What Is The Next Big Tactic? (And One Shocking Reason That Tactics Don't Work)

But first, take twenty seconds and read this ditty about Professor PuddinPop (click here).

What did you learn, after reading the article?

The Wisconsin Humane Society found a "hook", didn't they? At the Ozaukee County office, cats are adopted in a month instead of three months (hint - much better conversion rate) because they are given clever names. That's it. No retargeting. No clever, personalized, highly relevant email campaigns. No organic search program designed to take traffic away from the Waukegan Humane Society.

I'm asked, all too often, what the next big tactic is? Happens all the time. As if the secret to business success can be found in manipulating Google or putting an image on Instagram.

You have to understand, tactics are easy. Well, let me restate that. Tactics are a heck of a lot easier than being creative. It is terribly hard to come up with names like "The Good King Snugglewumps", but it is very easy to develop a "Twitter Posting Strategy" using tips like "Increase Engagement By Re-Tweeting Your Own Content".

Tactics don't work because everybody is employing silly, basic, meaningless tactics. The first person/organization to employ a tactic wasn't employing a tactic - they were truly innovating. The first organization to figure out how to manipulate Google for increased traffic truly found a "hook" ... everybody else in the past fourteen years simply got in line by doing the same thing ... they are now employing tactics ... and as a result, everybody obtains tepid, boring, hopelessly arid results.

When you find a hook, through creative & marketing, you enjoy the outweighed benefits of being first. You are copying nobody. And as a consequence, the likelihood that you will be successful in any one endeavor is low, but the likelihood of success overall is high. I've written 2,800 blog posts ... 2,750 are complete duds (like this one), but in total, I represent something different and unique, and as a result, I have some level of success.

Tactics are the realm of those who are choosing not to be creative. Every person is creative, in some way.

Did you notice the heading for this blog post? This is an example of a tactic. The organizations that first used this style of writing were innovating, they were being creative, and the gained audience in the process. Today, it is a media "best practice" to use redonkulous headings - everybody does it - and as a result, we have a sea of heading sewage to wade trough to get to good content.

Stop looking for the next tactic.

Start trying to be creative, unique, and different.