Marketing Isn’t Magic

Marketing that’s done really, really well can seem magical. And that’s a problem because CEOs and founders of tech companies that aren’t experienced with marketing can be misled. They can think that it’s this magic thing that doesn’t obey the laws of physics.

Symptoms
This magical thinking has symptoms like let’s do a viral video. Let’s sign up for these free platforms as many as we we can, because it doesn’t really cost us anything, because we have infinite bandwidth. Everybody’s gonna want this, so if we build it, they will come. The truth is marketing that works is a combination of art and science, and it’s the combination of that beauty of the art and that utility of the science that creates a value prop that can’t lose and a marketing engine that can deliver that message to your market.

Art
So on the art side, this is about not phoning it in when it comes to the words you use and the images you present about your brand. You may believe that your clients only care about the rational functionality of your amazing product, but the truth is they are thinking about their world and their problems, and you need to present them with an image and a trusted brand that they can trust. It goes beyond their brain and it goes to their heart.

Science
In combination with that….yes. You need to lean in on the technology that is making marketing more and more productive, especially AI and the science of behavioral change and reach and all those marketing techniques that will get you the results you need. Marketing is a lot of work. Every day. When it works and it’s day after day after day.

If you couple that art and that science together, you will get to a magical result.

And I love this quote by ROC Clark: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” So if you execute that real world marketing in within the laws of physics and you do it really, really well, it can look like magic to your market.