Ridiculous Marketing Analogy Tuesday – On a Boat!

You’re on a boat.

No you’re not on a boat, but there’s much to be gained from looking at our marketing gameplans through real life analogies. Some are more useful than others. Let’s try hopping on a boat and see how it goes.

The boat is your business. It floats or sinks. It gets where it’s going or it drifts.

The engine is your marketing. It moves you along and allows you to dictate your speed and direction. The more gas you put in the faster you go. It helps if it’s the right type of gas. Your website, copy points, brochures, and all your online outposts are the engine. Without it you’re drifting. You may or may not spend much time updating the engine, but as long as it’s running you feel ok. Engine technology has changed a lot in the last few years allowing some businesses to use a different kind of gas, which is becoming more prevalent.

The people on the boat are your customers. They are either going to have a good or bad time. If they have a good time, they’ll take another trip with you in the future. Piss them off and they’ll jump. They’ll also tell lots of people how bad a time they had when they are dripping wet.

Who is steering this vessel and maintaining the engine? For many small to medium sized businesses, the owners are busy making sure the docking schedules are kept, there are no holes in the boat, the deckhands are happy and the other boats in the bay don’t get too far ahead. They may even be sitting on the shore most of the time tending to other issues. Tinkering with the engine can be less urgent, as can steering day to day.

Ready to get someone behind the wheel? Your options are a dedicated staff member with limited experience, agency covering their overhead or part time freelancer who has steered many large ships in the past.The end result of this ridiculous marketing analogy is that a boat is not very effective without someone trained to steer it and making sure the engine stays up to date. Similarly, a plane doesn’t go far without a pilot. You can have the best website or brochures in the world, but if your business is unmanned online you are doing more drifting than steering.