What can you learn from great Presidential quotes?
Both President-Elect Obama’s detractors and supporters agree that the man can turn a good phrase, so like many, I’m looking forward to his inaugural address. Maybe he’ll even have a few tips for interactive marketers. No, really! Some of the best Presidential quotes can easily be applied to interactive marketers. Here are just a few to inspire you in the new year:
“No one ever listened themselves out of a job.” -Calvin Coolidge
Now more than ever, the customer comes first. Think about what they want from your websites and communications, not what you want to tell them. For example, maybe your customers want information in a straightforward format, rather than in an exciting, cutting edge design. The customer isn’t always fun, but they’re always right.
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” -Dwight Eisenhower
For the retail marketers that survived it (and even those who didn’t), this holiday season seemed like nothing but a great battle. Plans were made. And changed. But that doesn’t mean planning is futile. Think like a great general and adopt the discipline of planning, but with the flexibility to manage contingencies.
“Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.” -Ronald Reagan
Many companies are understandably concerned about managing their digital reputation, but it’s important to set expectations around those efforts. In the digital age, anyone can write something negative about your company. It’s impossible to stop it, but it is possible, and vital, to join the conversation about your brand. There will still be negative comments out there, but at least your brand’s perspective on those comments will also be represented.
“I not only use all the brains I have but all I can borrow.” -Woodrow Wilson
We’re all swamped at work, but this quote is a good reminder to spend some time looking at what other companies are doing. What ideas can you borrow? Think about setting aside an hour a week to purposefully shop online and take note of the way that other companies promote and merchandise their product, not to mention the functionality they offer customers.
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. -John Adams
The beauty of interactive marketing is that it’s grounded in numbers. Everything is trackable. I’m an idea and gut instinct person, but I get far more buy in and support when I can back up those feelings with cold, hard facts.
Towering genius disdains a beaten path. -Abraham Lincoln
Don’t abandon ideas just because no one else is trying them. One of the other great things about interactive marketing is that it’s easier to recover from failure in the digital world simply because it’s easier to change things (and then change them back). Take advantage of this flexibility of interactive marketing to try something new.
In matters of principals, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current. -Thomas Jefferson
By all means, explore the possibilities of the latest interactive marketing vehicles. Make a Facebook fan page and a You Tube channel. Have a blog and a Twitter presence. But, don’t forget that at the end of the day you’ll thrive and survive based on the experience and value you deliver to your customers (think of this as the “Zappos rule”).
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. -Theodore Roosevelt
In an age of limited resources, it’s vital to utilize every tool to its fullest. But as interactive marketers, you can’t just get caught up in technology. Don’t forget about existing, low tech ways like, for example, the lowly packing slip, that’ll help you get your message out.
It’s a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word. -Andrew Jackson
There are no cookie cutter customers. They’ll find you from different sources. They’ll navigate your site in different ways. They’ll want to talk to you via different channels. In an increasingly hostile economy, you can’t afford to support only those customers that experience your brand in the way you want or expect them to.
I always remember an epitaph which is in the cemetery at Tombstone, Arizona. It says: ”Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest.” I think that is the greatest epitaph a man can have. -Harry Truman
You can’t control the macro economy. Sometimes you can’t control your pricing, product or even promotions. What we can do as interactive marketers is to continue to do the best work possible and learn as much as we can from both our successes and failures and be ready to pounce when the economy finally turns around.
January 12th, 2009 at 9:50 am
I love this article; it blends conventional wisdom with current trends in marketing. Kudos!
January 19th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Kristin,
Fantastic round-up of inspiring quotes. That alone would have made this worth the read. But you did more: tied the quotes to interactive marketing. Thanks for the information and the inspiration!