Personalize messaging based on insights as opposed to convenience.
Demonstrate the value of our proprietary audiences.
Now, it’s one thing for me to convince you that “dead” headlines are dead, but it’s another thing altogether for you to convince your management when they forward the next “_____ Is Dead” article to you. If and when this happens, I want you to:
1. Mark this page for easy future reference.
2. Read the article they present carefully—not just the headline.
3. Highlight where the article doesn’t actually support the headline.
4. Pull up the latest stats on how the channel in question performs for you.
5. Drop this book like a hot mic and walk off like Jay-Z after his final encore.
The fact is that you’re never going to stop marketing misinformation from causing you the occasional headache. All you can do is focus on what matters—the Proprietary Audience Development channels that work for you.
Never Stop Learning
The mere fact that you’ve reached this point in the book is an indication that you’re committed to the kind of lifelong learning that today’s marketing requires. It was unfathomable to me when I graduated college in 1991 that a marketer would have to know anything about HTML, responsive design, or mobile app development. And yet, that’s exactly where we are.
We deal with a dizzying array of consumer technologies that would make Don Draper’s head spin. Print, radio, and television are now consumed through their original channels as well as on laptops, smartphones, tablets, and even game consoles. Marketers cannot just “run a commercial” any longer; they must run ads that accommodate device form factors in ways that take full advantage of the unique points of consumer interaction for each device—at least, if they want to maximize response.
The only way to remain relevant as a marketer is to never stop learning. As you progress, however, do more than just focus on what’s new; focus on what delivers results and what is lasting. There’s a reason I’m so passionate about Proprietary Audience Development. I firmly believe that it is now part of the bedrock of marketing responsibilities that include advertising, branding, content marketing, customer service, demand generation, product development, and sales. Figure out how to deliver the audiences that fuel these initiatives, and you will truly help define The Hybrid Marketing Era.
a Save for the self-loathing, existential ennui, and Faustian death spiral, of course.
b Of these three, this was the only one that fooled me. Clearly, there is something particularly dark in my soul that wants to believe in a world where giant raptors are flying off with French-Canadian children.
1. Viola Spolin, Improvisation for the Theater (Third Edition, Northwestern University Press 1999), p. 13, http://books.google.com/books?id=W24B26mGvQkC.
2. eConsultancy and Adobe Systems, “Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing: Digital Trends for 2013,” January 2013, http://econsultancy.com/us/reports/quarterly-digital-intelligence-briefing-digital-trends-for-2013.
3. Jonathan Espinosa, “Facebook Reveals Ad Unit Improvements, Will Phase Out Questions and Offers Products,” InsideFacebook, June 6, 2013, www.insidefacebook.com/2013/06/06/facebook-reveals-ad-unit-improvements-will-phase-out-questions-and-offers-products/.
4. David Emery, “No, Facebookers, Bill Gates Isn’t Giving Money to Everyone Who Shares This Photo,” About.com, February 14, 2013, http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2013/02/14/bill-gates-giving-away-money.htm.
5. Hibah Yousuf, “False White House Explosion Tweet Rattles Market,” CNNMoney, April 23, 2013, http://buzz.money.cnn.com/2013/04/23/ap-tweet-fake-white-house/.
6. “Child-Snatching Eagle Video Created as Student Project,” CBC News, December 19, 2012, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/12/19/montreal-golden-eagle-viral-video.
7. Brad McCarty, “Haven’t You Heard? Email Is Dead According to Facebook’s COO,” The Next Web, June 24, 2010, http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/06/24/havent-you-heard-email-is-dead/.
8. Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff, “The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet,” Wired, August 17, 2010, www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip/.
9. Mark Schaefer, “Twitter Is Dying—and It’s All Your Fault,” Social Media Today, October 5, 2011, http://socialmediatoday.com/markwschaefer/371341/twitter-dying-and-it-s-all-your-fault.
10. Patrick Evans, “Facebook Is Dead for Gen Y; What’s Next?,” Engage: GenY (blog), MediaPost, November 18, 2011, www.mediapost.com/publications/article/162602/facebook-is-dead-for-gen-y-whats-next#axzz2Siu7BWvn.
11. Dan Rowinski, “Jason Calacanis: ‘Blogging Is Dead’ & Why ‘Stupid People Shouldn’t Write,’” ReadWriteWeb, December 29, 2011, http://readwrite.com/2011/12/29/redux_jason_calacanis_blogging_is_dead_why_stupid_people.