I’ve noticed a trend with a few of my clients. They are being overrun by marketing behemoths. Marketing is a good thing. I like marketing. I studied it in college and use it on a regular basis.
But these marketing groups are speaking in a different language than my clients. They are speaking in marketing talk.
They are using standardized “best practices” without getting to know the intricacies of the companies.
Try that with dating someone and see if it works. Read some blog posts on dating best practices and then use those instead of actually getting to know the person. Good luck with that.
Marketing cannot be divorced from the goals of the organization. There is not one marketing solution that is going to work for all organizations. Marketing principles are not solutions in and of themselves, they are meant to be adapted to each organization.
In one particular egregious example, one of my university clients has a marketing group running their “lead generation” initiative. The marketing group never asked about my client’s goals or the type of lead they are seeking. Furthermore, the marketing group fields the initial calls and emails instead of sending those to my client. Can you imagine being put through to someone who knows marketing-speak best practices instead of someone who knows about the actual program? That’s a great way to kill leads.
Beware of SEO, marketing, and lead generation people who say they can help you without getting to know you.
