HIRE ME TO SPEAK
HIRE ME TO SPEAK

Making stuff up

I write about strategies to turn fans into customers and customers into fans. I also share ways to use real-time strategies to spread ideas, influence minds, and build business.

Worst Practices  |  Marketing

One of the biggest problems with marketing is that marketers just make stuff up.

We marketers hang out in hip conference rooms equipped with stylish Aeron chairs, drinking designer water, and we say we are marketing.

Your company conference room is not where marketing strategy should develop. And it’s not your agency conference room either.

Making stuff up

Sitting around a conference room with your colleagues and agency staffers results in groupthink that's not tied to the realities of the marketplace. This behavior means you start by talking about product features, then reverse engineer benefits that you think you provide, which results in "marketing" around the made up benefits.

This is just making “stuff” up (you can substitute another word in the “S...” position if you’re less polite than I am).

Get the heck out of your nice comfortable office

You've got to get out into your marketplace and meet with potential customers who have the problems that your organization solves.

You need to understand your buyers and what motivates them.

You need to know the words and phrases that buyers use. What is the actual language they use to describe problems they have that you might solve?

Only then will you be able to educate and inform your buyers with valuable and interesting content that generates high search engine rankings.

Only then, can you create the content that buyers will be eager to consume and that they will love to share on social networks.

And that content is your marketing.