It happens every time I am working with a client–all my focus is on their project and not on my own business. Yet, I am breaking a cardinal rule that I tell anyone looking to promote a product or service–being relevant when you don’t want something. Active engagement without always trying to make a sale can be welcome interaction.
All of us are experts or knowledgeable about something. Finding time to share what you recently read can be helpful to others with the same interests. In today’s information overloaded society we need all the help we can get to lift useful information to the top of our scope. For me, Twitter is still one of the best tools for learning about breaking news or industry highlights. I follow the right experts and the news comes to me.
I was surprised that this recent HBR blog didn’t come to my attention from someone I follow. Bill Lee pronounced that “Traditional marketing — including advertising, public relations, branding and corporate communications — is dead.” Though I suspect that real marketers don’t agree with him and didn’t want to promote his fallacy. I don’t disagree that marketing is changing and there are many new tools to reach customers, but what still is important is the marketing mix.
If you are trying to sell a new product to a 75 year old man, I’m willing to bet advertising during the 6pm news show will be more effective than a streaming ad on Pandora. Fundamentals are still important–understanding your audience, how they like to interact with brands and then picking the marketing mix that will achieve the goals. Most importantly, are those goals measurable? That is really how marketing is changing. What CEOs aren’t getting is a dashboard that shows how hard the organization’s marketing dollars are working.
Part of the reason I selected Marketing Mixology as my company name was my belief about how critical that part of the planning process is to success. I’m excited as I get to talk about Marketing Mix Optimization with one of my favorite agencies to work with, Creative Feed, at a Marketing Analytics conference in San Francisco. I can’t post the presentation, due to some client confidentiality, but if you want to learn more, just ping me.
Marketing Mixology 