Risk Aversion

In recent years, the entertainment industry has gotten into the habit of taking big swings.

Films and video games often require tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to create, and if they’re not massive, immediate hits, they’re licensed out to streaming and subscription services to try to break even.

This happens - and will keep happening - because companies are risk averse.

They want certainty - even if their expectations are unrealistic.

That same risk aversion permeates digital marketing.

Because there’s an over-reliance on performance metrics - page views, open rate, downloads - and success is typically defined by this data.

The perception is that if it can’t be measured, it doesn’t matter.

If you send a newsletter for a couple of months and it’s not meeting your expectations, it’s easy to convince yourself to stop and move onto the next thing.

But you should ask yourself why you had those specific expectations. What was the exact result you were looking to get, and how do you know you didn’t get it, or aren’t working towards it?

Because, even if they’re not aligned with your expectations, you’re still getting results.

You’re consistently showing up to provide value to your ideal customer, developing and articulating ideas that are meaningful and resonant, and creating more and more material that demonstrates you are a credible authority.

Starting an owned media channel isn’t a big swing, and it can’t be treated like one. It’s not something that’s going to be immediately successful, or something where that success can be forced.

If you view it through the lens of risk aversion - how well the metrics say it’s performing - you’ll completely overlook how it’s working.

How it’s helping you better understand your ideal customer. How it’s helping you more confidently navigate sales conversations. How it’s helping you craft a distinct point of view.

It turns out that what can’t be measured matters a lot.

The reward of taking a big swing might far outweigh the risk of not hitting - but if you don’t hit enough, eventually you’ll stop swinging entirely.

And both you and your market will be worse off for it.