Came across this list.
http://www.zenwebsolutions.com/blog/2011/best-and-worst-marketing-tactics-for-2011-and-beyond-1368
It’s interesting that on this list of good and bad marketing ideas, there’s significant crossover. Of course, it underlines that the results you achieve vary – so you can’t say that direct mail or email don’t work (as lots of people have tried, and failed, to prove either way). It all depends on your approach.
But what it really says is that only one thing matters, ever.
And that’s the idea.
We’re more awash in buzzwords, technology and advice about best practice than ever.
The key is to get above the noise. Look at what’s REAL. Don’t worry about the fact that a competitor’s not doing email at the moment. Or that everyone’s banging on about social media.
The right question – the only question – is what fits? What works with your business, your brand and your strategy?
Don’t be seduced by a social strategy if you’re not going to maintain it or it doesn’t fit your brand.
Don’t worry about doing an email campaign in the most basic, simple way if it’s what’s going to work.

So, I’m not sure that this list, and others like it, do anything but scare something quite obvious to the surface…
Lists don’t matter.
Fashion doesn’t matter.
Mechanics are just stuff.
Ideas.
They count.
Everything else is meaningless.

The phrase “the New Normal” gets used a lot. It just serves to remind us (a) that business has changed at a fundamental level, that the world is more complex, etc. and (b) that this is a new set of rules and (c) that people are happy with cliché.

But even if we leave aside natural disasters, recent events have revealed that a new set of rules is exactly what we don’t have. There are no real playbooks, currently, to interrelate the changes in the way we live, the changes in the conditions we live under, and the changes in the tools we use to live in and understand the world. We’re not looking at a narrative we understand any more.

As the riots last week demonstrated, all it takes is one factor of life stretched and twisted to warp others out of shape. And globally, locally, and in every area of life, we are being assailed by multiple changes to the fundamentals. This isn’t the New Normal. And we aren’t just looking at the Squeezed Middle. This is the Squeezed Normal: where all the rules are permanently changing and the forces that govern us are mutating at every level. And unlike a “New Normal” you can’t really predict when or whether it’s going to snap back to something you understand.

So, what can we do to help the businesses we are here to help to forge their way through a world of permanent chaos? The only way, really, is to make a stab at emphasizing what the real ‘permanent’ changes will be.

Technology isn’t a permanent change. Or rather, it is, but it’s going to mark you out as different or help you survive. It’s a weapon you need and it enables everything you do – but the same’s true of the other guy. The same goes for social strategies, mobile. They’re all great. We need them. They’re operationally critical. But they aren’t fundamental. The big lessons are twofold, and they apply to us and to every client we have:

(1) Not every challenge is balanced by opportunity precisely. In every conceivable piece of marketing collateral or web bumph I’ve read on the subject the tired old saw is “The challenge is great, but the opportunity is greater”. This is not true. There are opportunities, of course. But we live in a world that’s a closed system – and potential opportunities are, in general, roughly the same as they always are. Let’s fight this idiotic cliché and look at what’s real: you want to stay competitive, and it’s likely that you will be (if you do everything right) just a bit more successful than others – not a game changer. And you know what? That’s OK. Most businesses do not change the world or the market or the industry. Constantly telling clients or customers that opportunities are infinite, after a while, is promising the earth and you can’t deliver.
(2) The world of the future is a world of individuals. Every technological change and every behavior change is showing us that if businesses want to survive (let alone ‘seize the opportunity’) they have to act more like people. That means having a real personality, not simply a brand. It means treating customers as people of equal importance to you. And it means having real values that you can defend – and that you believe in. Because it’s easier and easier for you to be found out if you don’t. The future belongs to businesses that treat customers as citizens, not just customers.

OK, essentially that boils down to just one rule that’s best expressed as another dated cliche. In the current state, where all else is in flux and everything from global markets to business strategy to individual behaviour in the street is chaos, businesses will do best if they keep it real. It keeps you ahead of the technology, keeps you plugged into your customers, and ensures that you are always the moral lead. And morality – or at least good behaviour and manners – in a world where normality is being squeezed out of shape, could just be the differentiator you want.

Well, it’s finally here. Google is now integrating real-time results from Twitter, Facebook and Myspace into it’s search, giving users the most update information on any given subject. This is sure to give social media a real awareness boost amongst those yet to embrace them, especially Twitter.

Watch this short video about Google real-time search:

What does this mean for brands and marketers?

Although in constant use by the technorati and celebrities galore, Twitter has yet to fully enter the mainstream. As marketers we know the potential of Twitter to reach out and engage, but for most people, its still an unknown. At MTD, we look to create innovative ways of integrating Twitter into our campaigns. Our recent Christmas campaign for Jarlsberg allows anyone to post a message about their best bit of Christmas on the Jarlsberg Sweet and Nutty Season website via Twitter. This encourages a deeper interaction with the brand and keeps the website fresh and interesting.

Real-time search will also encourage brands to start using Twitter more as a channel in its own right to promote products and services. Twitter, of course, knows this. It’s soon to launch a set of paid for business services which should hopefully make it a more professional tool for marketers.

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