4 Questions: The Good Enough Revolution

While most expansion stage B2B marketers are concerned with developing their online marketing strategy or driving website traffic, many don’t know where to begin. They often feel overwhelmed with the task at hand because they believe initiatives will be costly and incredibly time consuming. This is where the Good Enough Revolution comes into play.

We were lucky enough to interview Good Enough Revolution enthusiast Jason Amunwa (@King_Jaffy) on the subject. We were interested to hear his point of view on the revolution and what it means for expansion stage companies and the future of marketing.

1. What is the Good Enough Revolution? The term was coined in a Wired article by author Robert Capps, “The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine” to describe a growing trend among products and services where consumers, when given the choice between purchasing a fully-featured premium solution or a stripped-down but timely solution, tended to opt for the latter. The article cites a number of examples, including the Flip video camera, Hulu and the Amazon Kindle (which are surpassed in terms of features and quality by traditional camcorders, cable TV and – ahem – real books, respectively). I feel the trend is seen mostly in marketing and social media, where the tools exist to spread messages and content, however unpolished, at a speed and scale that didn’t exist until a few years ago. Whether it’s the rash of user-generated content campaigns devised by marketers to harness the energy behind their brands (check out Mountain Dew’s Dewmocracy campaign) or the ‘Sweding‘ craze that sprang up a little while ago, it’s clear that we’re seeing a shift in consumer attitudes away from high production values towards a premium placed on timeliness and relevance.2. What does this mean for startups/expansion stage companies? I believe the effects of this trend are profound, as it tilts things in the upstarts’ favor. You don’t need to spend thousands in order to gain attention & credibility. Were I a betting man, I’d say the budgets of the last 10 biggest viral videos (each netting millions of views) likely wouldn’t equal even half the cost of a 30-second Superbowl spot. And yet, The Big Game boasted 106 million viewers this year, while Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” series racked up 134 million views – and counting. [source] Speed, utility and creativity are the key drivers of this effect and you should factor them into your execution plans. Consumers are choosing simpler, less-powerful solutions and media because they’re available now, they’re useful, and they are able to capture attention amid the chaotic sea of noise assaulting them daily. From a business strategy perspective, it’s clear that barriers to entry have fallen for many markets. Previously, incumbents could comfortably defend their turf solely on the raft of options they offered. Presently, they can find significant portions of their market share rapidly eroded by competitors that nimbly capitalize on consumers’ more immediate needs. Note that this doesn’t preclude you from building a robust product, however. It simply means that your go-to-market plan can be significantly truncated, and you can add features (or in the case of marketing, tactics and messaging) over time. Take Gmail, for instance, now one of the benchmark webmail services – it was officially still in Beta testing for 5 years long after it morphed into the central online communications tool for millions of individuals and businesses.3. What are the most common misconceptions that keep entrepreneurs from executing against marketing goals? There are several and I believe we’re all guilty of believing them at some point: “I can’t afford it” – Yes you can. When it comes to marketing, there is little you cannot do for cheap or free online today. I maintain a running list of excellent online services and resources that are free or cheap to use. When used together, they form a robust platform for almost any kind of online marketing – from sending emails to editing video. Check it out: here“It has to be perfect” – By the time it is, things will likely have changed – meaning that it (whatever it is) will never be perfect. Put it out there now and optimize later. “I don’t have the time or resources to do this right” – I do sympathize with this one, but if your constraints truly are fixed, learn to work within them by tailoring your marketing to make the best use of the time and resources you do have.Too busy to blog? Twitter prevents you from getting too long-winded, while still enabling massive reach when carefully cultivated. Can’t afford a designer? You can find thousands of cheap and free templates on the web. Don’t have enough time to monitor what people say about you online? Set up Google Alerts to do the watching for you.4. What is your advice to expansion stage leaders looking to expand their marketing impact? Production values don’t buy customers’ trust anymore – transparency and trustworthiness does. Start today and watch closely instead of meticulously planning for the possibilities of tomorrow. You’ll end up smarter and more experienced today, rather than late and sweating bullets because of unforeseen circumstances tomorrow. Be helpful to people other than your paying customers – show everyone why you’re an expert at what you do. If your marketing is informative and of value, people will share it. This will do a huge part of your job for you. On the flipside, make it easy for people to do this sharing on your behalf, using social media as a vector. And finally: The advice in this post doesn’t apply to everything. Cars, airplanes and elevators shouldn’t simply be ‘good enough’ – blindly applying this philosophy across all areas will end in tears.
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Jason Amunwa is a marketing consultant in San Diego, CA, who uses his extensive and varied experience for good (and sometimes evil), helping entrepreneurs develop smart, effective marketing campaigns and strategies.