Isn’t There Something New We Could Try?

“We’re already doing that. Isn’t there anything new we could try?”

It’s a question we hear a lot. Right after we walk a client through their current situation, the goals they want to reach through advertising and marketing, and then start explaining a clean channel-mix strategy and how to use each channel, this is the question many people ask.

Along with the line: “We’re already doing that.”

Why “isn’t there anything new” is the wrong question

“What actually matters here?”

 — from the film The Wailing

Let’s take YouTube ads as an example.

Does every brand that runs YouTube ads succeed, just because running YouTube ads is “important”? No. That alone proves that the channel itself isn’t what matters — how you run the YouTube ad is what matters.

You have to plan a campaign for success by carefully weighing your product’s strengths and weaknesses, your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, the people, time, and budget you can actually commit, recent industry trends, and the tendencies and traits of your core target audience.

Are you doing the “not new” things well?

What matters most is, in the end, the customer. You have to start by asking what your customers actually care about and where your product can genuinely appeal to them. What it really comes down to is the basics. Run through the standard who/what/when/where/why/how questions one by one, and the answer becomes clear.

• Who — who is our customer?
• When — when does the customer actually need our product?
• Where — where do our potential customers gather?
• What — when customers are weighing us against countless competitors, what is the deciding factor?
• How — how do we appeal to the customer?
• Why — what is the reason customers should choose our product?

Telemarketing was a massive win when it first appeared. So was the internet. So were smartphones. But before rushing to predict what the next “big thing” will be, we first need to quickly check which channels our strongest competitors are actually using right now and how, and see whether we can compete there.

We can’t beat a competitor by fighting them on the same channel with the same tactics — but studying what they’re doing can give us plenty of hints about where we should be focusing next.

Asking “isn’t there anything new” isn’t wrong in itself. But before hunting for something new, gradually improving on what you’re already familiar with and already know — that, in fact, should come first.

So let us ask again. That thing you’re already doing —

are you really doing it well?