Risk & Business Magazine Miller Insurance Magazine Winter 2018 | Page 22

SLOW MARKETING
SLOW MARKETING MOMENT:
A SNACK MIX
STORY FROM
30,000 FEET
W
e want everything fast,
don’t we?
In marketing, we want
more leads, more
pipeline, more brand
awareness… and more fans, followers, and
friends.
But, ironically, the companies that have the
biggest, most sustainable business wins
won’t get there by going faster. Instead,
they will get there by… wait for it… slowing
down.
More specifically: they will get there by
slowing down at the right moments.
The key to success in modern marketing is
to flip from As SOON as Possible (move fast
all the time) to As SLOW as Possible (move
slowly at critical moments).
In an era of content abundance and channel
overload with possibilities everywhere
always and all the time and immediate and
OMG Why are there only 24 hours in a
day….
22
Why should you pause? (Full stop.)
Slow down? (Take a beat.)
And do less?
Why would I suggest slow marketing as a
marketing strategy?
Doesn’t conventional wisdom hold that
when you slow down, you’re road kill? That
when you’re slow, you’re a slacker?
Nope. The opposite is true.
SLOW IS MORE SUSTAINABLE: FOR
PROGRAMS, FOR COMPANIES, FOR
PEOPLE.
The smartest companies sometimes
take a slow marketing approach—which
(ironically) delivers faster results in the long
term.
What are the critical moments when
marketing needs to slow down? How do we
recognize those “slow moments” that we
need to embrace?
We can uncover them by asking (and
answering) a series of clarifying questions.
The most important one—especially for
creating more effective content and more
relatable writing—is this:
SO WHAT?
(It sounds flippant, I know. But it’s not.)
I’ve talked about this before in Everybody
Writes.
In writing, the idea is to reframe a piece
of communication from the perspective
of the reader, by asking “So what?” and
then answering “Because…” until you’ve
exhausted your ability to reach a reasonable
answer.
Let’s zoom in for demonstration purposes,
okay?
SNACK MIX FOR B2B
Right now, I’m folded into a window seat,
passing 30,000 feet over Philadelphia.
The flight attendant just offered me a tiny
square pack of snack mix. (Pretzel twists.
Seasoned bread sticks. What appears to be
off-brand Cheez-It style crackers.)
What if you’re in business-to-business