It's not dead
It's just harder
SEO isn’t dead.
Email marketing isn’t dead.
Blogs aren’t dead.
Outbound isn’t dead.
Yet for some reason on a daily basis I see people proclaiming these channels as being dead on LinkedIn or Twitter.
They aren’t dead,they are just harder.
The days of just showing up on one of those channels and seeing results is gone. There is no first mover advantage left on those channels.
Just showing up doesn’t guarantee you any level of success, but it doesn’t mean it is dead. These channels are crowded and crazy competitive now. The bar for winning on them has been raised, but make no mistake, companies are still reaping massive results from them.
This isn’t a new marketing problem either.
Crowded markets and channels have always existed. The way to win in those situations isn’t to take a me too approach. The way to win is by approaching it different than everyone else. We have seen this play out time and time again…
For example in the 1960s, America had tremendous economic growth and as a result people were traveling more than ever, both by car and by air. This sparked a fierce battle in the car rental market. Hundred of big name companies like Hertz and small local companies were all vying for their share.
Companies tried to win with low prices or talking about their fleet size, but most struggled to stand out in a crowded field. Sound familiar?
Avis, which was actually the second-largest car rental company, found themselves in a tough spot. Despite their size, they were losing millions each year. Competing on price just wasn’t cutting it against Hertz’s dominance.
So, Avis decided to try something different. They hired Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB), the ad agency that were the masterminds behind the famous Volkswagen “Think Small” campaign.
Instead of focusing on price or fleet size, DDB came up with a clever idea: embrace being number two.
They turned Avis’s position in the market into a selling point with the “We Try Harder” campaign. The message was simple: because Avis wasn’t the biggest, they had to work harder to win customers.
The campaign’s straightforward ads and honest approach were a breath of fresh air. It caught people’s attention and resonated. Within a year, Avis went from losing $3.2 million to making a $1.2 million profit.
So instead of complaining how a channel is dead or doesn’t work anymore, rethink your strategy and try approaching it differently than the 30,000 other SaaS companies all running the same tired plays on these channel.
Thanks for reading,
Adam
Sponsored by Growth Union
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