Best Practices – Guideline or Rule?

POSTED BY KARA BALMER, ASTADIA, INC. ON JANUARY 25, 2010

Living in a rural area, I am an avid subscriber to Netflix.  I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to see the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean – The Curse of the Black Pearl" again.  In one of the scenes, the character Elizabeth Swann attempts to invoke The Code of the Pirates and insists that Captain Barbossa take her back to shore.  Barbossa resists, reciting one of the funniest lines from the movie:

"First, your return to shore was not part of our negotiations nor our agreement, so I must do nothin'. And secondly, you must be a pirate for the Pirate's Code to apply, and you're not. And thirdly, the Code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules."
 
Guidelines, not rules.  That is exactly what you should be thinking when you think of Marketing Automation Best Practices.
 
In my line of work, I get asked frequently by clients, "What are other companies doing? What are the best practices?"  Most clients will implement what I share with them, yet treat the Best Practice advice like rules of law rather than the guidelines that they were intended to be.

It’s one thing to implement Best Practices.  It’s something quite different to implement best practices and also test against them to see if they hold true for your respective business. 
 
Think about it.  Best Practice Principles attempt to fit the straightest line across a scattergram of companies.  They simply plot a scenario that is the best fit: to all.  But, keep in mind that that line represents the median.  What you can’t forget is that there can be many companies that fall way outside the line.
 
This is not to discredit the value of Best Practices.  Truly, when lacking knowledge of a place to start, I always advise clients to start with Best Practices.  But that advice is always tempered with the qualification that nothing, absolutely nothing, replaces the value of testing in Marketing Automation.
 
I love when clients disprove prevailing theory and disprove Best Practices.  That means they’re thinking, and more importantly…they’re doing what is right for their businesses.