Continuing our discussion on doing the work in your marketing and public relations:

I’m a big fan of boxing. One of the criteria judges score fighters on each round is effective aggressiveness. It means that the boxer is not just swinging, but connecting. The fighter’s aggression yields results. It’s effective.

It occurs to me that what most marketing and PR departments do is ineffective aggressiveness:

• Formulating talking points around a conference table is simply guessing. Okay, call it educated guessing if you must, but it’s largely ineffective aggression.
• Not knowing and incorporating what your customers think and say about you is ineffective aggression.
• Pitching journalists by the hundreds, by the thousands, in bulk and anonymously, is ineffective aggression.
• Avoiding relationships with journalists, avoiding helping them, is ineffective aggression.
• The junky quality of most press releases is ineffective aggression.

So you are are doing work.

It’s just not good work.

Make your work effective, effectively aggressive.