The statement, “If you can do it once you can do it twice if you did it on purpose” is used with some frequency in this article series on social media internet marketing as well as all over the marketing literature in one form or another. I have been asked to write an article devoted to what my own thinking is behind that statement. I had not thought to write this article on my own because I have been saying that as a trainer for a very long time and it is so basically fundamental (in my mind) that I forgot how important it is to really understand this concept. In my opinion this counts as one of those foundational keys to successful internet marketing.
Starting at the end of the statement, “…if you did it on purpose.” means that you had a desired result and some sort of plan of action to achieve that result. It was not a shot in the dark. You did what you did with intent and purpose. This is a critical point and is why I say it at the end of the statement where you are most likely to remember it. It is possible to achieve something you want by swinging wildly. However, it is unlikely you will be able to efficiently or consistently achieve it again. For example, if you have never played golf before you have no idea what you are doing though you do probably know the little ball goes into that tiny hole way over there. You take what you consider to be a decent swing at the ball (though any good golfers around you see it for what it is…a wild whack at the ball). It flies down the fairway and what do you know? It goes straight into that tiny hole way over there…a hole in one! Now…do it again. Yeah. Right. That is just not going to happen. You have no idea how you did it in the first place and it is nearly impossible to do even for the professionals. Sure, theoretically you did it once so you could certainly do it again. It would not be defying any laws of physics to so it could happen. But, you cannot make it happen when you want it to…or even get close. Until you understand what you must do to achieve a desired result in concrete terms you will not be able to learn to repeat it consistently enough to get sustainable results.
So, you now have a plan to execute and understand why you need that in order to reach your goal…which is probably to make a lot of money. In this discussion it makes sense to start referring to marketing instead of golf. It is time to address the beginning of the statement, “If you can do it once…”. You execute your strategy to get a visitor to your web site. It doesn’t work. What now? Since you know exactly what you did that did not achieve your desired result you can make an adjustment to that strategy. Just one. That is important. If you make several adjustments to your strategy at the same time you will have no idea what led to your success (and that, after all, is the important piece of information you are after here). With everything you are doing concretely understood by you and with the results concretely measured you can repeat this plan, execute, measure and adjust cycle until you find an execution plan that gets you your visitor. Now you know exactly how you got that one visitor. You probably also know some execution plans that do not work. Both pieces of information are highly valuable to you!
We find ourselves now at the second component of that original statement, “…you can do it twice…”. If your thought processes, execution plan and measuring methods are working rationally you now know how to get not only that one visitor. You also know how to get one visitor again…otherwise known as twice. By extension, you also now know how to get your third visitor…and your fourth…and your hundredth…thousandth… You have a concrete and consciously executable strategy that will get you a visitor. You can now get a visitor again whenever you want one by simply executing your known plan again. You have built the knowledge and skills necessary to build your business…on purpose.
Additionally, since you know all the steps to getting a visitor you can now also work to get better, faster and more efficient at what you are doing and accelerate your rate of visitors as compared to your effort. Also, since none of your steps are a mystery to you, eventually you will think of ways to improve and automate your steps for ever greater effectiveness.
Will you ever get to the point where you have thousands of visitors if you do not know exactly how you get the first one? And, if you do not know how to repeat what you did, will you know how to get the second one? The third? Fourth? No! While it is remotely possible you will get lucky if you take wild swings into the internet marketing universe you will never be able to look at your business, decide to make it grow and then make it happen…on purpose.
That first statement has now been broken down into its three parts and the reason each part is there has been explained. Following this paragraph is a mantra for you that is a logical extension of what this article has been about. Once you have an action set that you know to be effective you will want to take it to the next level of effectiveness by understanding and implementing exactly how to:
Rinse and Repeat. Rinse and Repeat. Rinse and Repeat…
If you can do it once you can do it twice, as long as you did it on purpose.
