The marketing one hundred is now the marketing ten thousand

When I was a B2B marketing executive in the 1990s, we ran marketing "campaigns".

My team focused on a about 100 big initiatives throughout the year including a dozen trade shows where we exhibited and spoke, a monthly email newsletter, a media relations effort focused on a few dozen press releases and pitches, a few white papers, a product launch or two, and the creation of print brochures and other materials.

With maybe 100 discrete things that we did during the year, each one could be measured.

From one hundred things a year to ten thousand

Marketing has fundamentally shifted.

Rather than doing a hundred really big projects, today's marketers need to do tens of thousands of tiny things each year to be successful.

It's not about the campaign, it's about engagement.

-- Rather than a dozen trade shows to exhibit and speak at, marketers need to create a 24x7 virtual showcase on the web. We need to create tons of individual articles, photos, infographics, videos, and other content to make a site strong. That means lots of very small projects instead of a dozen big ones.

-- Your monthly email newsletter is fine. But what about a daily blog post? What about 20 or 30 daily tweets? Then you’ve got your LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social feeds.

-- A decade ago your media relations effort probably focused on a few dozen press releases and media pitch campaigns in a year. Now you can engage journalists in real-time at the precise moment they are looking for information.

As you do the ten thousand, the nature of how you measure success changes.

Are you doing the ten thousand? Or are you still focused on the hundred?

photo credit: Eva the Weaver via photopin cc

Comments

[Jon H]

That’s a great point well made.

One thing I find is that the smaller businesses try to do all the things you mention but don’t have the resource to do them all to the correct standard. By doing that they end up with lots of wasted effort.

Prioritisation is key, which I guess is the same as it was back in the 1990's.

[David Meerman Scott]

Jon - Yes, prioritization is and always has been a challenge. But it is much different in today's world of lots of smaller things compared to the campaign focus of the past.

[Larry Waight (@larrywaight)]

This post reminded me of Stephen Covey's book - Putting First Things First. Like Covey says, things that matter most should never be at the mercy of things that matter least.

In a nutshell, the small things are the big things and that is our mantra in our Marketing Department.

[Michael Willett]

This is particularly valuable advice.

[Josh]

David,

Interesting point as I work on about 10,000 things at once. How do you recommend doing so with a small (or no) team? I'd like to build up a system or rhythm to handling so many small things.

[Anand Radhakrishnan]

Hi David,

Thanks for the valuable inputs and sharing some of your expertise in the B2B space. with the evolution of social media there are tons of tiny projects that need to be made and given equal priority.

[Nat Coalson]

David, as usual, all great points. Thank you!

A question: how does the idea of mass-marketing in all these ways directly relate to the ultimate goal of creating valuable [and singular] personal business relationships?

It seems that everything you described here is "pull" marketing - trying to attract enough attention and authority that people will contact us.

In the end, each individual client relationship needs to be cultivated and nurtured, so how does all of this activity mesh (especially in terms of prioritizing marketing time) with older, time-tested activities like cold-calling on the phone and in-person networking?

I have to admit, as a solo entrepreneur, the amount of work to be done in this area can be overwhelming, and I keep avoiding what I hope is not the ultimate conclusion ... that it can't all be done as one person.

[David Meerman Scott]

Larry - I haven't read Covey's book but it sounds like smart advice!

Josh - Develop a culture of trust. Hire smart people and let them execute with minimal supervision.

Nat - Actually, much of the engagement which is part of the ten thousand is nurturing. For example, I have thousands of people on this blog's email notification list - that's nurturing. By commenting here, replying to tweets, and engaging on FB, LI, & G+ I am nurturing.

[Tomdebaere]

Hi David,

The key to doing this, with small or large teams, is to expand marketing beyond the marketing department. I believe that a pro-active process should trigger content creation throughout the organization, orchestrated along the customer life-cycle.

In short, everyone within the organization should be motivated, trained and triggered to create relevant content for buyers.

Hope this adds.

Tom De Baere
http://www.b2bmarketingexperiences.com

[David Meerman Scott]

Tom - I totally agree. For example, great customer support IS marketing in today's world. Thanks for the thoughts!!

[Catie Ragusa]

Hi David,
It's so interesting to see the difference in marketing in a pretty small amount of time overall. The crazy thing is that as the internet continues to evolve inevitably, social media marketing will continue to evolve with it--we're just getting started!

Thanks for all your tips. These are great things to keep in mind in this ever-changing world!

[Mac Byrd]

Great advace David - Thank you. I'm blending your suggestions into our own strategies, and am excited to impliment them.
Could you share your high-level thoughts on how an internet based business might differ in effectively using the 'right' mix of these initiatives from how might a traditional B2B product or manufacturing service company?

[David Meerman Scott]

Catie - it is interesting, isn't it?! I agree - I think we are only at the beginning of this revolution.

Mac - In both cases, it is about delivering valuable content for your buyer personas. I don't think the type of business differs at all and tends to make people do ineffective stuff. Good luck.

[CTO Chief Officer]

On simple web forms, people could quickly and cost-effectively be invited to raise their hands and indicate their interests. Suddenly it was possible for prospects to choose marketers vs. marketers resorting to a needle-in-a-haystack approach to find prospects and customers.

[Claire]

I had words with the management of a company recently because their Twitter was very non-responsive when I complained about a customer service problem. In the case of Twitter it truly is about lots of little acts rather than one big campaign.

[Dave Wedge]

I can certainly relate to the 10,000 David. It has become a real challenge prioritizing and managing time spent on all these tasks, the days can just drift away without actually getting much core business done.

For many people I know it has just become too confusing and they watch bemused from the sidelines as the world changes around them.

Do you remember the theory that computers and automation would leave us all with increased leisure time? Who would have predicted where we are now battling with social media and blogging and any initiative we can to gain attention.

[David Meerman Scott]

I hear you Dave. Sometimes I find myself so focused on social that I forget I am on a book deadline!