What does 'coloring outside the lines' mean when following marketing guidance?

Coloring outside the lines means taking proven marketing playbooks and modifying them based on your own ideas instead of following them precisely as written. This is a natural human tendency—you read the guidance and think you can improve it or adapt it to your situation. The problem is that effective marketing playbooks are built on nuance and trade craft developed through extensive testing. Small changes can have big impacts—little hinges swing big doors. When you modify things without understanding all the underlying reasons, you often undermine the effectiveness. Especially when you’re learning, it’s better to follow proven guidance exactly before you start experimenting with variations. Once you’ve executed something successfully as written, then you have a foundation for testing modifications.

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Asked by an artist modifying marketing advice · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2020-10-17