MEDIA PERSPECTIVES - May 4, 2016

Editor's Note:

I just wanted to let my readers know that I've created a blog where I will be posting essays and articles I've written on digital and online marketing. It's an extension of Media Perspectives. I hope you continue to read and enjoy!

Here's the link: Jaffer Ali's Blog - Perspectives from a Media Contrarian

Thanks for Reading!

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(Not So) Great Expectations
by: Jaffer Ali

I learned most of how to conduct business by being a family man. I learned what it means to have a relationship from my wife. No kidding. She taught me about the need to listen, to care, to give energy into a relationship. In short, she taught me how to be a good partner and I like to think that all of this has translated into my business relationships.

From being a father to my three sons, I learned many important lessons. I probably learned more from them than they did from me. But one of the things I did teach them was to raise their bar of expectations. What do I mean?

All my boys wanted to set the bar so low that success to jump over that bar was guaranteed. It is natural for children to get hooked on that exalted feeling of success and "failure" is not always easy to take. But my job as a Father was to push them to jump higher than they thought they could ever jump.

In short, I tried not to let them settle for feeling great about jumping over a bar set so low that anybody could simply step over.

My kids have grown, but I find myself doing the same thing for the online industry. Think about this. Click-Thru-rates hover about 3 inches off the ground...around .1% at last tally. So if you get results of .2%, some service provider will rush in to tell you that is twice the average and that is GREAT.

My answer or edict to the industry is, "Stop lowering the bar so low just so you can jump over it". Our industry service providers are by and large filled with pre-adolescent expectations.

And for all of the pre-pubescent Big Data providers, get real. They cannot predict their way out of a paper bag and if the "magic algorithm" gets 4X the average CTR, that is still failing 99.6% of the time to predict the click. Failing 99.6% of the time is just one example of victimizing an industry with low expectations.

Pip in Dickens' novel raised his level of expectations to become successful. Our present industry participates in a race to the bottom and creates the illusion of success. We refuse to accept the tyranny of low expectations. To the online digerati I say, we've upped ours, now up yours!

Original Article: (Not So) Great Expectations

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