A Fool with a Tool is Still a Fool

Several months ago, July 2009 to be precise, I posted an entry on this site entitled “Old Dogs…New Tricks.” The post was about how the wave of new tools does not change the need to remember what you do.

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of joining The Altimeter Group’s Webinar “Understand Your Customers’ Social Behaviors” hosted by Charlene Li and Jeremiah Owyang. What do you know? They are reinforcing, to a much larger audience, what I have been saying for years.

In the olden days of marketing – and product marketing – we communicated a new product launch by yelling from the hilltops or sending a town crier on horseback into town. As technology (and civilization) evolved, we (very fast forwarded) moved into direct mail. This tool involved writing compelling messages to get folks to open the envelope we mailed through the Postal Service. (You remember sorting out the bulk mail piles, or using a mailing house where you paid extra money so they would do that work.) We spent much effort buying mailing lists and testing the list, refining the message and testing some more.

More time passed, paper-based mail gave way to e-mail. And, we spent much effort buying email lists and testing the list, refining the message and testing some more. Rather than focusing on how to get the prospect to open an envelope, the focus moved to the email subject line. The goal became trying to get the recipient to not block you as “spam.”

Now, folks are passionate about social media as the vehicle of choice. All you hear from your marketing department, outside agencies and your network is about Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn,Yelp, Foursquare and YouTube. (I know I am leaving about 300 others off this list, but that is not important to the message.)

What has remained constant throughout time is what is really important. It is the focus on the message – - regardless of the communication vehicle that is now in vogue. If we cannot reach our prospects with a compelling message, we have failed. It is truly irrelevant which method is used to communicate – paper based mail, electronic mail, social media or whatever creative and innovative tools come next. Since we know our persona so well, we already know what channel they are listening on for our message. That should guide our efforts.

Looking in from the outside, a fool with a tool is still a fool. You will fail if you think you can move folks away from the mailbox and on to Twitter, or any of the other social media sites. You should be watching for signs that they have already embraced the site before you make the jump.