Two questions for marketers...
It's as if the Marketing Department had changed its mandate to become The Department of Sales Prevention.
A corporation hired an agency with former IT people, who also know sophisticated persuasion skills and have direct response experience.
The agency delivered an easily-read, persuasive piece, sending a subtle message with the vocabulary used by buyers of this product – who are tech company executives – instead of a general audience.
Months later the piece appeared on the corporation website, bearing little resemblance to anything the agency sent. Instead, it now looks like most digital posts aimed at the general public…
- Headline desn't answer, "What's in it for me?" The reader has zero reason to continue reading.
- Begins with the phrase beginning every marketing message crafted by those bereft of creativity: "In these competitive times..."
- Uses an obvious stock, no-name header image that bears little resemblance to the article subject.
- Comprises text only; video links and eye-catching call-out boxes in the original are gone.
- Includes several old and tired buzzwords the general public might recognize, but from which the intended audience of tech company executives have moved on.
- Contains plural disagreements and incorrectly used words.
- Seems written by someone pretending to understand the subject, instead of someone who truly understands.
Few will read this boring, poorly written piece, because it looks like everything else floating on an ocean of mediocre content, with which all of us are too familiar. Which leads me to ask...