The ‘Winging It’ Generation of Marketing Freelancers

KUALA LUMPUR: More and more businesses are coming to the realisation that a new breed of freelance ‘marketing professionals’ are just winging it when it comes to ideating, developing and executing marketing plans.

“It’s tiring and counterproductive. We try to give upstarts, freelancers and lesser-know agencies a chance. And they end up delivering utter nonsense,” said Alzan, a disgruntled SME business owner, while repositioning his mask after a nose-scratch.

A quick research online revealed hundreds, if not thousands of agencies and freelancers offering all kinds of marketing services; including social media management, strategic work, SEO, web design and content development, among others.

Social media platforms seem to be inundated with these so-called professionals’ sponsored posts and ads. Just one search for the term ‘marketing consultant’ in Facebook resulted in a constant stream of targeted ads. Our newsfeed is virtually infected, like a bad case of chlamydia that will not go away.

“It’s sickening! A few months ago, I hired a marketing consultant and paid the asking deposit. A couple of weeks later we have a meeting expecting a well-thought-through plan. But he just showed up for the free coffee,” lamented Gina, a former brand manager.

“I threw the coffee in his face. And now he is nowhere to be found, the deposit included”. Gina has since quit her job due to the stress and is now the spokesperson for Flying Coffee, giving talks on the art of throwing coffee.

Such occurrences have diminished the confidence of businesses towards marketing professional for hire, especially those that promote themselves in social media.

Most businesses have become wary about click-bait type ads that claim to do marketing wonders and guarantee uptick in sales.

These ads promise so much, but often only deliver a fraction and even that not within a reasonable timeframe. The expectation and reality are so far apart that they must be learning from our politicians.

“Anyone with a MacBook Air and free Wifi can claim to be a marketer these days”, quipped James while sipping on his coffee, presumably thrown to him by Gina. Nice catch, James!

Fake Marketing Stat

“Back in the day, there was a prerequisite that someone work their way up in an ad agency before going out on their own. But now, it’s just one Udemy course for less than RM100, and you can become a digital marketing consultant”.

Continuing his rant, James added, “Agency-experience is an important asset for a marketing service provider to possess. This is where adherence to fundamentals, quality and timelines are honed. Enthusiasm and willingness, while laudable, will not bring you far”.

James who has been a freelance marketing consultant for over a decade is also frustrated that a handful of self-proclaimed marketing experts out there spoiling the market.

“A lot of us freelancers and consultants out there do good work, under the radar to very appreciative clients. But because of the mushrooming of inept marketing professionals hawking their services aggressively, those of us who are legit get a bad rep as well”.

James advised clients to not be fooled by the ‘Winging It’ generation. “Please do your homework before hiring. Check their credentials and ask the right questions”.

“You wouldn’t go to a mechanic that learned the trade doing online courses, would you?”.

All names in this fake editorial have been changed to protect frayed identities. And no one has chlamydia in case you’re wondering.

Marketing Housekeeping During CMCO – 5 Tips for SMEs

So here we are again.

Another lockdown, albeit less restrictive, yet still is a cause for concern for the majority of businesses in the Klang Valley.

The economy is being pummelled with the 3rd wave and quite frankly the numbers are scary. The only positive is that the hotspots are isolated, but only time will tell if they are under control.

It’s strange that less than a year ago we were nonchalantly shaking hands, socialising in packed restaurants and jetting-off on our well-deserved vacations. And now we just sit around wondering if this sore throat was from too much iced water, or something more sinister.

But we shouldn’t wallow in despair. Even in a CMCO, which invariably results in some downtime for most business, it’s important to have a routine – no matter how pointless it seems.

Marketing Housekeeping

If it’s not business-as-usual, perhaps we can take the opportunity to do some marketing housekeeping, especially for cash-strapped SMEs that need to make full use of their resources.

There are countless initiatives that can be undertaken from a marketing perspective to clear the cobwebs, re-direct and refresh. And here are the top 5:

Optimise Your Website
A lot of businesses just build website, launch it, and then forget about it. But serious businesses in the digital age are constantly tweaking and improving, because they know web optimisation is neither an overnight nor finite process. Start a blog, work on backlinks or at least refresh some of the content, lot’s can be done.

Create a Social Content Backlog
In the era of too much content, we often struggle to develop engaging content for our own social media channels amidst chaos of daily demands. Use the downtime to create a stream of relevant content – customer pain points and specific needs are thought starters. And you don’t need to use them right away, it’s a content backlog for future use when things recover

Sync Your Sales & Marketing Teams
If you have a Sales and a Marketing team, then there’s always room to get them working together towards a common goal. The efforts of these two teams need to be aligned; leading to a peaceful, results-oriented coexistence. I have written at length about this in a previous post that you can read here.

Revamp All Business-critical Comms
How often have you received an e-mail – especially in B2B engagements – that felt like it was written by an 8-year old? Audit all your typical outward communications to customers, suppliers and associates and make sure they are all well-written and free of typos. This is important to exude credibility and gain confidence; there are no two ways about it.

Explore an Alternate Customer-base
If your regular leads channel or customer stream seem to have reduced to a trickle, don’t sit around waiting for miracles. No enquiries or orders on your website? Go into social media group and engage in discussions. Walk-ins all but non-existent? Do deliveries, allow to order and pick-up or reactivate dormant customers. Move on, or risk being moved over.

The list above is basic but can get you started right away with little or no outside help. Often it takes just a bit of cleaning-up to help your business de-clutter, envision with clarity and uncover untapped markets.

For now, let’s hope there will not be an extension of this darned CMCO. Happy marketing housekeeping!

 

Why So Emo, Copywriter?

You know, as a copywriter I have always felt that my profession very much resembles our day-to-day, emotion-filled lives.

I mean, the copywriting art of creating intent and thereafter convincing is certainly a skill that is needed in everyday life.

This starts very early in our lives, and right up to our senior years. Some examples:

Asking our parents to let us stay up a little longer
Convincing our siblings that there’s a monster under the bed
Influencing the teacher that it’s the other kid’s fault
Telling your friend that it’s cool to smoke this
Sweet-talk a girl/guy to go out with you
Get an employer to hire you
Persuade the bank that you’re good for it
Warning your kids not to stay up a little longer
Making your kids to get to the bed before the monster does

And these are just broadstrokes. There are countless little acts of convincing that needs to happen every single days of our lives – be it with ourselves or others – to have some semblance of being a functioning human being.

Just like convincing people to purchase, we don’t always get our way. There are failures and rejections to contend with – and most of the time it depends on the emotional connection with other person.

Emotions matter, because we want the recipient to be in a trusting, comfortable and accepting mood if we were to have any success.

Emotional Copywriter
Make the right emotional connection, or it’s eggs on your face!

Think about the last time you willingly agreed to do something.

Let’s say for instance you were asked to dine in a place that you know is average, yet overpriced. But you still agreed.

Did you feel compelled to say yes because you’re such a nice person? Or was it because you were emotionally invested to the person making the request?

Like if my wife asked me to do something I don’t really want to do (don’t get any funny ideas), I’d still probably do it – that’s being emotionally invested, and also so I can earn extra brownie points.

Apparently, being emotionally invested makes you less critical and objectively observant. Love is the greatest emotional investment – think about all the things you did for family, good friends and loved ones… it probably didn’t take too much convincing.

Buying gifts for your nearest and dearest is an emotion-filled task as well, where budget or inconvenience are not prime concerns.

But what if there is no emotional connection, as with life’s other activities? As a copywriter, convincing strangers to purchase a product or service is often devoid of any emotion.

Perhaps chemistry has the answer.

You see, there are a few chemicals we can try to trigger – in our intended targets’ brains – that can alter their emotional state to be more, well, ‘receptive’.

Be it from a copywriter or a salesperson, inducing these chemicals can be the difference between ignoring the message or taking action.

  1. Dopamine
    Improves focus, motivation and memory with an all-round, feel-good factor. Induced by building suspense and leaving things to the imagination with a cliff-hanger. Think teaser ad campaigns and movie trailers as real-world examples. Good e-Mail marketers also use this strategy – where a potent, well-crafted prose leads to a video or landing page. 
  1. Oxytocin
    Builds trust, nurtures generosity and improved bonding. Induced by weaving empathy into the storyline. Those UNICEF, WWF or SPCA campaigns usually take this route, to get you feeling all warm and fuzzy, making you more willing to donate. 
  1. Endorphin
    Makes people laugh and automatically puts them in a good, open and comfortable mood. Think ice-breakers in client presentations or a funny quote to start an e-Mail copy. This funny business is a bit mischievous though, use sparingly or you will end up looking not-so-credible. Great for memes, but not always for marketing communications.

So the next time you encounter a marketing content that spoke to your soul – be it a sponsored post, blog article or video – it’s probably one of the chemicals above at work.

And possibly thanks to a copywriter going all emo to make that soul-warming connection.

The key ideas for this post was based on a TedTalk by David JP Phillips on the science of storytelling. Pretty interesting if you’re into that kind of stuff.