How to avoid the marketing rut.

Are you clicking off marketing tasks and hitting your due dates, but are you just rinsing and repeating?

Consistency in marketing is essential, but if it is considered the highest value, you will fall into the dreaded marketing rut.

What is the difference between being consistent with your marketing efforts and getting stuck in a rut?

From my experience, it boils down to three things:

• Attitude
• Aptitude
• Amplitude

Attitude

Do you care about your audience and their issues or only what you can get from them?

Are you still interrupting, or are you finally earning attention?

• Who listens to unsolicited cold calls anymore? Voicemail screen much?
• Who reads junk mail? If you send it to me, it never gets in the house but is deposited in the recycle bin outside.
• Do you keep sending junk emails and see your lists degrade quickly over time?

Are you doing your marketing with the right attitude? Or are you just doing it because you have always done it?

Are you fearful that your competitors will swoop in and steal your thunder if you stop or change? This is the classic reason for doing trade shows - if we don't show up, our competitors will tell everyone we are out of business.

Aptitude

Are you getting better at your marketing? Are you adding new skills and capabilities? Are you learning from authoritative sources?

Are you getting better or worse at knowing the issues top of mind for your target persona? 

Staying within your four walls and not getting in front of customers regularly remains the biggest issue for many marketers. If you are not receiving regular customer feedback, your marketing efforts will, by definition, become stale and stuck in a rut.

Are you testing new ideas? New content? New channels? 

If you are not failing at something new, you are not trying hard enough.

Amplitude

Amplitude is a measure of deviation from its central value. If your marketing metrics show slow growth or no growth, then you are missing something in terms of content amplification.

Do you post blog articles and hope they drive traffic from your subscribers and maybe SEO?

Consider content amplification ideas like:

• Paid ads - test Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google
• Targeted outreach on LinkedIn - share your posts with people that might be interested
• Partner with influencers to grow your content reach
• Try other platforms like Quora, Medium, Reddit, and LinkedIn

Many B2B marketers now consider content options like podcasts, communities, newsletters, videos, market research, and events.

Focus on your best content and see if you can significantly extend your reach by amplifying it.

Marketing should never be boring to consume or to create.

If you are in a rut, you need to kick your own butt and get on a new path. Your audience will thank you for it.