Sinful Temptations.

Today's Marketing Cookie teaches an important lesson. I am a big fan of fearless marketing, trying anything and testing everything. Great opportunities for more leads and increased sales are hiding all over the place. It is up to you to hunt around and uncover them. However, there is one temptation that you must resist: do not mistake temptation for opportunity.

The devil on your shoulder will say, "Oh, but it looks so good." Even though it may be true, you must resist. The demons will slither up behind you and whisper in your ear, "Come on, everyone else is doing it." Even though it may be true, you must resist. Even your clients will beg you to do it, saying, "Prospects are expecting us to do it." Even though all of this may be true, you really must resist the temptation of copying your competitors.

While you should always be aware of your competitors, and pay attention to how they shift their positioning, you must not follow them. In fact, it is your job to find a different angle, stand out from the crowd, and blaze a new path. When you give in to the temptation to copy every move that the competition makes, you diminish your own value. Without exception, I haven't seen a case where copying the competition was beneficial in the long term. Even when you have enough gas in the tank to outspend your competitor ten to one, you could create the perception that they are copying you, but to what avail? If you have the budget to do all that stealing, why not spend the money and use the brain God gave you to come up with your own killer campaign?

Copying the competitor's positioning, offer, or campaign is a temptation to be avoided. I think I've established that well enough. Now, I'd like to make one distinction about following the competition into new channels. If your competitor has discovered a new channel like Pinterest, for example, you should also set up pinboards and you needn't feel weird about considering it for your company. Pinterest is an opportunity, not a campaign. It's a channel and I believe channels are open for all to use. When you start pinning, however, you MUST think about a way to use it that hasn't been tried. While Pinterest is an opportunity, copying what the other guys are pinning is merely a sinful temptation. Don't give in. Do it better, and never mistake temptation for opportunity.