I just had coffee with a new friend of mine, David Friedman.   We were talking about the powers of online marketing and how all companies more-or-less require their marketing team to have a strong grasp of the powers of the internet.  David is long time marketer, and is a person that I share many common beliefs (and hobbies) with.  We both believe that marketing is WAY more than making creative advertisements.  We agree that marketing is about knowing customer’s behaviors, the driving market forces, and the details of products and distribution mechanisms that make the world move.  In all reality, I believe the best marketers are the ones with the most eclectic backgrounds–and is also someone who is fascinated by behavioral economics.

I made the comment to David that online marketing or an online presence is only as good as the people who hear about it,  Furthermore, it is only as good as the value it gives to the marketplace (that inevitably makes people want to tell everyone else about it).  Many times I have noticed that  offline marketing (word of mouth primarily) is what propels online activity.  To get the word of mouth going–you have to find the influential people (Malcolm Gladwell refers to these individuals as either Connectors or Mavens), and then get the excited about your product and about telling everyone about it.  There are a number of “trend watching” and “cutting edge technology” sites out there–and guess what–this is where these “influential” early adopters are hanging out.  Here is a list of a few that I find valuable for finding the newest (and coolest ideas):

http://www.springwise.com
http://www.trendwatching.com
http://www.coolbusinessideas.com

So for all of you newly minted marketing people keep in mind that marketing is not graphic design, media buying or any activity done alone in an office.  The best marketing is done by meeting people (customers),  reading and learning eclectic things (and finding patterns of similarity), observing what it is that pushes humans buttons (both in a good way and a bad way), and find creative ways to solve the world’s problems (using that eclectic background).  Then the fun part is finding creative ways to motivate people to tell everyone they know about what it is you’ve just done–which many times can be solved through making a truly amazing product or idea.

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