again, and again. He keeps having the same conversations with the same people until he's ready to kill himself. 

But then he realizes that this bizarre Groundhog Day has its upside, because he has an opportunity to become a better person -- the kind of man his beautiful news producer Rita would find ideal. He spends February 2nd after February 2nd learning to speak French, create ice sculptures, play the piano and get to know the people around him. By the time the calendar finally does start moving forward again, he's a new and better person.

One Bite at a Time

If you feel paralyzed in your attempts to grow and market your business, maybe it's because you're trying to master everything at once. A full-scale marketing campaign, for instance, can be an intimidating thing to envision, build, launch and manage. And I don't now about you, but when I see an insurmountable hurdle dead ahead, I stop in my tracks and think twice before surmounting it.

At times like these it may help to take a page from Phil Connor's playbook. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, goes the old joke. Director Harold Ramis stated that Collins relives at least 30 or 40 years of Groundhog Days to master all the new skills he displays. You can become effective at marketing your business in far less time than that, and you can do it incrementally.

Get the website done. Get your print marketing looking sharp. Learn how to use social media and sharpen your networking skills. If you screw something up, you can always fix it. But unless you do something every day to build your marketing knowledge and skills, your business will remain frozen in place, experiencing the same results over and over again. Phil Connor broke out of that loop -- and so can you.

Take full advantage of the early spring. Contact me, and let's get to work on a fresh new approach to your marketing content!