Here we go again …
Have you read the news today? Looks like marketing is dead once more.
You know … all you need now is a Twitter handle, a Facebook page and an authentically huge digital smile to reach your audience and rake in the bales of cash (just make sure you keep smiling).
Uh-huh.
There’s always a lot of hype rolling around about marketing, new marketing and the death of marketing.
Don’t buy it. Really.
The truth about what you need to do for your business or ideas has been around for thousands of years. It’s very simple. And very effective …
In this episode Brian and I discuss:
- Has Twitter & Facebook killed marketing?
- The first, and most important, law of all good marketing
- Why swindlers, hustlers and con men are actually good for your business
- The crucial distinction between persuasion and manipulation
- How to lag behind the tech, and still get ahead in influence
Hit the flash player below to listen now:
Other listening options:
- Click here to download the mp3 | 24.7 MB | 20:33
- Click here to subscribe via iTunes
- Click here for the RSS feed (non iTunes)
Want to discover the smartest ways to mix social media, content marketing, and SEO? We’ve got you covered with Internet Marketing for Smart People. It’s a FREE 20-part course and email newsletter that delivers the techniques and strategies you need to know as an online marketer.
Links from the Show:
About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s Chief Copywriter and Resident Recluse.
Reader Comments (37)
Marketing is dead – it’s nothing more than a good headline. Brian, your point that “good marketing is focused on the people you are going to help” is so well said. I agree, it’s about finding your market’s biggest problems…and solving them. Was also refreshing to hear that you can’t be stopped as long as you can write on the internet.
I haven’t listened to the audio yet, but I have to say (and guess that this is where Brian’s opinion will land in the interview) that I don’t think marketing is dead, it just changed. Marketing is fundamentally about three things:
1. Having something that people want
2. Figuring out who wants it
3. Communicating to them that you have what they want, in a way that is compelling to them
Some might argue that marketing is just #3, but I think it’s all three. Either way, though, social media doesn’t change *what* you’re trying to do, just *how* you’re trying to do it.
Just my two cents. 🙂
This is 100% on point and very well said. I couldn’t agree with this more.
I wouldn’t necessarily say that marketing has changed, it’s still pretty much the same… just new avenues have opened up.
Social media is a form of viral marketing. I do like the fact you do have posts on direct response and copywriting. Since the Clayton Makepeace Total Package blog died – along with the archives – this is my new repository for direct response and copywriting.
I always look at the AMA (i.e American Marketing Association and NOT American Medical Association) for a definition of marketing. They say, “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. ”
Guess what? This could include all activities, like Brian and Seth Godin mentions.
Bring up Steve Jobs is great, as I like technology – just as much as I like the Copyblogger technology blog posts.
Charlatans? It’s like the Emperor with New Cloths story by Hans Christian Anderson – the emperor is really wearing no cloths. Eventually they will be exposed for what they are.
Good stuff today.
Randy
Marketing is dead. Blogging is dead. Email is dead.
Everything that is dead can make you money, apparently.
That’s the point Sonia. Everything that is dead makes us money.
You should not expect to make a lot of money where the rush is … this is the best time to harness those marketing channels that other people are overlooking.
Thanks Brian for the audio.
Well said Sonia. That’s why beginners like me are still working hard on our blogs to make money online. Thanks for the MP3 too.
“The First WE WILL STOP giving our valuable attention to idiots!” 😉 Just started to listen… and i already like it.
Well, after i finished listening two things came to my mind…
#1 “Magic is when you can’t see that magic happens”
#2 “It’s really cool to work for copyblogger… first class flights, you know…” 😉
I agree! I love the quote “creating the opposite of authority when you say dumb things”
Thanks for sharing…….Downloading the MP3
I loved the opening line! and the Lol cats, I am sure Copyblogger would do better if it was feline friendly 😉
Am loving the podcasts and have put off buying anything for the last month in anticipation of Premise 🙂
Great podcast and I agree with what you said. The whole “death of” is marketing even the “death of marketing”. Those people are taking that stance in a marketing effort. Irony.
Another great audio clip. Those “allergic to marketing” will keep getting eaten for breakfast by those who know how to make it rain.
With all the noise, as you described, the marketing skill level required is higher than ever before. Those who continue to market without much skill go broke faster. And they’ll be crushed by those that can market more skillfully.
I don’t want to be caught on the wrong side of that crush. Thank goodness for sites like Copyblogger.
Joe 😀
Copyblogger is extremely lucky to have Robert Bruce on their team. I’d hate having to compete with him. You’ve done a super job.
Ok, I wrote up a little review and five stars. I mean, you guys provide the podcast, I provide the social proof, right? Don’t you call that reciprocity or something? We’re cool man.
Four months? Pshaw. Hate to say it Brian, but you’re buying products that are 33% out-dated. The iPad 3’s coming out next year, you know. I always buy on opening week. That way I get to stay with the cool kids.
Apple’s 6 Marketing Lessons No Blogger Can Ignore.
That’s a nice title, no? I’ve got a juicy post that can back it up – tweaked and ready to go. It’s yours if you want it, Brian. First dibs. Otherwise it goes to Problogger
And last month’s Problogger guest post got 91 comments…
Just sayin. 🙂
We’ll take it. 😉
How should I submit?
Shoot it over to me. 🙂 (With South by Southwest this week, it will probably be early next week before I look at it, so don’t get nervous.)
Oh, my teeth are already chattering. 😉
In my opinion Social Media is just a modern method of Marketing. Instead of killing it, it’s just taking it a step forward.
Very interesting perspective which I enjoyed , after considering I have 2 reactions:
1- Only if the only marketing you plan is 140 character sound bytes.
2- Is not social media / social engagement part of the marketing star’s arsenal of marketing weapons.
Thanks! Lots to think about.. I think if social media killed marketing ergo television killed advertising, and planes killed cross-country travel. It’s all about innovation, and new channels of getting your message across while building a loyal following.
Social media isn’t marketing, per se, it’s a tool in your arsenal. When I start seeing corporations renaming their marketing departments as “social media departments,” then I might worry that they’re taking things too literally. But for now, it’s just another shiny happy tool in our bag of tricks.
Looks like human and technology are not the only ones “evolved”, Social Media has taken over traditional marketing. Yeah 🙂
Listening to podcast now. The pundits are declaring the latest item as “dead.” It will be dead until the next time. Aren’t these pundits using Marketing to put forth their opinions? Way back when I learned Marketing there were 4 Ps of Marketing. One of them is Promotion. Isn’t that what they are doing?
Thanks,
Rob
Yes it IS very simple…….but in making things simple- it can get complicated!
Very good point.
Simple is not the same as “easy.”
too true – if it were easy, it wouldn’t be dead.
If marketing is dead why are we all online reading this post? Surely we would not be interested in learning techniques but out playing with the kids!
Great headline for a Post!
Well done, you’ve got us all talking again.
Great stuff. I’m in the middle of switching careers and one of my new patchwork jobs will be involved in marketing…thanks for this show and website, it’s a huge help!
Hi Robert/Brian!
This was an engaging Q & A! It’s amazing to know that you just signed up and opened a Facebook page. 🙂
In the last 20 minutes or so, I truly learned a lot from the exchange. I particularly enjoyed some terms that you used like “marketing allergic” and “technology journalist.” But, what was truly useful for me is how to distinguish persuasion from manipulation.
Will check out Premise. Good luck!
Facebook and Twitter did not kill marketing. Instead it enhanced marketing in such a way that the marketing star is now even better!
Marketing starts always with a product, so before you move on and try to promote it via facebook or twitter make sure it is a product that solves a great problem. Facebook and twitter have helped a lot to share the good products but sharing used to exist also before facebook e.g Digg. All these means will help you distribute your product and let people know about it but whether it succeeds or not it merely depends on the product itself.
Elias
Very useful to me
Thanks for sharing
Those who always seek new ways to get ahead are just that: seekers. The people who succeed in business though, they’re builders. You design a business model, you start building it, and you focus your efforts on fortifying your business building or so to speak.
Everything else is, frankly, irrelevant. Don’t be an opportunity seeker. Be a strategist.
Why bet on a doubtful horse when you have a sure thing right in front of you?
This article's comments are closed.