The Marketing Mix Substack

There comes a time in every Founder’s journey…..

…when they decide they need to run ads.

Countless times, when I ask a company what their marketing looks like, I hear “I ran a few Google ads, but didn’t get much out of it.”

We can blame the Ad platforms for that. They make it sound easy. They have tools and playbooks you can follow (…so you look like everyone else). They’ll even give you a $500 credit so your first ‘hit’ is free. …

Flying through Phoenix recently, I saw they claimed to be “America’s Friendliest Airport®.”

At first, I liked it. Seems like a place you want to be, right? Travel is often tiring and frustrating. “Friendly” sounds like something I’d enjoy.

But then my inner cynic stepped in. The airport folks I saw there were happy and helpful. But were they the most friendly?

First off, there are hundreds of small regional airports that would argue for that crown. I remember many trips to Thief River Falls, MN (TVF) where everyone from the Hertz desk to the security line were super friendly. …

Ever have one of those conversations that you think could go on and on, and never get boring?

Well, that’s just a typical chat with Tim Peter. He’s one of my go-to people, and the first person I call when I want to talk Digital Marketing.*

So when Tim asked if I’d be a guest on his “Thinks Out Loud” podcast, I almost bit his hand off (figuratively, not literally!)

This is episode 503 of Thinks Out Loud. Yes, that’s right. 503!!! He’s a model of consistency.

- Tim is also the author of Digital Reset: Driving Marketing and Customer Acquisition Beyond Big Tech. …

I was trading stories with a former colleague the other day, and she reminded me about the time we agonized over naming the new conference rooms.

[Remember those? ... physical spaces that act like an IRL zoom call 😏]

In fact, I’ve done this task at least 3 times in my career. It’s one of the many things that fall under “marketing” when you’re in a small or mid-sized company.

The first time was with Emcore, a semiconductor equipment company. I was adamant we wouldn’t just call them A, B, C. …

The open rate on my last newsletter was down 10%. That’s a big drop - normally it’s ±2%. So clearly, I’d done something wrong.

Now, I tend to sweat the details on the newsletter. I write, re-write, edit and polish. It takes far longer than it should to craft my biweekly thoughts. But sometimes, it’s the basics that get you.

In this case, it was the Subject Line.

“Must be time for a rebrand...Or maybe a new website?”.

In my head, what I’d written was a witty commentary on new CMOs. But with hindsight, I realized it sounded like a sales pitch i.e. …

What’s the first thing a new CMO tackles?

The joke among marketers is “they do a rebrand.”

It’s high visibility, a way for the new exec to stamp their presence on the company. It’s also - usually - a waste of precious time and money.

I’ve seen it happen numerous times. On one occasion, they took a well-established logo and arbitrarily changed it from 3 colors to 1. No data behind it. No deep held belief that an all-red logo would suddenly revitalize the market. …

Marketing is changing. I mean, that’s why I enjoy marketing. Because it’s always changing. But this time, it feels different.

In the last week or so…

A B2B CMO report stated that the “Old B2B Playbook Is Finished” and MQLs no longer make sense (by the guy who popularized MQLs)

A client told me that their in-house marketer is now “shipping code”

I took part in a lively debate about how org structure must adapt to AI

A smart post by Matt Heinz claimed the end of Attribution software 🎉

And not all of it is because of AI. …

A founder “knows” how their customer is using it. As do the product team. Marketers too.

At least, we think we do. Maybe we get to meet regularly with users, have the budget to set up focus groups, run “voice of the customer” programs etc. A lot of this knowledge, though, is actually built off anecdotes, conjecture, and domain experience.

Reviews are another good way to see inside your customers’ mind, and understand the specific problem you’ve solved for them. Taskrabbit went further and turned this insight into some eye-catching ads.

It’s not a fluke. …

I’m generally skeptical at the claims of “vibe-coding” projects. I assume that it took way longer then they said, with an end result that is less effective than doing it “properly.”

But that doesn’t stop me from trying it myself every so often.😏

I’ve used ChatGPT to build a simple bot which books gym classes as soon as registration opens. It was painstaking work. Lots of trial and error; pasting in error messages back into Chat, rerunning the code, again…and again…and again.

Time consuming? Check. Effective? Well, yes. It solved the problem. But I really didn’t see most people having the patience to do this. …

I’ve noticed in the last year or so that business owners are increasingly asking me about GTM. Not Marketing. Go-To-Market.

So what’s the difference?

I think of Marketing as a marathon, and GTM as a sprint.

Marketing is everything that involves a customer interaction - from initial awareness of a brand, all the way through to advocacy. Whereas GTM is a short-term plan that boosts a product launch or a category push.

So Marketing is a many-headed beast. Branding, competitor analysis, positioning, feature mapping, pricing, channel strategy, events, digital footprint, reputation management, user groups…and more

GTM is narrower. …