I've been thinking a lot about what marketing is and who does it over the past few months. I came to the profession through a circuitous route -- starting as a writer and editor, moving into event content, then event production, corporate marketing and communications for events agency, then marketing for a SaaS startup.
From the outside, it may look like an accident, but there is definitely a path there, though one filled with serendipity. Or perhaps for the Koestler fans out there, synchronicity? The path I've followed has been storytelling, or for those in the marketing world, content. For me, marketing is about telling a company's story. (Insert product, brand, service as needed.) And if you do a surface glance of the marketing world, you'll see lots of chatter about storytelling and content. But the chatter doesn't seem to be about producing useful, intelligent content that your customers need. The kind of content that will keep them engaged and purchasing your products or services. Instead, the chatter is about the tools, the tactics, the buzz words. (Here I should list SEO, PPC, DemandGen, growth hacking, ad nauseam, for the organic search!) Granted, there's little use in producing great content if no one finds it, but I'd bet that's a rare case. Ninety percent of the ebooks, infographics and white papers I download simply don't deliver the promise of their snappy headline. Clearly someone has figured out how to navigate some of the nearly 4,000 MarTech tools available, and mastered the tactics of getting content found. If only the same amount of time had been spent making the content useful. But writing is hard. Most anything worthwhile is.
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AuthorAccidental marketer. Recovering poet. Tech nerd. Writer. Mom. Southern expat. Women's college grad. Lover of good bourbon, dive bars and mysteries. ArchivesCategories |