1,2,1,2……. testing. The trick to making communication that works

Do you just know what communication is going to work and what isn’t? That’s the question we were asked by a new client last week.

A good question and it got us thinking.

We have worked on literally thousands of creative and communication projects in the last nearly 20 years at DMA Partners. So yes, we have a lot of experience and yes, we’ve seen when client communication works well and of course, we see the patterns emerge, i.e. what great communication ‘looks like’.

So what is the critical factor? Is it amazing creativity? Is it data-driven analytical marketing? Is it the size of the marketing budget?

All of these are crucial but after a team tea and brainstorm the other day we decided that there is one other factor that is more important.

Momentum.

Yes. Momentum.

We have worked with many clients in multiple industry sectors and it is universally true that what matters most of all is the sense of moving forward, of motion, of energy. Successful companies experiment. They try things. They test out campaign and communication ideas. If they work, - great. If not, they move on to the next one. They don’t allow the search for perfection to get in the way of good. That doesn’t mean settling for second best or being sloppy. It just means not getting stuck at the creative phase, tweaking and tweaking and tweaking and fine tuning and finessing messages and creative ideas and and and and…

And at a certain point just failing to get the message ‘out there’.

A famous athlete once said, “If you’re not in it, you can’t win it.”

The same can be said of B2B marketing communications.

Get your message out there. Test. Be brave. What doesn’t work can be changed and the experience will make you better.

And momentum is a good thing. It’s so much easier pushing a car that is already moving rather than going from a standing start.

It’s the same in marketing communications. Build your company’s momentum with bite-sized action and let the impact build up over time.

For more on how DMA Partners can help you build momentum for your brand please contact us.