#david meerman

5.3.19 | Old rules of marketing

Here are several takeaways I have from chapter one of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” by David Meerman Scott.

Your company's website should have personality and feel authentic.

Traditional advertising is a great strategy for megabrands lke Proctor & Gamble, Paramount Pictures, and U.S. presidential candidate- reaching large numbers of people with a message of broad national appeal- just doesn’t work for niche products, local services, and specialized nonprofit organizations.

The web has opened a tremendous opportunity to reach niche buyers directly with targeted information that cost a fraction of what big-budget advertising costs.

The web changed the rules. Today, organizations are communicating directly with buyers.

Most regular readers of this blog are aware of push towards creating content and the role it plays in growing a business. For anyone needing to catch up, a sample of my previous posts are in the "Related Articles" section below.

My voice is only one of many in the cacophony on the theme of Content Marketing. Read any of industry voices and you will get this message constantly. Seth Godin, Mitch Joel, John Jantsch and David Meerman Scott are some of my favourites.

But we all live in the real world, where there is pressure to deliver product, employ staff, buy machines, manage projects, balance the books, and occasionally squeeze some "life" into the cracks between these activities. How do you manage it?

The temptation is to treat it similarly to our health - we know we need to shed some kilos, but there's so much noise about how we should achieve it - diet (but which one), exercise (jogging, gym, personal trainer, or regular sport) or some combination. And how are we going to find the time. It becomes so overwhelming we look for a silver bullet or we just give up and curl into a foetal position and ignore the consequences.

Just like with our health, any positive change is beneficial. It may not be sufficient, but it is a step in the right direction. Once we have taken that first step and incorporated that into our regular routine, we are ready to take the next step. And perhaps armed with the ease of the first minor win, we will incorporate the second step more easily.

It's all about taking a first manageable step in a positive direction.

Related articles:

Websites are not just set and forget. (blog.midboh.com.au)

The recommendation age (blog.midboh.com.au)

Social Media is the answer but not to every question (blog.midboh.com.au)

Is your content just digital tumbleweed? (blog.midboh.com.au)

What's stopping you? (blog.midboh.com.au)

Social Media is a process not a project (blog.midboh.com.au)

Look at your business the way your customers do (blog.midboh.com.au)

Ranking "above the fold" is getting harder (blog.midboh.com.au)