Hi there, and welcome back to Marketing Qualified. Here’s what we’re talking about today:
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The problem with “best practices.” If your strategy is built on best practices, you’re already behind.
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The placeholder trick that makes writer’s block impossible. Never stare at a blank page again.
🤔 The problem with “best practices.”
When was the last time you questioned a marketing “best practice”?
At the end of the day, “best practices“ are just successful experiments that got documented. They worked great… for someone else… at some point in the past… under conditions that might not exist anymore.
Marketing “best practices” are only best before everyone else catches on and starts following them. After that, they just become what everyone else is doing.
Take gated content. It was smart when it was new. Now? Everyone’s fighting over the same leads while making it harder for buyers to learn anything.
Or posting on LinkedIn. First, you were supposed to do it once a week. Then daily. Now, people swear by posting and commenting multiple times a day. But the best B2B accounts aren’t playing the frequency game. They’re saying things people actually care about.
And then there’s cold email. “Hi {first_name}, I noticed you’re in {industry}…” That used to feel personal. Now? It feels like a desperate mail merge, and everyone immediately deletes it.
When you follow the same “best practices” playbook as everyone else, it’s impossible to stand out.
And standing out is the whole point of marketing.
So, what works instead?
Steal the strategy, not the tactic. Look at why a “best practice” originally worked. Was it unexpected? Did it create real value? Did it make people feel understood?
Then, ask yourself how to deliver that same outcome in a fresh way.
The real “best practice” is to stop copying your competitors’ homework. Figure out what they’re not doing yet. Then go do that.
📰 In the news this week.
🧠 Study finds AI makes human cognition “atrophied and unprepared.”
👀 How to use predictive customer analytics to make more sales.
😵 Death of the keyword: why aggregate organic traffic is a better metric.
🏆 6 essential ingredients for winning ads [infographic].
🇬🇧 The UK’s war on encryption affects all of us.
📝 The placeholder trick that makes writer’s block impossible.
Staring at a blank page? Stuck on a headline, subject line, or intro? Here’s the trick:
Just write a placeholder.
Can’t nail the headline? Write: [HEADLINE: Something about how this product saves time]
Stuck on a subject line? Write: [SUBJECT: Interesting stat about {pain point}]
Coming up blank midway through a blog post? Write: [EXAMPLE: Story that makes reader feel understood]
The key is to keep yourself writing. Once the faucet is on, the ideas start flowing. Try it.
😂 Marketing meme of the week.
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