When it comes to our marketing, we’re often in search of a formula that will consistently and reliably deliver the results we’re looking for.

Input x and receive y.

Whether it’s ad spend, conversion rate or any other metric we choose to track, what we’re striving for with our marketing is often efficiency.

This is a worthy objective, no point in doing or spending more than you need when a few small tweaks here or there could improve your results.

The problem is that effective marketing over the long run–while it might be made up of a number of well-oiled components–is always a highly inefficient process.

For every marketing tool or technique we’re able to optimize fully, we’ve likely had to test and tweak our way through a handful of others that couldn’t pass muster.

There’s no perfect template or formula for effective marketing. No way to connect the dots with perfect efficiency.

Marketing that’s wildly successful for someone else, their personality, style, content, and audience might not work for us. And even when we land on a strategy that works in the moment, it’s surely only a matter of time before its returns begin to decline.

When our only metric is maximum efficiency, we’re incentivized to ignore all the inefficient exploration and experimentation that is required to sustain our marketing over the long haul.

Our job then, as marketers and creators is to constantly seek out new ways to connect and build relationships with our ideal audience members. To test and tweak and experiment our way through often-unproven, even seemly irrational strategies in search of the ones that might unexpectedly work for us.

There’s no reason any of us can’t stumble on on a new strategy.

Marketing, like science, is filled with discoveries made by common folk like us.

What’s more, we already have our starting point.

If we’ve done our homework, we know our audience as well as they know themselves.

We know what they read, listen to, consume, and where they hang out online.

We know where they’re looking to go, the challenges in their path, and the solutions we’re best positioned to deliver.

With the map already filled in, we only need to get creative in making a connection. Capturing their attention just long enough for them to realize that we’re exactly what they’ve been looking for.

With this as our goal, it’s not hard to see that there are dozens, maybe even hundreds of ways to capture that attention.

Which means all we have to do is start experimenting, doubling down on what works and rejecting what doesn’t.

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