So,
here’s the premise. If you had one last blog post to send out to the marketing
world, what would you say? I’m sure you see where the original idea comes from
– The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.
In case
you’re not familiar, there is a tradition in academia of getting a bunch of
professors together and asking them to give a hypothetical final talk. Pausch’s
is most notable since he was actually dying at the time (if you’re a social
media marketer, all you need to know is that he’s a guy that got more than 12
million views on YouTube).
You can
see what others have to say by following the Twitter hashtag #LastBlog.
Transparent
Marketing
We
write about marketing every day on the MarketingExperiments and MarketingSherpa
blogs. But if it came down to one final blog post…one final lesson to impart to
the world…for me, it comes down to what I’ve learned from others. And,
paramount among that, is Transparent Marketing.
Transparent
Marketing was written in 2004 by Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, the Managing Director
(CEO) of MECLABS, and, full disclosure, my boss. What I like about it is that,
as accurate as it was at the time, it is even more prescient in the age of
social media. No longer can a marketer with a big media spend dominate the
conversation. Now, everyone is (as Blogger says) a push-button publisher.
This
tidal wave has convinced one of the biggest marketers in the world to forgo
Super Bowl advertising in favor of cause marketing (see: Pepsi Refresh),
convinced one of the world’s biggest brands to un-rebrand (see: The Gap) and
toppled some of the least transparent regimes in the world (see: Tunisia and
Egypt). (In fact, perhaps the only non-transparent campaign I’ve seen lately is
Taco Bell’s reaction to a lawsuit about whether they sell beef or “beef.” The
ad claims the non-beef parts are mostly natural-sounding Mexican spices and
flavors. Of course, the list of “other ingredients”
came out on YouTube shortly thereafter.)
So,
with the help of quotes from a few people smarter than me, here is what I’ve
learned about Transparent Marketing. Let’s begin with a direct quote from Dr.
McGlaughlin himself:
“Transparent Marketing is about values, not sentence alchemy. It
asks that we treat the customer with the same integrity that we would expect to
be treated.”– Dr. Flint McGlaughlin
Lesson
Learned: As a writer, persuasion is important to me. I’m trying to
convince you of something, with this blog post, and with everything I write.
But, there is a fine line between persuasion and manipulation. Where is that
line?
You
have to ask yourself, what would I expect if I were on the other side of this
landing page, or TV ad, or direct mail piece? Putting yourself in the shoes of
your customers is the best way to tap into their motivations and understand how
to create and market a product or service that can serve them, as well as how
you can build a sustainable (and believable) relationship with those customers.
Because,
if they don’t believe you, they’ll just move on to your competitors.
“Truth Well Told” – McCann-Erickson slogan
Lesson
Learned: You can be persuasive (hence the “well” in the above quote), but
at the very least, be truthful. Because if the truth doesn’t come out in your
marketing material, it will on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube…
“The consumer isn’t an idiot, she’s your wife.” – David Ogilvy
Lesson
Learned: You’re not going to get very far by underestimating your
customer. Yeah, you might be able to trick them once or twice. After all, I’m
sure you’re pretty clever.
But if
you plan on staying in business or having a job more than a few months, start
with the premise that you can learn from your customers so you can serve them
best. That has become even easier of late with social media monitoring.
But,
don’t forget human interaction. And people who complain to customer service.
They’re your true gold mine of business intelligence and are likely bravely
stating why thousands more potential customers are shunning your product in
favor of the competition.
“IT managers don’t read white papers, people do.” – Jeri Dube
Lesson
Learned: Starting in B2B marketing was extremely challenging to me coming
from a consumer marketing background. B2B is so…complex.
Jeri
took me under her wing and taught me this very valuable lesson. You have to
connect with your audience. And underneath it all, that audience is just as
human as you are.
If
you’re going to be successful in marketing, you have to be a bit of a
psychologist. You really have to want to figure out people. What makes them
tick. And not just you, but people very different from you as well. After all,
you are not often (perhaps rarely) your target audience.
“People don’t read advertising. They read what interests them.
Sometimes, it’s an ad.” – Howard Gossage
Lesson
Learned: This is a corollary to the two quotes above. No matter how big
of a budget you have to spend on media, if you don’t create marketing that
matters and resonates with people, then all you’ve done is increase the
likelihood you’ll get a few nice gifts from media reps over the holidays.
It
should also be noted, that the famous copywriter said this well before
buzzwords like content marketing and inbound marketing were all the rage.
“Good writers are great readers.” – Elaine Wagner
Lesson
Learned: This comes from one of my favorite college professors. And I
think it applies to more than just writers, because all marketers must be able
to talk fluently in the language of their target audience.
I read Jet,
Redbook, Motorboating, Latina, and Tennis, just to
name a few. And none of those publications are aimed at my interests. It’s one
of the ways I try to figure out what makes different audiences tick.
“We don’t want them to ever have to even pick up the pencil.” –
Mike Morgan
Lesson
Learned: Mike was my first boss and worked in the “Mad Men” days with
some legends like Bill Westbrook and Harry Jacobs. His point was about quality.
As you can see from all the quotes above, marketing is hard work.
Before
you’re done with anything and plan to show it to someone – from a marketing
campaign to a blog post – beat the heck out of it. While you want as much input
from as many people as possible, when it’s time for the decision maker to see
it, you just want her to review it and say, “Yep. Go for it.” If she whips out
that pencil to begin to make even one change, it’s all downhill from there.
Only
show your best work. And make sure all of your work is your best work.
“I want to help build better people, not just better marketers.”
– Mary Wells
Lesson
Learned: Mary was one of my favorite marketing executives to work for.
But not just her, her entire team was awesome.
I
believe that’s because her focus was never only on the task at hand, but the
people behind those tasks. While she was continually trying to optimize her
marketing campaigns and processes, she was trying to grow her people as well.
As you
can see from the above, in my estimation it takes a pretty well-rounded person
to be able to succeed in the era of Transparent Marketing. You need to have a
firm understanding of your industry, the macro-economic situation, your
potential audience (who may be very different from you), and your competition.
And then you need to craft communications that are both compelling as well as
believable to a very skeptical audience. And, you need to do it in a forthright
manner to avoid any backlash from customers who might have felt hoodwinked.
Before
I make the job of being a successful marketer in the age of Transparent
Marketing an impossible task, let me add a few final words of wisdom…
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how
the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them
better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who
errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error
and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great
enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at
the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the
worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place
shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor
defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt
Lesson
Learned: In the end, do something. And do it now. You’re never going to
be perfect, but the imperfect campaign executed is far better than the perfect
campaign that’s always in the works.
I’m
sure you’ve seen the failure of many projects – new websites, software
platforms, books, campaigns, etc – that just never got done because they were
constantly being worked on.
Don’t
be intimidated by Transparent Marketing. Yes, there has been a tectonic shift
of power to your audience.
But as
Bill Maher, David Meerman Scott, and Twitter all agree, we live in a real-time
world. First and foremost, get it out the door! From there, constantly optimize
using the wisdom above, feedback from your audience and customers as you
continue to try to improve their experience, and using your own constantly
growing knowledge to make the next effort better each time.
If you
truly serve your audience and customers, they won’t expect you to be perfect.
But they do expect you to be transparent.
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