By Alan E. Young, President and Co-Founder of Puzzle Partner
I have been honored to work for some amazing CEO’s in my career. They all had one thing in common, other than their strong leadership skills and their inspiring, visionary aptitude. They understood the need to be first and fast.
Having had the privilege to work for Charles Philips (Infor), Larry Hall (Springer-Miller) and Ben Jost (TrustYou), I learned a great deal from each of them. Though these three companies all have different products and sometimes focus on different markets, they all develop software – and in today’s ever-changing technological landscape, they all understand that there are competitors constantly nipping at their heels.
As companies strive to move quickly, they also need to be continually innovating. As Charles Philips was quoted in a Fast Company interview, “We’re rolling out a lot of different ideas and not all of them will work. That’s okay. We don’t need them all to work, but you have to try things to see what will work.”
Ben Jost, CEO of TrustYou GmbH, used to use the mantra of “make it dirty, make it clean”. Larry Hall, CEO of Springer-Miller, ensures that his team is always innovating within his development ranks as well as his marketing. Speed, innovation, and cadence are the difference between winning and losing.
When developing software, you are always hitting small bumps along the way. That is why you should design and develop based upon market requirements, customer requests and most importantly, based upon a sound vision of what the market will need (and pay for) next. However, creating software at lightning speed guarantees that companies can stay ahead of the fray.
Working for these great CEO’s gave me the guidance and courage to start my own marketing agency and leverage my experience to help companies gain better market traction and awareness through the implementation of tactical marketing practices using an uber fast-paced content syndication cadence. A rhythmic cadence of content distribution to a targeted market pays off immensely over time. We have seen some of our clients go from unknown entities to industry leaders within a period of 6 to 9 months using this style of cadence approach.
The dilemma that often occurs is that with moving fast – you risk making mistakes at times – hence the term, “make it dirty, make it clean”. However, small missteps are far less damaging than being silent when a market is screaming for innovation and your competitors are making a substantial amount of noise. This may seem contradictory from a marketing perspective – and some might disagree with me – but it works.
Having a multi-pronged content syndication tactical approach ensures the widest distribution reach. The content strategy must include engaging press announcements, thought leadership articles, blogs, e-books, whitepapers, infographics, social media as well as event-driven campaigns. All of these tactics requires a focused message and story that resonates and encourages interest and conversation.
Once you have all your content working in tandem, you will reap the rewards of market awareness and increased sales.
Yes, keeping up a fast-paced environment may lead to the odd slip-up. It happens, and it can be easily rectified – but having internal “analysis paralysis” that stymies this proven approach will do nothing but disappoint your company in the long run. Conrad Hilton may have said it best with his quote, “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”
Keep moving fast and the results will follow.
