Seth Godin has a book about the lies marketers tell, do you agree with the premise?

Yesterday, I had a refreshing conversation with a non-marketer friend about the perception of marketers and of marketing campaigns. With no knowledge of the book by Seth, she came to the same conclusion that all marketers are liars.

If you’re like me, you’ll probably disagree with this statement.

For us, every other marketer is a liar, seems to be more applicable here. Yet, the simple fact is, sometimes we get so entrenched in marketing speak, industry jargon and hype, that we forget the basic function of marketing is to engage, educate and enrich customers.

Going back to this basic function, you’ll do well to apply the “so what” test to your marketing.

Every line you write, every tagline you like, every campaign theme you design, apply the “so what” test and see if it is still relevant. Often you only have a few seconds to capture your audience, if it does not pass this simple go-no-go test, then scrap it.

Sometimes campaign data is like a clock that’s too fast or too slow. It gives you a good impression of what time it currently is, but without knowing how much faster or slower it is, you can’t be precise.
Sometimes data works in a similar way. The data you have of your customer may at times be [...]

There’s social media and then there is social marketing. What’s the difference you say?

Think of social media as tools (blogs, twitter, facebook, linked-in, youtube, slideshare) that you can use to spread the word about your company, product, cause or just to share the knowledge you have and position yourself as the expert. That model is still 1-to-many, but with the opportunity for 1-to-1 conversations.

Now there’s also the reverse side, there is the email message, direct mail, sales calls, sms, print ads… that you should be using to create 1-to-1 conversations. While many think of these as traditional marketing channels, they are in fact not. They are just as much tools for making a marketing campaign social.

If you honestly believe you have something relevant to say to your prospects and customers, then they’ll want to share that message with their friends. You need to make it easy for them to do that.

I follow CopyBlogger quite religiously. 80,000 readers do that too. Why?

Because as marketers, writing effective copy is an important skill. Yes anyone can write copy, but does your copy convert?

Full article by Jason Cohen on CopyBlogger: 10 secrets to more magnetic copy

Here are some highlights from the article

1. Don’t hedge
   Writing copy that is strictly true makes your writing become soft and pudgy. Only write impact sentences that capture attention.
2. Brevity
   Write copy that is entertaining and easy on the eyes. Anything more than a few sentences gets ignored, just like the salesy public speaker.
3. Tell a story
   Surprise Surprise, people do not respond to features, sales talk, they respond to stories. Tell a story that captures the benefits of your product and you have a captive audience.

Full article: 10 secrets to more magnetic copy

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#1 Include a ‘hook’
Is there a good enough reason to respond to your campaign? This doesn’t always have to be a discount, but there needs to be a compelling reason for your recipients to act now, rather than later. Depending on your audience, a limited time offer may help boost your campaign response. (Be one [...]

What are the key stats you track in a campaign?
Just people who responded and bought? Or do you also analyze the people who unsubscribed from your message?
While it is important to generate conversions with your campaigns, understanding who your marketing messages is not working for is just as important.
When you analyze a campaign, track who opted-out [...]

‘The long tale’.

Seth Godin recently coined this phrase in his recent blogpost.

In essence, it symbolizes the continuing story you have to tell your customer and how you have to periodically re-introduce yourself to your customers. More so if you’re re-branding your business, moving into new growth areas as a result of the economy.

Through the years, we’ve been posting (what I now realize) great advice about building relationships, initiating conversations and using technology to help you do so.

Have you ever looked at a datalist and immediate knew exactly what marketing messages would work?

If you have, then you’re either a gem of a direct marketer, or you have been deluded by what marketing messages work on you.

The truth is, you’re not the prospect. As marketers, this can sometimes be the biggest obstacle to the success of our marketing campaigns. We believe that the same marketing messages that work for us would work for the prospect. We believe we are the prospect and so often, we find out we’re wrong.

But, this does not mean we cannot market to prospects that are different from us.

If you do not yet have an understanding of what marketing messages work for your customer segments, or are testing out a new datalist or customer vertical, then your best bet is to plan a marketing system that helps you learn more about your prospects.

Your best bet is to use best practices, industry/ market research, responsiveness to your campaigns, testing your messages (A/B testing), and ask them (2-way conversations)!