Perpetual Motion in Marketing (Not Quite)

Perpetual motion, the art of creating continuous movement without an external source of energy, is completely impossible according to our current understanding of the laws of physics.

Despite this, many marketers ask me, quite often in a state of desperation, if there is anything they can do to market their business that they can just set up and leave to run by itself.

The answer is no. Marketing is difficult, and unless you put in the time (and/or money), effort and a little creativity, it will fall flat on its face.

I like to think of marketing as a bit like a fire – you need fuel (content), heat (an audience) and oxygen (reach) to make it really hot. If you take away just one of these elements, the fire will die. If you want a big fire, you’ll need to make sure you’ve plenty of fuel, heat and oxygen.

Marketing is not a part-time job. Marketers need to stop chasing the dream of perpetual motion and instead concentrate on efficiency.

As any regular reader of this blog will know, email marketing is the most efficient method of marketing available to marketers today (both online and offline). While email marketing cannot promise perpetual motion, simple autoresponders can be set up to run targeted campaigns automatically for long enough to keep your audience engaged while you work on other projects.

But this does not mean that email marketing is a lazy solution. Your campaigns will only work if you put in the effort up front in generating solid lists and target them with relevant, timely and engaging content.

No Such Thing As A Quick Win In Marketing

The Internet is awash with countless “products” promising quick wins and fully automated solutions. They do not work. Technology is a tool that drives efficiency. Having a great set of tools will not make you a great marketer if you don’t put the effort in.

If you are struggling to find the time to dedicate to email marketing, I suggest you consider the following:

• How much time do you waste that doesn’t add value to your business?


• How many meetings do you go to where nothing is decided or acted upon?


• How much time do you waste analysing statistics and watching figures when you should be out there influencing them?


• How many things do you do out of habit instead of need?

Could you do more to find the time to become more efficient? Share your thoughts in the comments box below.

This post first appeared on the iContact Email Marketing Blog.

Source: B2C_Business

Perpetual Motion in Marketing (Not Quite)