The other day, I listened to a sermon by John Mark Comer of Bridgetown Church in Portland. In the context of “simplicity,” he talked about “gripping”–holding on tightly to the things that mattered most. He challenged the concept and urged listeners to loosen their grip on “the things of this world.”
I’ve thought about this concept a lot in the last week, both spiritually and from a business perspective. It’s human nature to grip, but often it is the exact wrong response.
The world of marketing and advertising is a great place to consider this principle. What are the things we’re tightly holding on to? Is it our brand? A design, or campaign? Or is it the way we’ve always done it?
Recently, during a several-month long rebuild of our website, our team was challenged with many of these questions. Our website is our most visible marketing element, and most of our lead generation flows through our site. Combine the site’s importance, pride of ownership and five highly talented marketing professionals, and our greatest obstacle was–and continues to be–the pursuit of perfection.
The world of marketing and advertising is changing quickly–design trends, UX best practices, digital advertising trends and even the models by which our marketing and advertising departments and businesses are run. And all of this was before the onset of COVID-19. So why would we hold anything in the marketing and advertising world so tightly? Especially a website!
When it came to our website development project, I came to peace when I let go of the grip I had on perfection and embraced the change to come. The team at Outside Communications has a unique blend of technical aptitude and creative wit. The truth is our team could have come up with 10 different sites that would have fit the bill. A case could have been made for each one. But does this approach really serve our business? Does it embrace the change to come? Does it embrace our creativity and development of technical expertise?
Our website is a snapshot of our business at a moment in time. It serves a purpose today, but we can’t hold onto it as a permanent fixture. If our team has learned anything in the last several months of this build, it’s that change is a good thing. Permanence is and should be an illusion, especially in the world of marketing and advertising. Better outcomes are possible for us and our customers by embracing change rather than tightening our grip. And with that attitude, comes the freedom to continuously evolve.
