I enjoy reading articles that give inspiration! As a consultant I want to know about new marketing tools and techniques that really work. I am not so keen on reading articles that talk of ‘hacking marketing’. Here is why I think that Marketing Hacks do not work.
1. Temporary gain
In articles that offer marketing turnarounds in one week, look closely and you’ll see that they are thinly veiled approaches that offer very little true value. One offers the suggestion to ‘send a Press Release’. Given an unknown brand or product, given the current saturation of content online, does the very first Press Release ever really work? (And how can you tell in one week?). Most PR agencies require a minimum initial contract of three months; if PR worked on the first release, surely agencies would be more flexible. In my experience, sustainable gains from PR take time to build momentum. What about starting a blog? It is a nice way to fill time, but without an audience it is truly ineffective. ‘Tweet 10 times’: really? What about? Who to? Marketing Hacks offer at best, temporary gains (you might acquire a few enquiries) but nothing to build a business upon.
2. Unrealistic time frames
In ‘5 top hacks’ lists, the phrase ‘cultivate’ appears. Cultivate an audience cultivate brand advocates…the definition I have just read of cultivate includes the word ‘prepare’. Experience has shown that to grow a Twitter, blog or Facebook audience takes time. Why? Because there is a lot of content out there and you need to research your ideal customer to know what they will want to read and create something that they like. Syndicating information (posting interesting articles that others have sourced) is a hack that will gain some attention; but on its own, does that build real trust in your brand? Developing unique content (that even others want to syndicate!) that engages is more valuable and, yes, takes more time. Doing things well takes time – whether building an engaged audience or writing content that informs, educates or entertains.
3. A tactic is not a strategy
Using a tool, like landing pages, is not a strategy – it is a tactic.The strategy shapes the use of the landing page within the wider context. Landing pages work awesomely when the right people get to them (via Adwords or other campaign), they have the right message, the right CTAs (calls to action) and the right follow up. Hacking your Marketing by creating a landing page is, in my mind, futile. And, as described above, offers limited use within isolation. A strategy would define the use of the page, consider the way that the right audience gets to it. It would look to make improvements to that one page with split testing, with additional pages, with new content, with testimonials… with some thought and practice.
The esteemed online reference tool, the Urban Dictionary, cites the following as a definition for hack:
“a person who is a professional at doing some sort of service , but does crappy work.”
There are benefits to NOT hacking your marketing; doing the research helps you know your customer, know what they want and how they want it. Research identifies what a profitable customer looks like and enables you to find more. Putting a marketing strategy together that features a considered view across a broad spectrum of tools (even if the tools are not deployed, just considered against budget, timeframes, internal resources and so on) will deliver sustainable growth. Just not in a week. Sorry to break that to you.
The only benefit to hacking your marketing, as far as I can tell, is: it helps you feel you are being proactive.
What are your experiences of working alongside a Marketing Hacker?! What are your thoughts on the tricks learned through such articles?