Marketing shouldn’t have bad hair days.

Remember when you first got your high school yearbook? You grabbed your copy and immediately began scouring the photos? But you weren’t looking to see how your friends looked. You were looking for yourself and beginning to formulate your excuses as to why you were having such a bad hair day. Looking at yourself first is a very natural reaction. (Don’t be ashamed, everyone does it.) But in marketing and communications, that instinctive self-referential response isn’t the most effective. After all, it’s our customers we need to please, not our own ego. And what they do every day, and what they read and watch every day, and their likes and dislikes may be very different from our own.

So whatever you’re trying to sell, be it an idea, a product, a service or simply a place in their mind, remember: it’s not about you, it’s not about your agency, it’s about them – your customers. The smart, good people who will hopefully choose to support your business as a result of how you speak with them. Do what your mother told you in grade school and put yourself in their shoes. Try it; you’ll be surprised at how infrequently you have to make excuses for your hair, and how often you will create a compelling, and above all effective, campaign.