I decided to overhaul www.marketingcopywriter.co.uk.
So I did.
On a budget.
It’s a bit of an experiment on a number of levels having gone from a six-page site to a one-pager. It now has a different tone and style. Will the SEO work too I wonder? To the uninitiated, that’s getting your site to rank highly (ideally page one) in search engines.
Anyway, if you have a second, go visit the site…
Today I read one of those marketing guru quotes attempting to sound insightful and thought provoking. Instead it just made me cross. It went something along the lines of, ‘traditional marketing is changing. And so is the new one.’ Sorry, but isn’t this stating the obvious? When does anything not change?
I have to admit I’ve made similarly silly pronouncements. Quite frequently my wife would say.
It’s one of those vacuous statements that reads well but shares no wisdom. What’s new and what’s old? When does new become old anyway? And who or what has the right to define such things? If ‘b’ supersedes ‘a’, is ‘a’ automatically archaic? We probably think vaguely alike when considering these questions in relation to marketing.
I imagine the statement’s author probably meant technology, digital marketing and the internet for example and marketing’s response to the resulting changes in social behaviour and attitudes. In this sense I must be fair to the author since there is a general understanding as to what ‘traditional’ and ‘new’ refers to. This doesn’t alter the fact everything is likely to change.
‘Marketing is changing’ (or being forced to) would be more accurate, but this has always been a truism. Who upon reading that marketing is changing would nod their head in acknowledgment of singular intelligence? No-one and most would probably laugh because of its lack of inspiration or perceptiveness. Of course it’s changing! Even the ‘new one’ is!
When David Ogilvy started writing and revolutionising ads with great success, did anyone within the creative industry say, ‘this is working, let’s stop here for a while’. I doubt it. You’d be fired. Although he did assert you should repeat successful individual ads until they stop selling. No, marketing is changing all the time, pushing the boundaries, but back in Ogilvy’s time they couldn’t have known about the web and all things digital. This really is changing marketing.
The ‘changing’ statement did get me thinking though. However, I can’t offer any wisdom.
The internet is a worldwide phenomenon for a start and it’s spawning unforeseen developments on a minute-by-minute basis. You can start a revolution from your kitchen table or send a message of love. This isn’t TV, radio or a newspaper after all, and you don’t necessarily need money to be a part of it. How do you keep up then, let alone stay ahead. I’m not talking about responding to the now, I mean really ahead. Years even.
My point is does anyone know where the beast is headed? Do marketers really understand? Who or what is really driving the internet? I would suggest all of us. Where will it end (it won’t, but it will change) and what are marketers doing about it?
As marketers we generally try and design for tomorrow’s wants – or stimulate the need – not react to today’s afterthought. But as they say, tomorrow never comes. Where does this leave us with the internet then? The web provides the materials and we go and build the latest thing. But is it today’s altar we’ve just erected?
Has anyone got a crystal ball?
