Advertising Is Dead
7 Things to Think About in the New Era of Selling
Advertising as we know it is dead, but selling certainly isn’t. Rest assured, this isn’t a post-mortem on the glittering, gluttonous, and entertaining era inhabited by the characters on “Mad Men.” It is, however, meant as a catalyst for conversation about how we should sell our brands and products in a world that’s sick and tired of being sold to. Add to the list, disagree with it. The point is to talk about it.
1. Stop selling. (Really.) This morning I woke up, scrolled through my email and quickly lost interest in almost everything in my inbox. Why? Because everyone was trying to sell me something: “20% off this weekend only!” and “Special invitation for VIP sale access!” blah blah blah… The one email I opened? One from Maptia entitled, The Art of Getting Lost. Maptia is like Medium for travel stories. They don’t make any money right now, but if they keep creating great content, they’ll find a way to do that.
2. Being “data-driven” doesn’t mean you have all the answers. If you’re like many companies, it actually means you don’t have any of them. And that’s ok. Why? Because we’re right at the beginning of understanding how to use all of the data we’re collecting. It’s being delivered to us at high volume, and given away by people every time they make a transaction on the web—but so many companies are at a loss when it comes to interpreting and putting into action what any of this data means. In order to actually be data-driven, we have to first prioritize what data is important, and then work to synthesize meaning.
3. You can’t be everything to everyone. “The Internet has no boundaries.” True or false? False. At least when it comes building a sound product. Despite this, there are still entrepreneurs and brands behind them that believe that with just the right combination of marketing and a clever “viral hit,” their product will explode onto the scene. The reality? Hoping for a million views of your latest video doesn’t mean a million people want your product. It makes more sense to focus on speaking to one hundred people who will pay to use it versus a million who just want to watch a video.
4. Create meaningful content. If you’re a marketer, you’ve been hearing the talk about the power of content for a while now. As a copywriter and content strategist, it’s my job to come up with great content ideas that fit in with a brand’s content strategy. Sometimes, though, the demand for content—let’s post a million times a day!—means we skimp on creating meaningful blog posts and social media updates. Yes, volume is important. But if your goal is simply quantity over quality, your audience will notice and stop caring. What can you do to avoid this? Realize one person cannot do it all. Make sure everyone in your company can write, get creative, or both.
5. Build a newsroom. It used to be that advertising and journalism hated each other. Maybe they still do, but it’s a love-hate relationship nowadays. But that’s a different discussion. What companies should be doing instead of advertising is channeling those efforts into building an arm of marketing that simply responds—in real-time—to what’s happening in the world as it relates to their brand and product, sort of like a newsroom. This activity doesn’t replace the planning-intensive types of marketing that are crucial to business, but it’s an important addition.
6. Own your content. Once you create it, put it on your website or company blog. Drive people to it through your social channels. Build up an audience that visits your site, not your Facebook feed. Why? Because in the end, Facebook owns your audience and they also own you.
7. Know it’s all going to change. Again and again. Five or six years ago, we were all talking about the power of social media. People started calling themselves “social media experts,” throwing around words like “virality” and “the network effect.” In 2014, social media isn’t a magic bullet—it’s just another marketing channel, and one that’s been permanently changed by the maturation of social networks from experiments into monetized products (remember the uproar over Facebook Beacon?). The point is, as soon as we start to take things for granted we’re disrupted by something new. And that’s ok. It reminds us that anything is possible. (And it is.)
I’m sure I didn’t cover something major here (by the way, please tell me what I left out). But this is just a starting point for talking about how we can make selling feel less annoying and more useful.
