By Joe Kneale
One problem shared by every marketing agency that I’ve ever been close to is executing their own marketing. It sounds ironic, or even a bit hypocritical, that companies claiming to be marketing experts should stumble with their own marketing, but with very few exceptions, digital marketing agencies struggle. The challenge it would seem, is that generally the kinds of strategies and tactics that most agencies perform to attract new customers (which we call “partners” at ChoiceLocal) are completely different from the type of work those agencies actually perform on behalf of their customers. Because most marketing agencies aren’t in the business of executing marketing for other agencies, the disconnect between marketing and operations has created a reality in our industry, best summed up by a few, now very tired, idioms.
Eating Your Own Dog Food
The phrase, “eat your own dog food” is meant to mean that if you sell a product, it better be good enough that you actually use it yourself. Applied to the digital marketing world, it means that whatever you do for your customers should also be done for your own business. At face value, that seems to make sense, but the concept has some problems.
I’ll use our company as an example – ChoiceLocal is a digital marketing company that focuses on helping local businesses and franchisees succeed using the internet. Our partners have physical locations and defined service areas – our job is to help them win in those areas, using the web. We’re pretty darn good at it too! To use a different, and more appetizing food-based analogy – the proof is in the pudding! Our organization is growing rapidly – we’ve more than doubled in number of partners, revenue, and headcount every year that the company has been in existence. We also have an unheard of in this industry partner retention rate. How did we do it? I’ll cut to the punchline, we grew that way by NOT eating our own dog food.
Why don’t we deploy the exact same strategies to our own marketing that we apply to our partners? Because our business, and more importantly our prospective customers, look nothing like that of our partners! To abstract it a bit, our dog food is good enough for any pup, but we are figurative cat people. To take the analogy all the way to its logical conclusion, “You can’t attract cats with dog food – so why try?!” Which brings us to the Cobbler’s Kids.
The Cobbler’s Kids
The fable of the Cobbler’s Kids is that the Cobbler is so busy with what he does, and his hands so tired from making shoes for so many, that he can’t bring himself to make shoes for his own children. It’s often applied as a categorical excuse by digital marketing companies with holes in their web presence, or an outdated site, or just two tweets in the last year. From Sirius Decisions, to Advertising Age – the web is abound with cautionary blog posts by digital ad execs, about avoiding marketing agencies who resemble this worn-out parable.
Unfortunately, it’s basically the dog food thing again, and we can gut the paradigm being promoted by every ad exec who makes one of these “cautionary” blog posts two days after their agency’s big site redesign; the cobbler doesn’t have to make shoes for their kids if they don’t have any. It would be crazy if they did.
For example, at ChoiceLocal, we don’t attract new partners through Facebook – we don’t communicate with them there, for us, it’s an inappropriate channel for that kind of activity. For some of our partners however, it’s a very appropriate place to be, to listen, and to interact, in the right way of course. What’s the take-away? Look to our case studies to see what we can do for clients on Facebook – not to our own page. Remember, our potential customers aren’t using Facebook to find their next marketing company. Deploying a service-area focused Facebook campaign for our own business would be as silly as making shoes for imaginary people.
The Texas Law Hawk
For those of you who haven’t seen Bryan Wilson, the “Texas Law Hawk” or his viral Facebook commercials – you should take a few minutes and check them out, for context if nothing else. What I like so much about Bryan Wilson, a Texas criminal defense attorney specializing in minor offenses, is that he has created a marketing strategy that resonates, perfectly, with his ideal client (i.e., a proud Texan with just a tiny spot of legal trouble). The brand he has created is also completely, and proudly, separate from his operations. What do I mean? In his YouTube videos Bryan is shown doing a wheelie into the courtroom on a dirt bike with an American flag in tow. It’s dramatic – BUT it’s not a way to win cases for clients. It is also not the way that the “Talons of Justice” actually operates in the courtroom. Bryan has separated his marketing strategy from his operations. Mr. Wilson typifies the kind of common sense split between marketing and operations that is used by effective organizations. Anybody spouting myths about shoemakers and pet food could probably use a reality check.
About the Author
Joe Kneale is the General Manager at ChoiceLocal. His role is to ensure that our team delivers great results and outstanding customer service. In his free time, Joe enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, tackling ambitious DIY projects, and golf.
