Why great writing starts with the audience [special guest post]
Successful writing is not just about selling a product or promoting an organization; it is about understanding the audience and creating messages that build trust and inspire action Great writing doesn’t just begin with the first sentence, hook or lede....Read More
One thing AI can’t truly inform marketing or comms about is human experience
AI cannot understand the human experience of delight, awe, fear, elation, confusion or frustration in any meaningful way I first saw the headline in a marketing newsletter: AI-generated content should be clearly labeled. The headline was based on this finding...Read More
7 ideas that marketers say are working in B2B marketing right now
A renewed focus on customer relationships and B2B video content are among the most commonly cited aspects of marketing that those in the trenches say are yielding success B2B marketing has seen better economic times. The challenge of the current...Read More
Trust issues: the one reason buyers give B2B content a letter grade of “D”
71% of B2B marketing prospects are disappointed in the content they’ve traded their contact information to obtain at least some of the time, which leads to trust issues B2B marketing can hit the right target with the right message and...Read More
Audience identification is the essential first step for all marketing and communications
The first step in any effective marketing or communications program is audience identification. Audience identification is the process of understanding an audience – their hopes, fears, motivations, influences, questions, problems and aspirations and the language they use to express all...Read More
![You Are Not Your Target Audience [False Consensus Effect]](https://www.swordandthescript.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/You-Are-Not-Your-Target-Audience-header-670x500.jpg)
You Are Not Your Target Audience [False Consensus Effect]
Every now and then I’ll hear a marketer say, “I’m the target audience.” As such, the marketer assumes their target audience has the same view of the world as they do. The reality is, they probably don’t. This is a...Read More
M&A as a Shortcut to Content Marketing Results
Content marketing is about the audience. You can rent an audience (paid media), borrow it (earned media), build it (owned media), or acquire an audience to accelerate growth. Speed, quality, or cost – pick two. Ask any product manager at...Read More
Pubs Pushing PR to Native Ads is Another Reason to Build Your Own Audience
For a long time, the venerable contributed article has been a mechanism for surfacing new or big ideas. These ideas were usually of the variety that deserved attention but perhaps not beat coverage. You can’t buy good ideas, and for...Read More
Build or Buy an Audience? This Startup Intends to Buy a Media Publication
The traditional purposes for one company to acquire another – merge and acquisition – boil down to four driving reasons: 1) To buy customers or access to customers for cross-selling purposes. 2) To buy a technology that’s hard to replicate...Read More
New Lessons on PR Tradition: Audience, Subject Lines & Newsjacking [UML]
There are no experts in PR – only students. It’s more than a snappy quote, it’s a philosophy. The expert that knows everything is prone to get blindsided by the unexpected on an otherwise idle Tuesday. PR is dynamic. Reporters...Read More
