You may have heard that the Northeast U.S. got a bit of snow this past weekend. I am here to tell you that that report is correct. 100%, spot on. In my hometown, just north of our lovely advertising agency in New Haven, we actually received a glorious thirty-five inches of snowfall.
That’s right: THREE – FIVE, thirty-five inches.
One inch shy of three feet.
As you can imagine, I got to spend plenty of quality time at home this weekend thinking about the meaning of life, as my trusty snow blower and I battled the six-foot snow drifts that ran the full length of my driveway.
Now, the snow blower I own is probably better than average – not top-of-the-line, but definitely not a wimpy machine by any stretch. It is usually more than adequate for the standard New England snowstorm. Sadly, it was really no match for this past weekend’s events and, unfortunately, it took me about 5 hours of fruitless snow pushing to truly realize it.
By the end of the ordeal, I had spent upwards of 10+ hours (over two days) laboriously “getting the job done”. Was it done? Yes. Was it as good as it should have been? Not even close. How did my back feel? No comment.
Similar to my snow blower, it’s been my experience that most responsible marketing folks fall into the “better than average” category. They can usually do a lot of things well, but tend to fall flat when they try to do everything themselves – especially in the face of the daunting foe that is today’s increasingly complex marketing landscape.
Now, before you get all up in a tizzy, this is not meant to be an insult or slight to my marketing brethren. I generally reserve the near-perfect, “untouchable expert” moniker for:
The rest of us, including me, still have plenty to learn on a daily basis about the world around us.
The moral of my story here is this: When marketing your brand, don’t try to go it alone. Leveraging the right resources – whether they be talent or software or a combination of both – will help you get the job done faster, more efficiently and likely with better results.
As with snow removal, working smarter and not necessarily harder at your marketing is the best way to go. If for no other reason than it’s probably less wear and tear on your back…