Think Like The Fish

Whenever I hear someone say that their marketing isn’t working, in my experience, it’s 90% of the time due to a problem with their core message (Step 2 of the Client Stampede Marketing Formula).

The most basic marketing premise is this: if you want to catch a fish, you have to think like the fish - not the fisherman.

Let me explain. If you’re heading out fishing for the day - do you bait your hook with a fresh pair of socks, a bottle of beer, or your Garmin fishfinder?

Of course you don’t. That would be ridiculous. What fish is going to bite at that bait?

Instead, you decide which kind of fish you most likely want to catch, you carefully study their eating preferences, and you bring along a selection of bait that would most appeal to that fish to test what works best. In other words, you think like the fish.

That’s not what most companies do with their marketing.

Instead, they either:

1) Use messages that they hope will appeal to everyone (which means it is bland, generic, and will appeal to no one); or

2) They use messages they like (so think like the fisherman); or

3) They copy their competitors’ messaging, thinking that they must know what they’re doing (which is rarely the case.)

Don’t let this be you.

Instead, use messaging that will attract the attention of your target audience, like a lighthouse in the night.

And always, always, think like the fish.