The End of Marketing summary

Marketing is everywhere. Turn on the TV, browse the internet – everywhere you go, you’ll see ads, paid for by marketing budgets. But when was the last time you saw an ad for something, and actually decided to buy it?

Now think about this. When was the last time you bought something – like a song, some clothes, or a holiday – because it was recommended to you by friends or people you follow online?

Chances are, it was pretty recently. And if brands haven’t noticed this trend already, they need to start doing it right now.

The key message here is: In the new era of social media, traditional marketing is dead.

OK, so you want to sell your product – a pair of sneakers, say. The obvious, traditional approach is to make a load of ads, in print and online, which forcefully tell people to “Buy it now.” But that sort of aggressive messaging turns people off: nobody likes a hard sell.

What that means is, your goal shouldn’t be to “market.” It should be to get people talking to each other about your brand. The truth is, people buy from other people. And social media is an unbelievably good way to get them to do this.

The author Carlos Gil says that being sold to – at least, if it’s done right – can be a thing of beauty. Some of the best marketers he’s come across are people who follow him on multiple social media platforms, from LinkedIn to Twitter to Facebook. These marketers interact with him, get to know him, become a part of his life – and they only try to sell him stuff when they know the time is right.

Say he asks for recommendations for a fitness class. Then – and only then – one of these marketers might slip him a direct message – a ‘DM’ – about their own class. And, coming from someone he knows, that’ll be a message that’s very hard to ignore.

Social media marketing needs that personal touch, that element of real human connection. It’s not about having millions of followers – especially not on Facebook, where only around 1 percent of the people who “like” a business’s page will see a post organically. Rather, it’s about engaging people, getting them talking, getting to know them.

Traditional marketing is always talking, never listening. Social media can be more effective because it’s more flexible, more personal – in essence, more social, as the name suggests.

But only if you do it well! We’ll explore this in the next blink.