The marketing, communication and media beast is insatiable, isn’t it. No matter how much we feed it, it still demands more. More content, more images, videos, words and phrases. Gimme more insight and opinions it screams. Stand out, cut through the noise. Grab that megaphone and amplify your voice.
It’s relentless and unless you have the budget of Nike, the reality is that your marketing machine will be filled with pragmatic decisions. And even if you are Nike, you’re still going to be asking what’s realistic? What are we trying to achieve here, why and what’s the best way for us to achieve it.
The trouble is we can get so focused on feeding the beast that hitting pause, taking our time to reflect becomes unthinkable, an alien concept. I’m a big believer in breathing into your words, finding nooks and crannies to breathe light and space into your thinking, but this often feels at odds with our 21st century way of working.
I guess the thing is to remember that your communication machine is yours. You programme it. You set the tempo and you set the parameters, which also means it’s within your power to hit pause.
I’m not advocating a hit and miss approach to organising your communication. We all benefit from structure – whether you’re the messenger or the audience – because regular, consistent communication is the foundation for a strong enduring relationship. But a relentless machine churning out stale, predictable content isn’t the answer.
It needs to have flexibility built-in so that we can adapt to changing needs – whether that’s internally or externally driven.
Our digital world is insatiable, but we’re not powerless. We have a choice and I fear that sometimes the machine dictates terms that don’t work for the communicator or the audience.
The ‘we just need to get something online, any words’ refrain is understandable and familiar. Unsurprisingly, my answer is always gentle, ‘why?’ because getting the words right matters.
There will be hard stops where we need to hit a deadline, a product launch, event or similar. But if you build flexibility into your regular week to week communication plans will give you time to pause, take a breath and ask, ‘is this right and is this working?’ before you go again.