Ann Handley - TA #167: 🦄 11 Marketing Myths [Part 1]

Sunday, July 21, 2024

Good morning, Fireball!

This past Thursday my friend Jay Schwedelson and I hosted a LinkedIn Live called MythBusters: Marketing Edition.

Our goal—like that of the Discovery Channel's classic show MythBusters—was to debunk some long-held legends and beliefs, fantasies and fables, kitsch and cliché.

MythBusters: Marketing Edition was a fast 30 minutes. We didn't get to de- half the -bunk we'd planned. Nor could we spend too much time on each.

Showbiz, ya know.

So today! Let's you and I get back on set...

[THEME MUSIC SWELLS. QUICK SEQUENCE OF YOU AND I DONNING PROTECTIVE EARMUFFS AND SAFETY GOGGLES]

[VOICEOVER] Like all great myths, these Marketing Myths contain a kernel of truth. The problem comes when the kernel sprouts and spreads like knotweed, choking out better approaches in favor of the stuff that might grow quickly but unsustainably.

What is Marketing if not an ability to challenge assumptions, to question, to poke and dream and wonder? To rip out the knotweed? To tread new ground instead of falling into well-worn ruts?

[CUT TO YOU AND ME DWARFED BY A WALL OF COMPUTER MONITORS, MARKETING CHARTS, AND CLIPPY... waving from a corner]

So TOGETHER!... let's blow some myths up! With science. Data analysis. A/B testing. Expert interviews. Vibes. And one or two explosions.

[DRAMATIC MUSHROOM CLOUD DISPERSES TO REVEAL THE TITLE CARD]

MYTHBUSTERS: MARKETING EDITION

...Take 2, Part 1, starts now!

* * *

>>> MYTH 1: Social media is "rented land" and not worth it.

The first part of this myth is not a myth—social media is rented land, in fact. But the second part is the mythiest of myths.

Social is worth it. But only with realistic goals and expectations and the right approach.

Social media generates less than 2% of a company website's traffic (on average).

So... not worth it! See? Close chapter. End of story. [LIGHT MATCH; POISE TO TORCH TWITTER/X]

Hold up...!!! Not so fast.

Here's the deal:

Social media has NEVER been about instant conversion. It's about:

• Awareness
• Discovery
• Meet-and-greet

Then later on:

• Engagement
• Subscription
• Conversion (however you define it)

When social media "doesn't work" it's because we're impatient. 

We're not good at slowing down to build trust and connection at the discovery, awareness, meet-and-greet stages... on the path to eventual conversion.

Maybe not every brand chooses to engage on social. Maybe it's not "worth it" to them because they don't have the resources or patience.

That's totally fine. It's a choice we all make about where to best deploy the resources we do have.

>>> MYTH 2: You need to have a certain size following to leverage a personal brand.

Ptooey. Any size audience is still an audience.

There are advantages in small follower numbers: Freedom to find your voice. To play around. To build your communication muscles and your confidence.

As your audience grows, you will play to it more: You will find you write to what plays—what gets approval or attention. You will start to rely on what you know will work vs. experimenting and growing. (And if you aren't growing, you're standing still.)

That's a danger you will need to resist.

So right now? Relish a small audience. Use it to fuel your growth. There's enormous freedom in it.

>>> MYTH 3: Click-through is the critical metric in email marketing.

The click-through rate is *a* metric... but is it *the* most important? No. We talked a bit about this one on Thursday. But I wanted to add to it.

Most of us tend to over-index on the easy engagement metrics of click-through and open rates (even if the latter is unreliable) and under-value metrics around growth and relationship/feedback.

An example of a growth metric would be list growth, referral sources, reactivation rate, or forward rate.

An example of relationship metrics would be survey feedback or response rate.

The two metrics I pay most attention to:

OWBR (Open to Write Back Rate, or owe-burr): What percentage of subscribers are inspired to hit reply and to write back? Some email platforms call this Response Rate. But that's not as fun to say as owe-burr, is it?

PEA (Personal Email Address): What percentage of subscribers use their personal address? The sacred personal inbox—that place we reserve for the very best stuff we don't want to miss? 

Marketers often prefer business emails. I understand why. But I'll take a PEA over a business address any day, all day. People change jobs often. Rarely do they adandon their personal accounts. 

The Great and Powerful PEA is the MythBuster Holiest of Grails!

Me explaining my PEA metric to an amused Jay Schwedelson.

>>> MYTH 4: OWBR is a time-sink; encouraging response would deliver an overwhelming amount of mail.

This is the pushback I get whenever I talk about OWBR. My response: Would it though?

Lemme drop some math:

This newsletter has gotten as many as 1,800 new subscribers over the course of a month. 

1,800 new subscribers >
1,470-ish of them open my Welcome email (82% of new subs) >
630-ish respond to the Welcome email (43% of openers) >
----------------------------------------------------------
20-ish responses per day, on average

I would spend just a few seconds on reading/writing back on each response—say, 30 seconds. Tops. That comes out to about 10 minutes a day.

You don't have to have a plan in place to write back, of course. But if you're asking for a response... well, why not? 

Does that make it sound more manageable? Do I have 10 minutes a day to work on nurturing an engaged list? Yes, I do.

Do you have 10 minutes a day? Your call.

You become what you focus on. 

P.S. Other than those responding to the Welcome email, about 100 readers are inspired enough to write to me after each newsletter issue. That's an average of about 7 emails per day. At 30 seconds per response... well, this time you do the math.

>>> MYTH 5: Weekends are bad for B2B marketing or content.

Maybe. But before you erase weekends off your editorial calendar... ask yourself: Where do you want your reader to be when they access your content? What frame of mind would they be in, ideally? 

Picture them in your mind. 

Are they at their desks, zipping through the day's work? Or are they on their back deck, relaxing with a morning coffee and your letter? 

Do you need to inspire a quick action? Is it a quick sprint? Or a longer meander? 

Are you reading this on a Sunday? If so, hit reply and tell me.

* * *

[VOICEOVER] Thank you for joining Part 1 of this expanded, two-part installment of MythBusters: Marketing Edition. See you next time for Myths 6 to 11, when we tackle the age-old myth: No one reads 11-point emails.

[FADE TO BLACK]

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

Don't think. (h/t Anna Furmanov)

SELECT EVENTS

📆 OCT 8: SparkTogether, Seattle

📆 OCT 16-17: GURU Events [virtual]

📆 OCT 17: GAIN 24, McClean, Virgina

📆 OCT 22-23: Content Marketing World, San Diego

📆 NOV 12-14: MarketingProfs B2B Forum, Boston. What's the ultimate destination for B2B marketers to discover how to drive growth, elevate brand reputation, prove ROI, and stay ahead of the ever-changing marketing curve? It's Boston. You gotta be there this year.

Thanks for reading this far.

Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

Stay healthy.

🫡 See you August 4!