Over on the AdPulp blog, Dan Goldgeier bemoans how infatuation with new technologies are killing the craft of advertising. “Are the fundamentals worth teaching and practicing anymore?” he asks.

Well, yes. It’s true that many are playing with social media, mobile devices, and the like without applying basic lessons that work across most media. As a result, the campaigns become mistargeted and disconnected from business results.

Across my years in tech B2B advertising and direct marketing, I’ve absorbed several fundamental rules that apply just as well in the age of Facebook and smartphones.

1. The list (or audience profile) is most important. The best creative and the most compelling offer are wasted if they’re delivered to the wrong audience. For example, tech B2B decision makers are not going to make an evaluation or buying decision through a mobile app.
2. The offer is next in importance. If you’ve done your homework, you know what your prospects find valuable. B2B buyers like trusted information, so your campaigns should make it easy and safe to request the information.
3. Think about measurement early. Define your metrics and goals at the beginning of the process. And those metrics should make sense to the VP of sales.
4. In B2B, quality is more important that quantity. For example, all that nonsense about the value of Facebook fans pales in comparison with interacting with a key influential blogger on Twitter.

Whenever we work on a campaign at McBru, we keep fundamentals like these in mind. What would you add to the list?

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at 1:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.