Best practices don’t work for several reasons.

I will talk about three.

But before I do that, let me define “best practices”.

According to Oxford Languages, best practices are “commercial or professional procedures that are accepted or prescribed as being correct or most effective.”

So, if they are so common and “correct”, why do I say they don’t work?

1. Best Practices are Outdated - Best Practices are Past Practices

What do I mean by that?

Think about the time it takes to come up with a hypothesis, then create an experiment, test it, implement it, talk about it, and, finally, have it accepted as a best practice in the industry you are in.

How long do you think it takes from the first iteration and testing until it is accepted as “best practice”?

1 year? 5? 10?

Whatever it is, at the time you start implementing (or should I say copying?) these practices, the probability that you are using outdated methods, strategies or software is quite high.

2. Everyone Else is Doing It = No Differentiation = Average

Let’s assume that you are following your industry’s best practices.

What does that mean from a marketing standpoint and in the eye of your customer?

You might be thinking that your product or service is much better than your competition.

But your customer is thinking: “You are all doing the same. Why should I pick you?”

After all, you and your competitors are all doing more or less the same when you follow the industry best practices.

There might be slight differences, but that doesn’t really matter for most customers.

So if you want to stand out in the marketplace, make sure you do something different.

3. Your business is different - What works in the US doesn’t work in the Caribbean - Each business is unique and should be treated as such.

Especially when we are talking about digital strategies in the Caribbean, we need to be aware of the fact that most case studies, best practices, and online content in general, are written for the North American or European market.

If we just look at indicators like internet coverage, online banking, and financial services, population size, GDP, currencies, buying power, logistics, etc, we have to understand that we are talking about completely different economic environments.

We cannot just take something that works in the US and try to copy and paste it to the Caribbean.

Your company strategy will more than likely fail with that approach.

So what should you do?

Your company, your current circumstances, the local and global economic situation, are all factors that make your organization unique.

And therefore it should be treated as such. There is no “one size fits all” solution.

That would be nice and easy.

Unfortunately, there is no substitute for careful analysis and planning.

Both things need time and dedication.

Yet, these are the things that make your organization stand out.

If you want to be special, you have to do things differently.

Simon Küpper