Johnny fishes in the pond near his house once a week.
He catches 2 fish. They make for an amazing dinner.
The fish are so tasty that he starts fishing twice a week.
At this level he can pull 3 fish a week.
He does this for 2 months straight. Fish is his favorite protein.
“Wow,” says Johnny, “I want to scale this thing.” I am gonna fish 4 times per week in the pond and get a lot of fish.”
But for some reason, despite the increased effort, the pond only yields 2 fish per week. This goes on for 2 months.
Johnny is going nuts. He used to catch the same amount of fish going to the pond one day per week.
“Go find a bigger pond or a new spot to catch fish,” says Johnny’s wife.
She’s a smart one, but Johnny’s an obdurate mofo.
“Fuck that,” he says, “I don’t need a bigger pond, this one is fine. I just need to optimize my fishing.”
He goes out and buys a crazy-expensive fishing rod. He also pays a fishing consultant to come help him fish more efficiently.
The consultant uses McKinsey methodology and presents a long, lovely Powerpoint with a 5 forces analysis and thoughtful SWOT. This buoys Johnny’s spirits.
Now, however, the pond is only yielding a fish every two weeks, and the spending is out of control. A month goes by and Johnny’s wife is freaking.
“I told you that you needed to find a bigger pond. You keep trying to make gains by targeting the same place and population of fish,” says his wife.
“I am gonna make these fucking fish bite,” says Johnny.
Pretty soon, Johnny catches exactly zero fish at his pond.
The moral of our little fable?
Any biz seeking to grow has two choices: Find new places to fish, or grow the pond you are fishing in.
The only way to do that is with top-of-funnel activity. This comes in many formats, from PR, to GEO, to billboards, to TV ads, certain types of social media, sponsorships and other important, but hard-to-attribute tactics. Companies should pick a few to fund.
And know this: no amount of performance marketing can save you when you reach saturation and keep fishing in the same pond – even if it is optimized by a pantheon of data gods.
If you want to talk about bigger ponds or need help finding new ones, get in touch 🙂