Tag: advertising

Ideas out

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When you put your idea out, it is the whole world to you.

For anybody else, it is just one of the hundreds heard in the past few days.

This is a gap that drives a lot of misunderstanding (“that’s not what I meant!“), frustration (“they do not care!“), and missed opportunities (“I give up!“).

It is a gap that is your responsibility to fill.

And so, when you put your idea out.

Go straight to the point. We might get interested in the background story at some point, definitely not the first time we get in touch. What do you do? Why do I care? Keep it short, actually shorter.

Make it stand out. You will not break through the noise if you just repeat what others are saying. The way they are saying it. My idea will increase your team’s productivity! It will save you money! It will make your floors shine brighter! Pass.

Make it relevant. And I am not sure if I should rather say specific. Generic messages that aim for the masses are doomed these days. Aim carefully, and craft it as if your audience’s well being would depend on it.

Bandaid

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When you launch a rebrand, it’s often better to just rip off the bandaid.

One piece of evidence.

Google launched Workspace today, as a replacement to Google G Suite offering.

Microsoft launched Microsoft 365 six months ago, as a replacement (?) to Office 365 offering.

Judge for yourselves.

Google Workspace above the fold
Microsoft 365 above the fold

Pull the plug

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If you have a hunch something is not working, pull the plug on it.

And actually, we should regularly pull the plug on the things that take most of our time, and see which ones we are truly going to miss.

This is clearly really applicable when it comes to marketing tactics. If there is something you consistently put your budget behind, pull the plug on it for one month. What happens? When the impact on key metrics is zero (or close to it), you have a great candidate for costs savings.

Who knows where programmatic advertising would be if more companies would regularly pull the plug.

Changing behavior

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Marketing is about changing behavior.

And what marketers often fail to grasp is that the change is not about a transaction. It is about a connection.

When you make it about a transaction it is the here and now, this is what we have, this is what you need, take it, here is how much it costs. Next.

When you make it about a connection it is about giving, this is for you, take it and enjoy it, and perhaps think about us the next time you need what we do.

Here is a brilliant example.

External help

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There are three kinds of external help a marketing department can get.

There is the help that is valuable because it provides a competence that is missing. This is typical when you hire a freelancer, for example. Perhaps you have a small team, you lack some skills, you want something specific done that you cannot do yourself.

Then, there is the help that is valuable because it gets things done. Most agencies fall into this bucket. They do not really deliver mind-blowing results, they might or might not have specific competences, some might actually argue they could have gotten pretty much the same outcome by doing the job internally. But the truth is, the team simply does not have enough bandwidth, or it is not well organised, or its skills are not well mapped.

Finally, there is the help that is valuable because it delivers quality. It might be a freelancer, it might be an agency. But in this case, they are at the edge of their field, they are doing things that not many others know, they are reinventing a particular tactic or the way it is approached. Things might get difficult, because the counterpart is somebody with convictions, ideas, opinions, and they might not be willing to simply do what pleases the head of marketing. They repay these difficulties with an outstanding job.

Now, the fact is that often we approach external help in marketing with unrealistic expectations. And so, when we hire for competence, we do not want to do the project management work that is necessary. When we hire for project management, we are unprepared in feeding the right information at the right time because we do not have them. When we hire for quality, we are not ready to change our assumptions and beliefs, and potentially redefine strategy and tactics altogether.

Who are you hiring to help you out? Are you aware of what that means?