Over the last few months I’ve become very interested in app development. It’s been a personal adventure into the wonderful world of Objective-C. And, along the journey I’ve often found myself talking with colleagues about various app ideas. What I’ve found interesting (and related to marketing) about those conversations is how often, and ironically, I’ve heard the phrase, ‘Oh that’s been invented before.’

I find it an interesting statement, but one that I almost immediately dismiss.

You see, there is a natural tendency to focus on what’s new. We love to hear about new products and services. We love to be on the ‘edge of what’s coming next’.

I get it. Inventors are often idolized and the rewards for being ‘first to market’ is an attractive offer (pipe dream?).

The reality though is there are very few completely original innovations. If you look back on history you’ll see that even seemingly new products are often derived off other ideas or are simultaneously invented (like the computer).

Take for example plot lines in movies or books. Leo Tolstoy once said “All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.” I challenge you to find an exception.

The app store is nicknamed the ‘crap store’ for a reason. It’s filled with ideas, that are often poorly executed.

Most advertising channels are filled with advertising derived from other campaign ideas (just look back through a few years of any graphic design magazine).

And, most company social media campaigns are even becoming copycat havens. You get the point.

An alternative (better) strategy would focusing on ‘better’. Better executed. More creative. Polished to an extreme shine. Art.

A friend of mine once said, “Ideas are meaningless. Everybody has ideas. It’s all about the execution.”

A few months ago a potential client came to me expressing that they were looking to grow their community and that they needed some help marketing.

After listening to their story I realized their marketing problem was very simple: they simply weren’t connected to the right people. The community they were trying to reach already existed. They didn’t need to grow it. They just needed to become a participant.

So, rather than taking their money I told the I would made a few introductions to the folks that could get them hooked up with the community they wanted to connect with. I suggested they sponsor one of the community events. The cost of entry was a few token dollars.

A couple of weeks went by and the potential client hadn’t contacted the people I introduced them to. It was if they couldn’t be bothered. Their excuse was, ‘they didn’t have time and it slipped through the cracks.’

I felt extremely disappointed. Here I had gone out of the way to tee up a plum opportunity, and they just could take a few minutes to connect. It was an act of extreme laziness.

You see, the fact is that we are all busy. We are all swamped for time. We are all bombarded by our Twitter feeds. We are all struggling for an extra hour in the day. No matter what you think…you are not the exception. Period.

So, when you say ‘I’m too busy to get involved. Or I’m too busy to respond to email. Or I’m too busy to volunteer. Or I’m too busy to help out.’ …

What you are really saying is, “This isn’t important enough to me to make time for.”

So if your community isn’t important enough to make time for, why should they make time for you?

Some companies are all about the fast burn.

They go for the quick sale and try to make a quick buck. They are ok with swindling their customers. They are ok with pilfering their environment and community. They are fine with trying to enforce ‘the fine print’.

They are racing against the clock until their money runs out. For them it’s all about short-term profit.

They grind their suppliers. They argue with their customers. They treat every interaction like an annoyance. All they are looking for is ‘wham, bam, thank you ma’am.’

Smart companies realize it’s all about the slow burn. They’re in it for the long haul. Their customers are always right. They could care less about ‘the fine print’.

For them it’s all about long-term brand building.

These companies interact with and care about the community. These companies love their customers. For them, every interaction is a blessing. All they are looking for is ‘how can I add value to you today.’

Fast burn companies are like dynamite. They are flashy. They are loud. They make a big noise; a big boom. When the smoke is cleared all they leave is destruction in their wake.

Slow burn companies are more like a candle. No flash. Little noise. There is no big puff of smoke. Just a steady, unassuming flicker which provides warmth and nourishment (value) for an extended period of time.

Be the candle.

One of the drawbacks of working on your own is that you don’t have the same access to colleagues to bounce ideas off. And, work that isn’t peer-reviewed is often not as strong as it could be.

For example, over the last few weeks I’ve been learning about iOS development and I built a prototype of a very simple app (just to see if I could). The app basically displays random, and dirty, pickup lines that guys could use in bars. I spent a fair amount of time designing a nice pink icon with hearts all over it, and a beautifully pink gradient background and used a script font to display the text. When I was finished I thought, “Wow, that looks pretty good.”

I showed it to my wife and she said, “Yes, honey that looks good!”

I showed it to my friend and he said, “Looks good buddy.”

I was feeling pretty confident and good about myself. I had conquered building an app (albeit a very simple one) and people thought it looked good. Gold star for me.

Then, I sent a test version to a colleague.

“What do you think?” I probed.

*pause*

“Well, it looks kind of girly. And, it seems the target market is men who would use cheesy pickup lines.” my colleague replied.

In my head I thought,  for just a split second I thought, “Did he just call my baby ugly?”

But then I realized that he was right. The way the app looked was totally targeted at the wrong folks. How did I not see this? Why was I so stupid? Oh the horror.

The point of my story is that great work (and great marketing) doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You need to test and get real feedback from your customers and colleagues.

Sometimes it can be as simple as just talking to your customers. Other times you might want a well-designed survey tool.

But for sure, you need to give people a real chance to tell you your ‘baby is ugly’.

Hint: A Facebook page could be used just as much for customer feedback as it could be for marketing.

One of the things that bugs me is the obligatory line of social media icons on offline promotions. You see this everywhere. Billboards, signs, advertisements etc plastered with icons as if somehow putting these logos on your materials equates to having a well thought out social media strategy (it doesn’t…and it’s kind of silly).

What bugs me even more is when the icons are accompanied by a tagline ‘Find us on Facebook!!!!’.

In my mind I’m screaming, “I’d love to find you on Facebook…but I don’t know how!!!! (that’s right I triple exclamation marked that sentence in my head)”

Facebook’s search generally sucks. I am almost never able to find the page I’m looking for…and if I do it’s often after two or three variant searches. But what’s most annoying is the fact that it’s EASY (that’s right I’m shouting) to provide full URLs to your profiles and not doing so is just lazy.

If it’s in a mobile setting where you can easily take a photo and the audience your targeting is ‘tech savvy’ you could embed the URL in a QR code for easy access. One for each profile please.

For everybody else for the love of Twitter please provide full URLS.

P.S. In case you are interested you can ‘Find me on Facebook’.