The idea of ‘making your own luck’ has traditionally existed more in sales environments than marketing ones.
Ultimately, what people mean when they refer to making your own luck is the skill, ability, and perseverance to capitalise on an opportunity, rather than relying solely on luck itself. Companies are often seen as lucky if they can garner a significant upturn in sales, a well positioned product launch or by launching a timely viral campaign.
I’m firmly of the belief that a truly good marketer knows how to make their own luck. You can't just wait around for success to fall into your lap in sales and neither can you in marketing.
The truth is, it requires a significant amount of time, research and planning to be seen as ‘lucky’. Malcolm Gladwell’s epic book, The Tipping Point, offers shed loads of examples of luck lending a helping hand. He brings to life some of the forces that create luck, too. So does Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail, which talks about how the internet, social networks and viral marketing have led to unexpected good fortune for those products that don’t make the best-seller list.
Great marketers become students of small nuances that could swing the advantage to their side. They experiment. They innovate. They take risks. They find something that works. Then they A/B test and refine, refine, refine until they get it right.
Luck in B2B marketing typically favours persistence, proactivity and pluckiness. Those who stay in the game, lead from the front when things fail, and who keep focused until they get it right are usually the ones whom luck champions.
I think it’s important to stress that I am not saying that all good marketing is down to luck.
That would be silly!
But I am saying luck is something that cannot be underestimated or downplayed by marketers today.
On the day we upload this post, it also happens to be St. Patricks day - a pretty apt day for the blog I must say. An apt day also to leave you with this provocative truth: Every successful business around the world has benefited from its fair share of luck at some point in time.
Want to take more risks with your campaigns? Call us on 020 3877 3800 or email us at contact@alan-agency.com to speak to one of our specialists about how we can help you build a content marketing strategy aligned to your business goals.
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