by Adam Gray | @AGSocialMedia | LinkedIn
Someone drew this to my attention recently, it’s a schematic of how Martech and Adtech “play together” and the value that they can add to a business when aligned.
What is isn’t really getting to the crux of though is that people do not like to be advertised to/sold to and that improving efficiency in this area is kind of missing the point of progress.
It is NOT about whether you can turn a profit by using these techniques – PPC is better than display advertising, Facebook ads are more effective than Google Adwords (usually) – and the increased efficiency they offer but more to the fact that they are fundamentally broken.
Should you manufacture vacuum valves for electronic applications? There’s lots of profit in the long-tail for sure, but to me it seems like a fundamentally bad idea as the market is shrinking. Same with advertising (the market isn’t shrinking of course) but the ROI is. The ROI on your Facebook (or Google, or Twitter, or LinkedIn) ads isn’t as good as it was. Why? Because prices are rising and attention is falling. The industry (advertising as a whole) is arguably in the long-tail.
It strikes me that the thing about the agency model (and consulting too in many occasions) is that the client doesn’t want to do the work that they know they need to do.
Need more leads/customers? Employ an ad agency, telesales agency, marketing agency to get them. Need to change the way you do things? Engage a consultancy to tell you when you already know. This is often hidden behind the narrative “we’re too busy” or “we don’t have the skillset” but the reality is it’s not usually true.
We’re too busy for example, ask yourself if companies like Altimeter Group (with Brian Solis) or Virgin (with Richard Branson) or FaceBook (with Mark Zuckerberg) find it easier or more difficult to conduct business when they have someone “famous” in the organisation?
The work required to become famous is the work that everyone in the organisation needs to undertake because THAT is where the value in good staff lies.
Steve Jobs once said “we don’t hire smart people so we can tell THEM what to do, we hire smart people so they can tell US what to do” and your job as a company is to hire smart people and let them become famous and your job as an employee is to become famous as that’s how the company will make money and raise it’s position. If you don’t think this is true as yourself this; as a buyer is it more attractive to be well-targeted with your advertising or more attractive to happen-upon a company where everyone looks more brilliant. I think you know the answer.
So stop taking the say option by investing millions in adtech and campaigns and start adding value to the organisation.
People who read this article also read these:
http://www.social-experts.net/whats-your-usp/
http://www.social-experts.net/the-4-pillars-for-digital-transformation-success/
http://www.social-experts.net/catch-the-bus-to-school-or-get-dropped-off-by-car-its-a-social-choice/
