Every seen a hungry browser?

Hugh MacLeod

Probably not. More like an hangry (combination of angry and hungry) browser. Not hungry for your marketing content though, nobody cares about you. Harsh? But true…

Every marketer is out to put their stamp on the internet. To imagine this, let’s imagine a non-digital world, no internet, no computers, just a stamp, an ink block and a stack of paper.

And all she (he) does is go through that stack of paper at lightening speed and put their stamp on it, stick them in envelopes and send it to prospects. And the prospect would just put them in the bin.

My guess is that when the same marketers do this on the internet, they are just stamping everywhere they can, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Google, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube BeBee, WooWoo, Thingymedo etc.

Yes I was guilty, did it work? Maybe a little on Instagram, but I’ve now stopped all Facebook lookalike platforms, thanks to me cutting down and the excuse I’m using in relation to the Cambridge Analytica mistrust scandal.

Happy stamping!

Michael de Groot

Content marketing, really?

Hugh MacLeod

A few years ago, I would have been super impressed with this top 10 list and would be looking for ways to be implementing it asap, in fact some of it I did do, today, I just roll around laughing my head off.

I am visualising all the content marketing experts, taking this list to the head of marketing, who has to take it to the board and ask for big spends to deliver this list.

She will be asked what will she actually deliver when she implements this list and actually, she has no idea.

‘It’s difficult to measure’
‘It works very impressively for (drop a brand name here)’
‘We need to do this to compete’
‘If we don’t we’re going to miss out’
‘Everyone, literally everyone seems to be doing it’
‘Well the top brass in Google say they have evidence’
‘The sales team say they need us to do this too’
‘Customers nowadays expect it’

And here we go again, spending millions of dollars, standing still.

Happy spending!

Michael de Groot

Wasting your time?

Hugh MacLeod

We’ve all decided to do it, “content, content, content” is the biggest buzzword on the Internet. And we’re all totally petrified for missing out on this trend.

But what if this isn’t the answer, if we know that the average attention span is only 20 seconds, why do we continue publishing so much content, there’s just no proof that it even works.

Everyone’s busy creating content in order to feel that they are becoming a thought leader and that will lead ultimately to customers interested in your products and services, which leads to money and an interesting lifestyle, which potentially will lead to happiness.

And that is the ultimate goal, ‘happiness’.

Happy writing!

Michael de Groot