A popular platitude goes a lil sumtin like this:
“When others zig, you zag.”
Of course, this can mean anything.
Like…
* Lifting heavy weights in a world where everyone glorifies cardio
* Sending plain-text emails in an ecom industry where everyone glorifies images and templates
Or, in the case of the Lakers-Warriors Game 1 of the playoffs that I watched last night:
* Scoring 54 points in the paint and shooting 29 free throws in a league where everyone glorifies the 3-point shot
Now, I bet pretty heavily ($100) on the Lakers way back when they had 50-1 betting odds, so color me biased. And I also understand this email might not age the best, but the story (and accompanying lessons) are “evergreen” enough for my liking, and I’m the dictator here.
Anywho:
LeBron and Steph matched up in the playoffs once again. And unlike previous LeBron teams, back when he was on the Cavs, the Lakers have a completely different team when it comes to style of play.
When LeBron and the Warriors matched up 4 years in a row in the finals, their team was full of stone cold shooters like Kyle Korver, Kyrie Irving, JR Smith, Kevin Love, the list goes on.
This year?
They don’t have many stone cold shooters.
LeBron himself has been god-awful from 3 during these playoffs. AD has never been good at 3’s, and he’s also having one of his worst years from deep this year. Their best 3-point shooter is probably a bench player, or a player that just joined the team in a trade a few months ago.
In other words:
This Lakers team ain’t playing the Warriors game. And through game 1, well, it looks like it’s working.
Instead of jacking up 53 3’s (as the Warriors did last night), the Lakers are zagging when everyone else in the league zigs.
They shot half the amount of 3-pointers. In fact, the Warriors made 21 threes, the Lakers only shot 25 total. Instead of fighting fire with fire they’re fighting fire with ice. The Lakers have the best defense in the league, they shoot the most free throws, and it led to them “stealing home court” in game 1 last night.
Obviously, I expect them to win the series (and make it to the Finals, otherwise I wouldn’t have bet on them).
But this is an important copy lesson too:
In a world of infinitesimal attention spans and 10-second TikTok videos, there are some clients where I write 1,000+ word emails (and laugh all the way to the bank as I do it).
In a world of beautiful designs, ugly as sin designs stand out—in emails, on landing pages, on sales and product pages.
In a world where everyone glorifies social media and SMS, email is still the undisputed marketing champ.
The list goes on and on.
Which brings me to the point:
If you have a gut feeling your email strategy ain’t as effective or profitable as maybe it could be, mayhap it’s time to zag instead of zig.
And if you’re trying to zag, book a call with me here. If we’re a good fit, we’ll zag our way to the bank.
John
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