Best Practices Aren’t
If I had a nickel for every time a client asked me to tell them about marketing best practices, I could match The Donald’s proposed charitable contribution.
I try to explain that there is no such thing as a best practice. The truth is:
1. What works for one company won’t necessarily work for other companies. A so-called best practice is dependent on a firm’s strategy, organization structure, quality of their technology apps and infrastructure, composition of its client base, the quality and composition of its product line, and a gazillion other factors. For another company to simply say “oh, we’ll do what they do because it works for them” is short-sighted.
2. What works for one company may not really be their own doing. The factors that influence the success of a business practice go beyond the internal factors listed in #1. The state of the economy, hell, even the weather may be as much a determining factor of how successful a practice is as anything the company itself does. If true, the so-called best practice isn’t likely to be sustainable.
3. What works for one company may not really be working as advertised. Marketing measurement is a mess in most large organizations. When a so-called best practice produces a 100% ROI, who really measured and vetted that claim? The consulting or technology firm that worked with the company? What costs were included in the ROI calculation? Have the top line results been replicated in other campaigns, channels, product lines, etc.?