We’ve got some bad news this morning. We know, it’s Monday and you don’t want bad news, but we gotta tell you this: lazy marketing is done. Sorry. It’s #hardtruthmonday (gonna make that catch on), and that means we’re dropping some earth shattering truths on your marketing practices.
Truth #1: inbound marketing doesn’t cut it anymore
The godfather of inbound marketing, Dharmesh Shah, admits that inbound marketing alone isn’t going to cut it anymore. That’s surprising to hear, but it’s true. You can’t just publish content and hope people discover it.
A relevant quote from the godfather, himself: “Inbound marketing is pay to play now. It used to be about content and engagement, but it’s more complicated now. Content marketing has a cover charge.”
At this point, you have two options with your content. Either spend so much time doing content marketing that your competitors get tired and quit, or pay to play.
Hubspot has chosen both, but even they admit that their customer acquisition costs have more than doubled in the past 5 years. That’s because they’re spending a crap-ton on ads and outbound marketing.
Truth #2: Your idea of personas is dead.
People are so different from each other these days that having 3, 4, or even 5 personas is too vague. You need to stop looking at averages and actually talk to your customers. Chances are, they’re way more different than your personas are saying.
Case in point: Trump won the presidential election. No denying that. Wanna know how many personas his team used? Twenty. They had twenty different personas for their voters. As much as we don’t want to admit it, there’s something you can learn there.
This one is seriously good. Skip ahead to 5:40 for the start.
