I love the 80/20 rule. It’s a time-tested principle that feels so warm and fuzzy in the business world. Knowing that I can supercharge my results by doing fewer things is fantastic.
I’m assuming you’re at least familiar with the 80/20 rule (or Pareto principle). If you’re not, here’s a brief breakdown: 80% of your results stem from 20% of your efforts. Therefore, some things are far more potent than anything else.
The hidden math behind the 80/20 rule
I think you probably understand the concept, but have you ever looked at the math? What does 80/20 mean?
Let’s boil it down into five tasks. If you only took five actions, one would account for 80% or your results while the remaining four would round out the other 20%.
Seems obvious, we get it. 80/20. One task is 80%, and the other four are 20%.
Well, not quite. The other four tasks average 5% each (4 x 5% = 20%). Your main potent task is 80% compared to an average underperformer being worth 5%.
That means that your top performer is 1,600% more potent than the average of everything else. The one thing that gets you the best results is 16X! That’s the glorious Pareto principle.
How to apply high-leverage actions to your marketing
Let’s dovetail this into marketing your business. In the middle of 2019, there is a 16X marketing tactic: it’s video advertising on Facebook (spoiler alert).
From my experience, nothing comes close to the mileage you can get with Facebook ads and video engagement.
However, that’s just a tactic. Facebooking is not a strategy. You’re still going to need a plan, or all the advertising in the world won’t matter; you’ll only be wasting your ad spend.
Your strategy is the real high-leverage 80/20 contributor. With that in mind, I wrote a small business marketing guide to help you hone in on your best strategy (great news for your next video campaign on Facebook).
I less than 10 minutes, you’ll have a greater understanding of how to market your business with a memorable brand:
