Don’t Blame The Skates When You Fall On Your Ass

I’m definitely a fan of having a group of people who you can discuss things with, but it’s important to know when to take advice with a grain of salt. I see a lot of people in wedding groups talking about what works and what doesn’t work, which sounds good, until you look closer and see that it’s a laundry list of things that sound something like this:

“Facebook doesn’t work.”
“Wedding fairs don’t work.”
“Advertising doesn’t work.”

Usually when people blame the medium or platform, it means that they don’t know how to use it properly and they aren’t willing to admit that they are to blame for the failed promotion. It’s much easier to say that Facebook ads don’t work than admit you didn’t do your research but still spent a ton of money and didn’t get anything back from it. You can mess up anything if you don’t go into it prepared but that isn’t anyone’s fault but your own.

Personal story: When I was a kid my papa bought me a really nice pair of ice skates for Christmas. I went outside and tried to skate and came back inside and told my mom that we had to take them back because they didn’t work, they were too slippery. Moral of the story: Don’t blame the skates, blame the fact that you have no idea how to use them.

The next time you hear someone say that something “doesn’t work”, ask them how they used it and what didn’t go well for them. They are either using it wrong or they don’t understand their sales cycle and expect people to just see one ad or social media update from and make a purchase on the spot. It’s an accepted truth in marketing that it takes 7 (or more) “touches” in order to make a sale. You can’t just be all “hey buy from me right now” and expect people to do it. Don’t try to marry your potential customers before ever taking them on a first date. [For more on understanding your sales cycle and how to guide potential customers through it, check out my online course]

The next time you hear someone make a generalization like the ones I mentioned, I encourage you to look to see who is making that strategy work for them. All you have to do it Google something like “companies using Facebook well”. All of these marketing opportunities can work for you but you can’t just put on the ice skates and expect to be a figure skater. Trust me, I’ve tried.