You know what sucks?
Chartering a $600, six-hour fishing boat and coming home empty handed.
You know what sucks even more?
Knowing that we probably could have done better.
How? With research. In August, it’s simply too hot for the fish to bite. They’ve moved on to colder waters. Stay with me, there’s a marketing tie in here, promise.
We were excited to catch… something?
Look how happy we were to get out on the boat! We were super stoked on the idea of a big, beachside fish dinner later that night.
So we didn’t do any research. We just found a service and plunked down our money.
Then we bought sandwiches, chips, beer, water, and sunscreen. We went to bed early, woke up earlier. Those fish didn’t know what was coming!
Or, rather, they simply didn’t show up.
Does this sound familiar?
Have you run a marketing campaign only to come up empty handed?
Were you so excited to start doing something that you didn’t bother checking if it was the right time (or place, or message, or… you get the idea) to do it?
The lesson we learned was that the best times to go deep sea fishing off the NC coast are May-June and October, depending on what you want to catch. And those are 12-hour trips out to the Atlantic Gulf Stream.
Sometimes, we all get ideas in our heads that we’re excited about.
But when it comes time to spend real money on marketing, it’s best to do a little research and choose the right platform, time, message, and methods to reach an audience. It makes no sense to cast a net where there’s nothing underneath it. Do that too many times and it can kill your brand. Because the deadliest catch is no catch at all.
And just to beat a dead horse (because I want to use all my clever words)… it’s a big ocean, you need to be fishing where the fish actually swim.