The #1 thing holding your marketing and advertising back

I’m an adman, so you might expect this to be a rant about how clients need to take more chances and trust their agency or in-house creative teams. That’s a pretty common gripe among us creative types, after all. And truth be told, a lot of great ads do get watered down this way. But that’s not the biggest thing holding it back.

What’s really keeping marketers from their greatest success is the very way they think about marketing. There are debates raging all over the blogosphere about marketing media and disciplines. Above the line advertisers look down on direct response, while the direct marketers dismiss the former for lacking measurable results. It can get heated.

If your content disappeared tomorrow, would anyone miss it?

Would anyone miss your content if it all disappeared?

As marketers, we tend to dive headlong into new methods and trends. Content marketing is no exception. In fact, 92,000 new articles are posted online every day. And that’s just one form of content.

It’s easy to understand the appeal. Content marketing is cost effective, versatile and, when done right, leads to long-term success. So we create and curate to feed the content marketing machine. And it’s hungry. But if your content all disappeared, would anyone miss it?

Before you answer that question, give some objective thought to the following.

Advertising silos could be killing your results

Image courtesy of Lavoview at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The great thing about the Internet is that it gives everyone a voice. The bad thing about the Internet is that it gives everyone a voice.

From a positive standpoint, companies and individuals can get their messages out quickly and affordably, building their reputations and attracting followers.

On the flip side, anyone can claim to be an authority on any given subject. And bad advice is more widespread than you might think. I probably shouldn’t be by now, but I’m still surprised by a lot of what I see online. 

My best advice for writing direct marketing that works

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Getting people to take action, right now, without ever interacting with them face-to-face is really hard. In fact, a response rate of just 3% is considered a great result in many instances. Worst of all, we often make it even harder than it has to be.

That’s why what I’m about to share is my absolute best advice for writing direct marketing that works. If you follow this, you’ll get out of your own way, simplify the task at hand and improve your response rate.

So what is this magical pearl of wisdom?

Why your PPC results stink

If you’re reading this, then you’re likely frustrated with your search engine marketing efforts. Maybe you’re losing money on your ads, and even worse, you’re not sure why.  It’s probably one or more of the following.

Here’s one piece of common marketing advice you should ignore

If you’ve been in the marketing and ad biz for any length of time you’ve no doubt heard it numerous times. You may have even said it to your protégées. It’s one of the most common pieces of advice in all of marketing. And you should ignore it.