It’s that time of year – watching the out-of-shape neophytes sweat it out down the gym, as they jog madly to the tune of their over-optimistic New Year’s resolutions.  Experience has taught me that by mid-January the treadmills will be empty once more as resolutions wane, tobacco shares start to rise, and people reclaim their sofas once more.

I’ve opted to take a more pragmatic, and dare I say ‘realistic’, approach to New Year’s resolution making.  This year it’s as simple as the intention to ‘do more with less’.  Application of Pareto’s Law if you like (he of the 80:20 rule fame).  Before I go any further, I must state that this is a brave topic for an agency-side marketeer to blog about. Without doubt, we strive for perfection and pride ourselves on taking the utmost care and attention with every project, and every deliverable we produce.  What I outline here is food for thought… a modern take on the old saying, “I know half my advertising doesn’t work; I just don’t know which half.” Which I believe should now read “I know 80% of my marketing doesn’t work and thanks to modern ROI capabilities; I should be able to identify the 20% that does and focus on that.”  Or something more catchy…

BTW – Pareto’s Law (or the 80:20 rule) is the recognition that approximately 80% of the results are generated by 20% of the work.  For a typical business 80% of their revenue comes from 20% of their customers/clients, or back to the gym-reference (well it is January) 80% of weight loss can be achieved through the right 20% of a typical exercise regime.  In essence, there is a lot of effort made for very little gain – but choosing the right 20% of the actions to take will yield the bulk of the results you were seeking.

Too often I find myself attempting to perfect something that would be fine if it was just done.  I see this all around me in the world, espcially the tech industry where first to market with the latest solution often scoops the awards, the customer awareness and ultimately get win more business.  Challengers often deliver a better, more refined, product, but sometimes it’s just having a product (or service) there first that is the most important thing. 

The same applies in marketing.  How much more effective does an advert, email or tweet become each time it’s mulled over and pushed back-and-forth between client, creative and copywriter?  As we move into an increasingly socially-driven, user-generated era, people react to well timed, relevant messages.  There’s still a place for fine-polished creative genius, but sometimes quick and under-the-radar communications are more effective.  If you can get 80% of the results from just 20% of the work then should you really be spending valuable marketing budget on the 80% that doesn’t convert?

Extending this to emails means there’s just a core 20% of content that does the bulk of the work in converting a prospect into a lead.  Most email marketing experts will tell you that it’s really not worth spending time pouring over the paragraph of copy used – you’re not going to significantly change response rates with that.  It’s more about whether you’re actually using a paragraph of copy, or a list of bullet points.  Most people skim emails, take in the subject line, title, main graphic, maybe a bullet point or two then see what the call to action is before either clicking… or not.

With whitepapers or similar assets it can be extremely important to focus on paragraphs of information-dense copy.  It’s communications such as emails, adverts, microsites, landing pages or social media posts where the focus is on grabbing the attention and pulling through to the next step in the process.

The beautiful thing about digital marketing is that we can A/B test all the minor tweaks (above and beyond the core 20% we HAVE to get right), email dispatch systems, MVT systems, ad-exchange networks and other platforms offer the ability to A/B test to a small sample of an audience before rolling out the winning design/content to the remaining audience.

I’m not advocating we all blast out ill-thought-out emails to launch a campaign 2-weeks early.  I’m proposing that in some instances it’s more valuable to communicate a message in a timely fashion than to refine and perfect a glamorous email and landing page with committee approved copy.  The key is in understanding what the 80% is that can be dropped, and what the 20% is that needs the focus.  That’s where experience comes in.  I see it as an agency’s responsibility to help clients get the most effective marketing for their money and not spend undue time on the elements that don’t make a difference.  Something I’ll be focused on with renewed vigour throughout 2012.

So here’s to doing less in order to produce more, get better results and better value for clients.  All through knowing what is right to leave out, and leave in.

A challenge we can all take on: identifying the 20% in our jobs where our efforts will yield the most rewards.

Author’s Footnote:

For those of you who don’t want to read the 80% ‘explanation’ above – here’s the salient 20%:

1.       Pareto’s law applies to marketing

2.       People are getting used to more targeted, more immediate communication – this is often more important than the final polish on content presentation

3.       People skim read marcomms.  Get the headlines and elements seen at a glance absolutely right, the remainder has less impact

4.       A/B testing tools should be used to test the non-critical elements of marketing deliverables

5.       Working with an agency like Enigma means you’ll get the critical 20% spot-on, quickly. We can then work with you to fine-tune the remaining 80% through A/B testing to squeeze the absolute maximum out of a campaign

6.       Don’t be afraid to do less, or spend less time ‘perfecting’ assets.  80% of the results come from just 20% of the work