The Secret of What and Why

Posted by Chris Garrett on 18th Jun 09

I once had a boss who would have conversations with me then later repeat almost verbatim what I had said in conversations with clients and colleagues as if they were his ideas.

While frustrating, this backfired just enough for him that I never said or did anything to stop it. He was causing his own mess so retaliation on my part was not necessary.

You see, he did not know the secret of WHAT and WHY …

Many marketers are like this, they are looking at other companies and trying to steal their ideas. They watch competitors and then try to copy their tactics, then wonder why it ends with less than stellar results.

It is not enough to know what someone is doing that is making them successful. That is even supposing you have the entire picture, which I highly doubt.

You need to know WHY they are doing things in a certain way.

Modeling behaviour in order to be more successful takes greater effort than just parroting surface tactics.

You will not be surprised that search is the same. Rather than look at the top results and try to match what they have done, look deeper into why they are ranking the way they do, and look at why you are ranking below them.

Anyone can copy. Real marketers steal then innovate