B2B Marketing Pubs Cater to Panicky Industry
Browsing the feeds from publications like Ad Age, PR Week, ClickZ, and DM News, I can't help but wonder: where are the glorious stories of yesteryear? Articles about incredible (and expensive) ad campaigns, eager PR folk writing the new, can't-fail rules of the industry, and stories of VCs showering young, blushing startups with pretty piles of cash.
Now what do we get? Facebook's credit lines can't keep up with its incredible user growth, unspectacular campaigns abound, newspapers are dying, and even those we thought were untouchable are laying off workers left and right. (Though apparently, there's some hope, as courageous VCs sniff out opportunity in a crumbled market.)
But one of the most noticeable changes is that B2B pubs are starting to get seriously pragmatic on us. "7 Tips for Marketing During a Recession." "Email Marketing on a Budget." And of course the infamous "How-Tos" for social media marketing, where they tell you that you can get 1,000 new customers via Twitter: just equip a few baby-interns (cost: $0) with TwitterFon apps (cost: $0) and some targeted adspeak (cost: $0).
What they don't tell you is you're going to need someone to QA all that jazz. The cost of the wrong message going out to those potential customers? Infinite. Who is going to make sure they stay consistent with the strategy and message? And who is going to literally sit down and fix the mistakes that are inevitably going to be made? Finally, how do you make up for the time lost with "experimentation" that you had to scrap not one month in, but several, because it takes time to find out what works?
Don't get us wrong: We heart social media. We just don't think it's the solution to slashed budgets during a recession.
