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Aim Small, Miss Small
How Hollywood is going to help your marketing improve
As a middle-aged man, I can tell you this because I lived it: 1990’s Mel Gibson was hard to beat.
He was absolutely at the top of his game. We were still in the power band of the Lethal Weapon franchise, along with other thrillers like Ransom, the hilarious and epic western Maverick, and of course – one of my top 5 movies of all time – Braveheart (which took home enough hardware in 1996 to open an ACE franchise).
Wrapping up the decade was The Patriot. Admittedly, it had a strong “Braveheart Comes To America” energy to it, but it will still get any red-blooded American’s heart pumping for the sake of liberty (watch it again and prove me wrong).
One of my favorite moments in the movie was when Gibson’s character was teaching his son to shoot, and impressed this saying on his mind:
“Aim small, miss small”.
The idea is that you don’t aim at your target, you aim at a bullet-sized spot on your target. If you miss from that point, you still hit the target.
I’ve found this to be true in hunting.
If you find yourself in a field after dove and have a group of 6 or 7 birds come within range together, it’s really easy to get excited and aim at the middle of the group, but that only works if you get lucky (and luck isn’t a strategy).
Any guide, outfitter, or experienced hunter will tell you that you need to pick one bird at a time, lead the beak, fire your shot, follow through, then pick the next bird. That is how you are successful in bird hunting.
The same is true in your business.
Stay On Target
If your marketing is not well targeted, you can dump a lot of money with little-to-no return. You have to aim small.
Are you reaching the right people?
Who are they? In marketing it’s called your customer “archetype” or “avatar.” Describe their daily life, such as occupation, hobbies, and relationships.
Give them a real life name. Create a narrative for Dale, or Karina, or Andre, or whatever your customer’s name is. Where did they grow up? How do they celebrate the holiday season? Do they have a spouse and children? What do they do when their calendar is wide open?
Then when you go to buy marketing, make sure that no matter what, every single effort (and dollar) is going in front of Hayden (or Aiden, or Brayden, or… you get the drift).
Aim small, miss small.
Onward and upward,
Simon Trask