Does Your Business Have an HOV Lane?

By Kyle Reyes

Friday morning,  I was driving into a meeting in Hartford.  Ok, perhaps driving is an exaggeration.  I was slowly inching my way through the parking lot that was I-91 during morning rush hour.

I found myself fist-pumping when I looked over and saw three state troopers in the divider between the main highway and the HOV lane, having pulled over a number of vehicles with drivers who felt that they deserved to drive in this lane despite being the only person in the vehicle.

For those of you who have never been on a highway before, HOV stands for High Occupancy Vehicle.  They are identified by signs along the highway and diamond symbols painted on the pavement.  They are usually separated from the other lanes by a solid white line.  The idea is to fight congestion and encourage carpooling.

But here in Connecticut, in our state's seemingly endless wisdom, we've separated the HOV lane not by a single line or a divider...but by an entire LANE.

(Above - the RIGHT way to have an HOV lane)

Let's think about this for a second.  We've decided to reduce congestion...by removing what could otherwise be an entire lane on the highway.

Whose genius freakin' idea was this?

Here's the thing.  Every business at some point has what we'll refer to as an HOV moment.  It's that idea that seems like it would make so much sense that we implement it immediately and don't think twice or look back.  It's frequently suggested at an entirely unnecessary meeting by a manager who stays employed at a ridiculously inflated salary simply by steamrolling people into agreeing with their ludicrous idea simply out of fear for their own job.

I know, I know - sort of sounds like Congress.  But it's not.  It's your business.

The idea is often rooted in an attempt to solve a problem or make the customer experience better.  But the real question is...DOES IT?

When you're implementing a marketing strategy, is it one that adequately targets your customers?  When you're running the social media for your small business, do you understand how your customers are REALLY interacting with you and what they're looking for?

It's a question that every business owner needs to ask themselves before they execute a marketing strategy.

The beauty of content marketing is that it allows you to speak to your customer.  But are you actually speaking to them?  Are the processes you put in place in your customer's best interest...or are they in yours?

Perhaps it's time to take a look at how you're marketing your business...and whether you have a smoothly flowing highway or a complete traffic jam.  Drop our team at The Silent Partner Marketing a line today and let us help you figure it out.

----

Written by Kyle Reyes

Kyle Reyes is the President and Creative Director of The Silent Partner Marketing, a boutique marketing firm focused on helping businesses grow in an age of exploding technology.  You can find him on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.  He's the Chuck Norris of marketing.  It's outrageous - we know.  That's kind of the point.