When I was growing up, it galled me to no end when my younger sister would “copy” me.
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” my parents told me, but I wasn’t having it. I wanted to stand out and get distance and distinction from my family, and when my sister did or said what I did, she ruined it!
(My sister is my best friend now, and I’ve apologized many times for how horrid I was.)
My zeal for individuality changed when I started my business. There are plenty of inspiring stories of people who started businesses because they had an exciting idea or wanted to solve a problem. Not me! I started my business after a traumatic full-time job implosion, and I offered marketing services because as a millennial, I knew more about social media than the clients who hired me.
Nonplussed by all things business and marketing, I started copying other people. I repeated what I read and tried tactics others promised would work. Does the novice stage of learning any skill (growing up or growing a business!) require this sincerest form of flattery?
It’s tricky though, because the business and marketing tactics I was trying to copy involved advice like, “know your unique value proposition” and “make it clear why you’re different from your competitors.”
Yet consultants and agencies sell templated courses and packages that offer the same services and advice. That’s not copying exactly, but it leads to the Sea of Sameness I see online: identical websites, stock photography, blog post titles, podcast or webinar formats, stylized Instagram images, listicles and more.
This is what my mentor (and client!) Ali Brown recommends: “whatever everyone else in your industry is doing, do the opposite.”
I love this because it’s scary (what everyone else is doing is proven! What if the opposite doesn’t work!?), it’s contrarian (oh, you’re doing THAT? Well I’m doing THIS!), and it’s creative (the world is your burrito. Doing the opposite of everyone else opens a world of possibilities!).
A few of my ideas:
- An anti-lead magnet (!)
- Surprise content upgrades
- Selling services in round numbers
- My Facebook Live Marketing Show
- 100 Blog Posts in 100 Days
I’ve tried two of these, but I can’t yet answer your burning question: “do they work!?”
Because what metrics am I using to decide if they “work”? What’s the definition of success?
There might not BE an answer – it’s a conversation.
