Is it me, or is marketing totally boring now? I remember when the web was brand new, and marketing was a topic of endless fascination.
Eager biz owners wanted to know how it worked, what the best practices were, what to say in which order, when to say it, how many times to say it, what not to do.
Now, it seems like no one cares or is listening. What changed? I have a few ideas.
Social media is a drastically different landscape. I left marketing to go be a mom. When I came back, it was like walking on the moon.
Why don’t people seem to listen to marketing advice anymore? What did social media do to change the face of marketing as we know it?
Social media made us realize we have freedom of expression (sort of) on the Web.
Who needs a marketer when you have free reign over your social media to say whatever you want, however you want to say it?
Now, instead of having to listen to some would-be guru spouting off the same old snore-worthy advice, business owners have figured out that they can attract new followers and customers based on total authenticity.
(And why wouldn’t they? As marketers, we’ve been telling them to be authentic on the Web for the past 15 years!)
No matter what you do or who you are, you can attract your loyal following simply by being yourself and flying your flag, even if and especially if, it’s a freaky flag.
Typing from a home-built computer out of your basement with your one-eyed cat on your lap, and the both of you are sporting tinfoil hats?
There’s a group out there ready to vibe with that. Broadcast from your home-base HQ a few times, and you’ve got your official target audience of fellow freaks at rapt attention.
Best of all, you didn’t even need a marketing coach to help you find each other. And social media users now KNOW this.
Social media and Google (before they sold out with AI), made us SMARTER and more street-savvy online.
The new generation gets it. It’s not like the Boomers, who placed all value in what The Experts had to say. Your would-be audience of followers don’t need to be bashed over the head with reminders of how to communicate to attract new customers.
Or, at least the smart ones don’t. DO YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT STORYTELLING IN MARKETING?
Yes. Tell your story. We know.
On social media, everyone gets to be the marketing rock star.
Daily use of social media, typing into that little box, reading your own words, flexing your mental muscles on the WWW, has everything thinking they’re a natural born marketer, and maybe they really are.
Maybe for seasoned marketers, the days of pontificating ad nauseum about Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, are truly over. Repeatedly telling people to “grab them with that hooker headline!” might not be that much of a hook, after all.
“Everybody’s talking at me” on social media.
It’s getting LOUD out here, with all these crazy so-called marketing experts… and each has her own method. They’re literally yelling, trying to get you to stop scrolling and listen to them. The effect of this is they’re drowning each other out.
Ah yes, here comes another perfectly-coiffed blonde lady in a branded tee shirt, with wide eyes, showing up screaming from your feed that she’s got some brand-new, revolutionary way of saying the same old shit.
And there’s another dude with a trimmed beard on his laptop, with an urgent message that time is running out.
Savvy users know that time is NOT running out. The offer will be served up again and again, like leftovers of your mom’s Monday stew that she’s turned into Tuesday tacos, that will be Thursday’s soup.
The “brand new,” revolutionary marketing method is just like those tacos. Packaged up a little differently, with some new sides… but underneath, it’s still stew.
Social media has wisened us to the viral copycat phenomenon.
Have you noticed? Copycatting has never been more rampant. We can thank TikTok for giving users the option to lip-sync and re-sample other people’s audio, or stitch with their video and add your own spin.
That emphasizes the viral-ness of the social media experience in a massive way… in its highest form, the evolution of an idea… and in its lowest form, straight-up creative theft.
Copycats have their feelers out for good content. Why come up with something original and groundbreaking, when it’s so easy to swipe someone else’s presentation and get paid by these platforms?
Okay, so if people are immune to marketing now, what purpose does a marketing manager or copywriter serve?
To me, what it all boils down to is that people who are busy running companies and small businesses just don’t have the time, energy or mental bandwidth to do the marketing.
Social media is all-encompassing… an overwhelming, massive, content-gobbling monster. For this reason, the need is still there.
So if you market for a company or a small business owner, what’s that going to look like? It really depends on the client and how they prefer to work with you.
- Some of your marketing clients might have NO preference for what’s said or how the message is presented. They just know that they need to get the word out about their product or service, or they need content to market a website, and they don’t have time to do it themselves.
- Some clients might have a strong preference for how they’d like the messaging to go, but they won’t feel capable of organizing and presenting it all. In that case, your function will be to speak through them, and broadcast in various ways, across all forms of media.
- Some clients will prefer to handle the execution of the marketing themselves, but require a creative kick-start. You might be asked to shape a brand identity… spin some taglines and catch phrases… brainstorm ad campaigns, come up with titles and themes for a coaching package, devise a time-sensitive offer, or things along these lines.
What it all boils down to is there’s a LOT more freedom in how we communicate on the web and social media.
Many people in businesses big and small are doing the “let’s throw it out there and see what sticks” method, and it’s certainly a fun, flexible, and economical way to work.
So if you want to continue to serve in a content marketing capacity, you must be willing to go with the flow in any direction.
Have you found yourself embodying a unique new role as a marketing professional? Email me your story.
Send your words, thoughts or advice for possible publication to dinagio@dinagio.com. Please include a 2- to 3-line bio along with your article.