Hey Reader,
On Tuesday, I watched a webinar by Anne-Laure Le Cunff about building community by using little experiments. She used little experiments to improve her community but also created space for her members to have little experiments themselves. The whole approach was refreshingly low-stakes: try something and notice what happens. If it was good, nice and if it wasn't what you expected, say "huh, that's interesting" like a scientist, then either tweak it or let it go.
No emotional investment in being right. Just curiosity.
And it hit me how much this applies to marketing.
The marketing pressure we put on ourselves
We treat marketing decisions like they're permanent. Like choosing a social media platform is a lifetime commitment. Like sending an email in a different style means we have to keep doing it that way forever. Like if something doesn't work immediately, we've failed. Like we can't show the world that not all things work.
But what if we approached marketing with tiny experiments like Anne-Laure talked about? What if we decided to try something for a set period, observed the results with genuine curiosity, and then made a calm decision about what to do next?
Instead of feeling "I'm rubbish at this." we just look at the data and make some small changes.
My own experiment in progress
Speaking of which, I opened a community on Discord that's basically gathering dust. Nobody uses it. At all.
And yes, that is hard to say, because we don't want to admit that some things might not work the way we want.
Not too long ago, I might have either forced myself to post more content there (surely if I just tried harder!) or quietly abandoned it whilst feeling like a failure.
Instead, I'm gathering data. I created a survey to understand what people actually want or need from a community space. And this is where I need our community (that's you, my lovely reader) to help. Maybe the answer is "nothing, Natalie, we're fine without it", and that's genuinely useful information. Maybe there's a version that would work. I won't know until I ask.
Once I have the data, I can decide: is this worth a tiny experiment with some tweaks, or time to let it go?
What could a tiny marketing experiment look like for you?
The format is simple: "I will [action] for [duration]"
Some ideas:
- I will add a question to the end of every newsletter for 4 weeks
- I will post on LinkedIn twice a week for 3 weeks
- I will test a story-based subject line for my next 5 newsletters
- I will share one behind-the-scenes moment in my emails for one month
- I will try a different call-to-action style for 2 weeks
The key is making it specific and time-bound. Keep the time short enough to not become overwhelming but long enough for you to gather some data.
Help me with my experiment?
And for that community? I'd genuinely love your input. It takes about 3 minutes, and the data helps me make a better decision.
Also, if you're feeling inspired, hit reply and tell me about a tiny marketing experiment you'd like to try. I'm genuinely curious what you're thinking about testing.
P.S. The survey is here if you missed the button: Take the survey
