Why market when you can UnMarket?

Unknown

Calling time on the old rule book.

Scott Stratten is President of UnMarketing and is, demonstrably, an expert in social engagement. What constitutes the title “Expert in the field?” His client’s viral marketing videos have been viewed over 60 million times. More importantly, his book, Unmarketing – Stop Marketing. Start Engaging (Revised and updated edition), suggests a complete change in mindset is needed in marketing. Despite our best intuitions, we are still hidebound by the laws of liner communication habits and the hard push, short-term demands of hitting ROI targets. Scott’s writes like the slick and well-informed blogger and podcaster he is. His ideas are intelligent, his arguments are well expressed and the results are substantiated with excellent examples.

The focus is on keeping it real.

Reading the anecdotes is a pleasure, in part because I sense a kindred spirit that feels frustrated by the way people refuse to listen to advice or accept the reality of their marketing situation. In a couple of examples, Scott is asked to provide advice that is completely ignored by people who just don’t get engagement over blowing the budget on shopping lists of marketing textbook claptrap. Scott pulls no punches in plotting their road to ruin. The wastage in marketing budgets caused by panic-push marketing is extraordinary. As Scott indicates, we need a little more ROR (return on relationship) in our lives and a little less focus on ROI (Return on investment). The problem is that ROI is easy to calculate and ROR is an ongoing struggle with attribution that will take a little longer to sort. I think we need to build a blend of ROI and ROR thinking in our planning. We need to work harder on developing the ROI we need to keep us in business in the short-term (focus on serving the needs of prospects we know are in market). and, we need to work even harder to develop ROR (serving the needs of people heading into the ROI funnel and building long-term relationships that deliver sustainable income.

Changing the tune to a useful refrain.

This updated edition, provides practical chapter and verse on how to get out what Scott describes as the “push and pray rut.” It also proves the first and only rule of content marketing – be useful, be useful, be useful. I have found the book useful in terms of pulling together many of my own thoughts and proving that while I was on the right track, someone else was way up the road ahead of me . Read the book. check out his website: http://www.unmarketing.com You won’t regret it. We all need to find ways to do less marketing while being more useful to our audiences. UnMarketing works. You got this far didn’t you? Don’t stop now.