My blog was acquired by a venture-backed startup, which led me out of the agency world and into startup marketing. I didn’t return to the agency world until 2010, when I started my own agency: Offside Media.
We focused on emerging digital strategies, networking on my side, and
Interestingly, both industries were facing the same numbers. Global sports brands were just beginning to realize that digital marketing was here to stay, and were asking questions like, “Should we open a Twitter account?” and “What should we do on Facebook?” Startups knew digital marketing was here to stay—but they also learned that so was marketing, and they needed a stronger strategy than just trying their luck at getting TechCrunch coverage.
Ultimately, this meant that all of my clients were in a state of ambivalence. They were hesitant to try digital channels—they had been successful without them—but they realized they had to.
[My clients] were reluctant to try digital channels—they had been successful without them—but they realized they had to.
Digital marketing was where the market was going.
However, they didn’t know how it worked, and neither did many of the traditional Mad Men-style agencies. Most digital marketing channels were new; Facebook’s newsfeed was only four years old. There were no established experts in these channels yet, but there was a huge demand for those who could figure them out.
I loved that there was a gap in the market that I could fill — I was one of the few marketers who was both on the cutting edge of digital and had experience in large agencies. I quickly earned the trust of clients like Real Madrid and Squarespace.
However, at a macro level, the digital transformation meant that business as usual suddenly became risky. As an industry, marketing entered a new era of experimentation and uncertainty.
This shift created a lot of opportunity, but it also created confusion and distrust in the marketing space that continues to this day.
How did the marketing market change?
The short answer is: it got riskier.
I think the digital marketing market is a high-risk market that is unlikely to produce great results.
In a high-risk market…
…buyers buy reluctantly.
…sellers vary greatly in quality.
…what’s being bought and sold is constantly changing.
Let’s take a slow walk through this.
Buyers buy reluctantly.
In 2010, Sean Ellis and his friends in the Bay Area startup scene were tired of marketing. To them, marketing meant throwing money at billboards. They needed something new: a cash-efficient, engineering-focused growth strategy.
Over beers, they decided to call this new discipline “growth hacking.”
There was nothing new about it. It was all still marketing—just an extension of marketing technology’s capabilities. Airbnb’s most famous growth hacker temporarily turned Craigslist into a marketing channel; product-led growth simply means using your own product as a marketing channel.
It’s still marketing. There’s a reason why “growth marketing” has surpassed “growth hacking” in startups.
Yet in the nearly decade since the term “growth hacking” was coined, Ellis’ attitude has held sway. I’ve met a crop of startup founders who thought they didn’t need a marketing team. They just had to follow Airbnb’s or Slack’s playbook.
were romanticizing the path to growth.
Startups romanticize the path to growth. The democratization of ad buying has made it worse. Buying ads used to require weeks of planning relationships; suddenly, anyone with an internet connection and $100 could create a Facebook ad campaign in no time.
Creating a successful Facebook marketing campaign is getting harder and harder — and more and more obvious or easy to DIY.
Compare the way people talk about marketing and engineering and you’ll see what I mean.
The quality of sellers varies.
This is true in every industry, but it’s especially tru e in numeros telefonicos de brasil marketing. Accounting has the CPA exam; law has the bar exam.
There aren’t many of these in marketing today.
Marketers can get certifications of proficiency in specific platforms from Facebook, Google, and Hubspot, but these certifications quickly become obsolete. There’s no gold standard credential that clearly separates qualified from unqualified marketers.
If you’re not a marketer yourself, it’s hard to know who to trust. Established agencies may be slow to adapt to changes in technology or overstate the breadth of their expertise. Meanwhile, marketers who have worked at established companies or hyped startups contribute to these success stories in varying amounts.
(Read: They might be 20-somethings winging it.)
Hiring marketers can be a real gamble.