For my wedding anniversary my wife bought me a really interesting book called Love is a Mix Tape, by Rob Sheffield. Then, for Father's Day she bought me this, a cassette player with a USB plug so that I could convert the cassettes I have been holding on to since the early 90's to MP3.
She bought these things for me because I am a music guy, and more specifically I am a mix tape guy. I have been for more than 20 years, and I still send out an annual mix to my friends and family with the music that really spoke to me over the previous 12 months. I was the guy who would, when he was interested in a girl he met for the first time, would say "I'll make you a tape!"
Back in the day, this was a commitment. An endeavor. Several hours worth of labor, listening to each and every song all the way through as it recorded onto a Maxell 90 minute cassette. Committing to a theme, finding the songs that fit, figuring out how the songs flowed together. The end result, if it was done right, was something worth listening to again and again. The memories associated with a tape would endure as well. I can still remember who I made a tape for (even if it was just for me). The night I made it, how I felt when I did, what I was trying to say. And if it was done right, it can make you feel that way all over again, for better or for worse.
A good marketing campaign should be constructed the same way. Your theme should be clear, and the actions you take and the copy you write should fit with that theme. The best marketing campaigns are never one and done, are never batch and blast. Different tools and weapons in your arsenal should fit together. If it is an email campaign, what is your goal? What new and different message are you going to do to remarket to the people that didn't open it? Is your sales team going to call the people who opened or clicked? What were the people who responded supposed to do? Was it easy for them to complete the goal? How is this all going to be recorded in your CRM system? Are you going to offer the unsubscribes something different, like a direct mail piece or a phone call? A constant series of "what if?" and "and then?" which should have a clear start and an even clearer finish.
It should be a good mix tape.
With the advent of MP3's and playlists and the ability to burn compilation CD's something changed. Making a mix tape became really, really easy.You would drag the songs you wanted to hear into a list, put them in order, insert a blank CD and burn it. Less than ten minutes start to finish. The end result would have a clear and fresh sound and would, more often then not, become boring and stale after a few listens.
Since so little time is involved in production, it became less important to plan your steps in advance. And if it turned out to be a crappy mix, then you would just make another one.
My boss, Greg, told me once that "marketing automation systems have done a great job at helping people market poorly, faster." Much like the introduction of the CD burner, marketing automation has made it easy for people to write, format and send email to tens of thousands of people in minutes.
We've all done it … you need to generate leads quickly so you write something up and send it to ten thousand prospects hoping that something will stick and you will get a few responses to fuel the funnel. And if it doesn't work? Try again tomorrow. No clear plan of action involved, little effort placed in tracking response. A clear and precise decision to replace quality with quantity, and we're all suffering.
Email is becoming less and less effective because the volume we are all suddenly able to send has become more important than the message, the theme, the plan. Volume is the plan. Instead of sending quality, carefully crafted product that is ten times as effective, we send ten times as many email because it is easy. And fast.
It is a playlist we are burning to a CD.
Imagine how well your marketing automation could perform if you treated it like a mix tape.
Well said, Jason, and couldn’t agree more. I am agog at the number of companies who crank out emails a) simply because they can and b) because they mistake volume for effectiveness. Another symptom of the same sickness is what I call “program-centric planning” – i.e. marketing calendars based on what campaign(s) to produce, as opposed to goals-based planning where the scale, scope, and type of programs is based solely on the most efficient way to achieve specific, measurable objectives.
Hey Jason,
So glad you got this post up! This idea has all the hallmarks of *good* marketing – it’s simple, it’s actionable, and we can relate to it on an emotional level (both in terms of the process and the feelings that accompany doing it).
You’ve given me a great touchstone for my own marketing efforts, and something I can share with my clients again and again. Thanks!
“marketing automation systems have done a great job at helping people market poorly, faster.”
I absolutely love that quote. The quality of a product does not improve simply by automating it. You still have to care about the quality and be committed to it.
Hopefully, for those good marketers, marketing automation allows them to spend more time on the goals, content, and design and less time doing busywork like manually gathering metrics.
Cheers!
-Quin’
Matthew Quinlan
http://www.LoopFuse.com
I agree with you about email being less effective and marketing automation systems that allow us to blast a message quickly and the need to think in terms of the mix tape.
I guess where I deviate is this,”If we are using marketing automation software to create a message and blast it out…is that really marketing automation?”
At best this is just email automation.
Marketing Automation software should enable, exactly what you are discussing. It needs to be part of an overall “well thought out’ marketing plan, looking at individual prospective buyers, their needs, structuring messages and content that engages them in a win win scenario that brings value to both parties.
Then integrate marketing and sales to work effectively. Blasting emails is only an automated way of doing poor marketing practices.
Jason as you might expect – this is a subject near and dear to my heart and I couldn’t agree more.
I don’t know if you saw my post called Drip Marketing is for Drips.
http://bit.ly/aH8LbV
And – I absolutely love Greg’s quote….
As I’ve said to some clients… “Tools don’t provide ROI. Tools only provide the promise of a faster, more reliable, more measurable or easier way to accomplish what we need done.”
As they provide faster or easier ways to do something – it’s easy for us to either get pressured or get lazy and skip over the most important thing – connecting, creating and innovating.
Great point about confusing MAS with email automation…I should have been a bit more clear. Thinking about many MAS implementations I was reminded of how many of them are being used as little more than expensive email automation. Another common mistake is creating a 2 or 3 email chain of activities with an undefined objective and no clear call to action and calling it “lead nurturing.” Regardless … marketing automation or email service or whatever technologies you throw into the mix … just because you CAN send out that email or set up that campaign doesn’t mean you SHOULD.
This is an interesting read about marketing.I came to know some good points about a good marketing campaign.It is really good that you share such information with us.
I love this post Jason. Reminds me of my own creative mix tape efforts in the 80′s. I always strived to make the tape a journey where no single song stood on its own independent of the others.
With my own efforts in the tech startup world, I’ve found that the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts on the brand journey.
Cheers to being creative,
Bob
Scrubly | Duplicate Contacts Remover
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E-mail is becoming less effective because the amount we could all suddenly became more important to send the message, theme, plan.
I really like to know that your wife giving very nice surprise gift for you. It is very nice thing to know about your anniversary. I like to read that your wife giving totally different gift to your personality. But It is good thing that you learn new things. I would like to congratulated both of you for anniversary.
I loved Love is a Mix Tape. Sheffield is a great wordsmith. He creates wonderful imagery and conveys the gamut of emotion in this heartbreaking story.
If you live, love, and feel through music, you will adore this book. The chapter mix tapes set the scene for the story as well as give you a list of songs to listen to, download, and make into a mix tape or playlist.