Grow!™ with Inbound Marketing Blog

I showed a new concept diagram I am working up, which perhaps I will call the wheel of growth... or maybe the circle of growth. I'll share it here soon. Anyway, by using all the tools in concert, the odds a gaining Share of Mind (SOM) with your target market or audience go up dramatically. Now in internet marketing circles, that is fairly common practice. However in more traditional spaces - most non-web based organizations - it is not as widely applied. That's who my company, TTXW, INC, is helping.

The next morning I got up early and decided to watch some fishing shows. Watching fishing shows is not a regular occurrence - it a sometimes thing. I was actually looking for some of the old farm shows that used to be on. Finding none any more and with spring break next week and the prospects of taking the kids fishing - some fishing motivation seemed like a excellent choice. My 2nd grade daughter joined me, so even better.

What I saw was enlightening. A lot was explained about fishing and my results, but more relevant to this blog on growth, is a new simile I now have to compare the message from the recent talk with fishing.

The show followed two professional bass anglers during a full day of fishing on lake that was new to them. Each fished alone in their own boat. It compared their style, lure choice, location choice, etc and results.

Here is the first lesson - this explains a lot about my past bass fishing success (or lack thereof) - each man cast their lures into the water an average of 144 times per fish landed. I've never seen these kinds of stats before. Think about the implication. I've always thought if I didn't catch anything in 20-30 casts there weren't fish there or they weren't biting. If someone had told me you have to present the bait a lot more times, it might have helped all these years. Now in sales, we all sort of recognize you need leads to convert and conversion rates are only a small percentage in most cases. But, maybe you need 5-7x more than you think to grow.

The second lesson was found in the two different approaches to the task. Both these guys have made considerable money fishing and are well sponsored as proof. Both are knowledgeable guys when it come to fishing. This day, one guy did a quick study of the maps, found some areas that fit his style and beliefs about bass behavior, went to those spots and went fishing. The other, looked at the maps and also spent time studying his "electronics" - i.e. used sonar and gps to profile the underwater structure, look for schools of fish, and so on. He actually spent A LOT of time doing this. By midday, he was way behind on casts and fish. It looked like a case of spending to much time "fixin' to fish" versus "just get fishin". You've heard the saying "fish or cut bait"? I have a friend who likes to say, "perfection is the enemy of good enough" In this case, putting the bait in the water was answering more questions and producing more results than continued detailed analysis did.

At the end of the day... the deep detailed analyst had cast less than 400 times and caught 3 fish weighing a total of 5-6 lbs. The other guy had cast over 1000 times and caught 6 fish weighing a total of 15-16 lbs. A bit more than 2X the casts, 3X the results (weight-wise)

The takeaways seem pretty clear to me.

The simile is this... put your expertise/value in front of more & more people and catch more growth. Use as many ways as you can find to cast your lure.

Don't forget a key advantage you have over a solo fisherman. You can put a lot of lines in the water at one time AND point your market back & forth between the lines - letting them choose their favorite. Much of what you try may not work. That's OK. Some will. Just get fishin'.

I'll be back to look at some of the ways you can put more lines in the water. From basics on through to the latest... website/email, newsletters, blogs, social networking (huge opportunity here), affiliates/referrals, paid ads and more.

My Best,

Wes.