A New Generation Marketer

The initial rules of marketing and advertising were to interrupt people in order to sell them a product or service, costing businesses millions of dollars from their budgets each year. The rules of marketing and advertising have changed dramatically. Now, buyers are finding the answers to their problems online via blogs, social media, websites and forums.

This week, [I] had the chance to interview David Meerman Scott, a leader at the forefront of Internet marketing and PR, about how he is assisting and creating this shift. He also dives into creating new marketing campaigns for startups in the Boston area, and let’s [me] in on his Grateful Dead fascination.

As you may know, Scott currently resides around Boston, but is known worldwide for his ideas that are scripted in his two books, The New Rules of Marketing and PR and World Wide Rave.

New Rules is currently published in 24 different languages, and for good reason. Not only does Scott speak throughout the United States on new marketing, but all over the world. Scott also spent a majority of his 25-year marketing career overseas. He was the Asia Marketing Director for Knight-Ridder and afterwards was based for almost ten years in Tokyo and then Hong Kong.

No boundaries or borders have or will stop Scott from carrying out his passion and message. His twenty-five dedicated years to the marketing industry illustrates this.

Out of all the places in the world, Scott has now settled in Boston. I couldn’t help but ask why he chose to reside here of all places. He told me, “While Madison Avenue in NYC is the center of offline marketing, Boston is the center of new (web based) marketing with all the plugged in people and companies located here in the Boston area. When you attend local events such as tweetups, you’re not just meeting the top people in Boston, you’re meeting some of the most influential new marketers in the world.”

Rightly so, as Boston has been named as the world’s marketing and social media hub, and just yesterday we announced that Boston is still on top as the #1 Global Innovation Economy.

Since most are already familiar with Scott’s widely documented and agreed upon marketing theories, [I] decided to instead ask him how to create a successful marketing campaign for a start up company around the Boston area based on successful and failed campaigns that he has seen.

“[The] main thing is to NOT focus on your company’s products and services. (Nobody cares about your products except for you and others in your company),” Scott told us. This is why it is highly advised to never self-promote your brand on social media or blogs because no one wants to read about you; they want to read about their problems and how they can be solved.

“Most of the implementation challenges people tell me about involve the shift from marketing products and services to the much more effective approach of focusing on a buyer persona and creating information that helps solve problems for buyers,” continued Scott. I learned of this exact concept while in college, as I was assigned to read his book New Rules of Marketing and PR for one of my courses. This was one of the most resonating points from his book at the time.

“A secondary challenge is to get marketers away from a reliance on offline marketing techniques and [get] started with online initiatives.” Companies that have used traditional advertising and marketing find it very difficult to let go of offline activities and switch to a more uncontrollable online marketing strategy.

To alleviate some of their concerns, Scott has created a Marketing Strategy Template which you can access here. This is a simple two-page plan to help companies, “shift out of the comfort zone of preaching about products and services and advertising features and benefits.”

Parallel with corporate online marketing is Scott’s strong belief in personal branding. You will see his personal brand laid out very well on his website, blog, and Twitter page. Scott took the time to explain the difference between corporate and personal branding from his perspective.

“Well, all marketing comes down to people working with people. So all branding, at itsessence, is personal branding. Companies like Toyota and BP get in trouble because they develop these big corporate brands but when you look closely in a time of crisis, it falls apart because nobody knows or can engage with the people.” We saw this all too well during BP’s crisis management efforts that failed miserably for awhile.

Before [I] ended [my] interview with Scott, [I] had to ask about his passion for the Grateful Dead since he and Brian Halligan of Hubspot wrote their new book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead.”

Aside from being an avid fan, Scott found himself, “amazed that the band could attract such a huge following. When I really thought about it, I realized it was because of their marketing. So did my friend Brian Halligan who is CEO of HubSpot. So we decided to write a book about it.”

While Scott is a local resident to Boston, he is making his own worldwide rave for new marketing concepts. I, and probably many of you as well, have emulated many of his strategies both personally and at our jobs to learn the new ways of marketing and PR.

To keep up to date with David Meerman Scott, I highly recommend checking out his website, reading his blog, attending some of his speaking engagements, and following him on Twitter. You will be surprised how much you will learn from him very quickly.

Note about Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: “In this spirit, Brian and I are donating 25 percent of the royalties from our book to the Grateful Dead Archive at the University of California, Santa Cruz, to support further study of the Grateful Dead.”

I originally wrote this article for BostInnovation under the New Marketing Column, as I am their New Marketing writer.