A lot of times people ask me what is the headline that I write so I will get a response. My answer generally is I don’t know. And they look at me and…..but you have been doing marketing for 25 plus years.

I have a checklist which kind of acts like a framework but inspie of that I still make different versions of my emails and ask my team to test. Once something succeeds, then we use that as a control, to tweak the content or the subject line…only one variable at a time.

The reason for this is the market has a mind of its own. I cannot claim to have better wisdom than the consolidated wisdom of the market.

I was not born with this modesty. I actually have a massive ego.

But the market has taught me , after so many failures, that I cannot think I know everything, that I cannot predict success of a product or a message. That I should only follow one rule and that is to test and keep testing to improve.

Incidentally this is also true of stock markets. Most of the successful veterans will tell you, that they have frameworks on how they invest, but they cannot predict how a stock will move .

Especially if you are in the technology product management field, you have two variables to handle.

• The underlying technology and the product you have built on it…..Cloud as the technology and your service management product as an example
• The market’s perception

As I have mentioned many times earlier, in marketing perception is reality. So if someone thinks that Cloud is not a secure technology then they won’t use your product even though you have a great product.

Make testing as the bedrock of all that you do so that you fail fast , learn, adapt and become successful.

Till next time.

Carpe Diem!!!