Plumbers vs Persuaders. Martech is Only Half the Story

@dougkessler
Plumbers vs Persuaders
Why martech is only part of the story
Doug Kessler
Velocity Partners
@dougkessler

@dougkessler
The age of the Hunch Monkey

@dougkessler
BuCO – B(S)<iECO
STE2
Old-school KPI

@dougkessler
digital, search, social, content marketing, mobile,
AI, marketing automation, data visualization,
marketing clouds, inbound, web analytics, big
data, journey mapping, predictive analytics, data
enrichment, attribution modelling, lead nurturing,
data onboarding, programmatic advertising, real-
time bidding, native advertising, data lakes, SEO,
PPC, CRO, CRM, ABM, CDPs, DMPs, SSPs, APIs,
KPIs, PaaS, MQLs, TLAs…

@dougkessler
Brand
Content
Creative
Messages
ToFU
MQLs
BoFU
SRLs
MoFU
Form Fills

@dougkessler
Plumbers are focused
on the pipes, couplings
and elbow joints of
demand generation.

@dougkessler
Conversion rates
Nurture flows
Funnel velocity
Attribution models

@dougkessler
Persuaders are focused
on the things that go on
within each content
experience.

@dougkessler
Voice
Story
Structure
Format
Design

@dougkessler
“It’s all UX.”
-- Me, Just now

@dougkessler
Journey UX
Content UX Content UX Content UX Content UX $

@dougkessler
Journey UX
Content UX Content UX Content UX Content UX $
The Strategy
The Brief

@dougkessler
Great Plumbing
x Great Persuading
= Great Results

@dougkessler
Left vs Right
A false conflict

@dougkessler
Palestinians vs Israelis
A false conflict

@dougkessler
Conservatives vs Liberals
A false conflict

@dougkessler
Moderates
The real conflict
Extremists Extremists

@dougkessler
Smart, Practical
Marketers
The real conflict
Creative
Extremists
Data
Extremists

@dougkessler
“Digital marketing has unleashed an
obsession with efficiency and short-
termism… trading long-term brand-building
for short-term ROI. We've put the golden
goose in a battery farm of scientific
efficiency, and it's killing the brand…”
Simon White,
Ad Age, October 2017

@dougkessler
The people in this
room have a huge
opportunity wrapped
in a sacred
responsibility.

@dougkessler
We’re dropping huge
amounts of data and colourful
dashboards into the laps of
old-school marketers.

@dougkessler
“We knew the world
would not be the same.
A few people laughed, a
few people cried. Most
people were silent.”
J. Robert Oppenheimer
on the Trinity nuclear tests

@dougkessler
Metrics Literacy • Tool Literacy • Conceptual Literacy
Tim Wilson,
“The Data Literacy Triad”
May 2018
Success in the new martech
world depends on data literacy.

@dougkessler
6 things we can all
do to balance
plumbing and
persuading.

@dougkessler
1.
Call out data-sprinkled
bullshit.

@dougkessler
The data says 40% of
people prefer red.
Wow. People prefer
red 40% more than
blue?
Yes, red is growing
by 40% every year.
…
Red is 40 times more
likely to work than any
other colour.
And any sentence
with both ‘red’ and
‘40’ in it is true.
X X

@dougkessler
These are our ten
best-performing
pieces of content
How much did we
spend promoting
each?
Why do you ask?
…

@dougkessler
2.
Push for meaning.
Go the last mile.

@dougkessler
To share data is human.
To share insight, divine.

@dougkessler
“It’s the interpretation of the data that’s the
key point. And every data source has its
limitations. It can only be part of the answer,
but it’s there to help you.”
Jon Evans,
Lucozade Ribena Suntory

@dougkessler
The bounce rate
on this page is
60% we have to
take action!
What’s the
benchmark
bounce rate?
Um. 70%.
…

@dougkessler
3.
Give instinct time.

@dougkessler
Moz – Whiteboard Fridays
2007

@dougkessler
Moz – Whiteboard Fridays
“If Moz hadn’t been a small startup that could
do whatever it wanted, it would have been very tough
to justify continuing to produce Whiteboard Friday.”

@dougkessler
Average views: 20,000
Highest: 200,000
Engagement: 30% higher than any
other Moz tactic

Average views: 20,000
Highest: 200,000
Engagement: 30% higher than any
other Moz tactic
The data said “Kill it.”

Live and breathe data – but be
prepared to follow your heart.

“Most great projects start
with belief and instinct.”
– Rand Fishkin

@dougkessler
Those videos you
do every Friday?
They’re not really
working. Let’s kill
them and do more
blog posts.
I don’t want to.
Something tells me
they’re going to be
big.
Okay.

@dougkessler
4.
Beware of
“Tried that. Didn’t work.”

When you try something, you’re
trying a hundred things at once.
The strategy, the creative, the offer, the media, the topic,
the format, the landing page, the headline…

@dougkessler
Long ebooks
don’t work.
How do we know
that?
We once did a
really shitty one on
a dumb topic with
a stupid title and
no promo budget
and it flopped.
You’re fired.

@dougkessler
5.
Incremental wins
are only one source.

@dougkessler
Home runs
Goodies
Time

Don’t confine your strategy to
Iterative Turd Optimization.

@dougkessler
6.
Capture the unmeasurable.

@dougkessler
The unmeasurables.
Ripples Learning Positioning
Mojo Karma

@dougkessler
Ripples Learning Positioning Mojo Karma

@dougkessler
Unmeasurable things may
have immeasurable value.

@dougkessler
“The brilliant marketers are the marketers
who are able to marry the insight from the
data, their deep understanding of the
consumer with their gut intuition and feel of
what is aligned to the brand. Having those
three elements come together is where the
magic happens.” Karina Pyne,
Marketing Director, GSK

@dougkessler
We can do this.
• Call out data bullshit
• Turn data into meaning
• Give ideas time: allow for instinct
• Beware of “Tried that, didn’t work.”
• Aim for home runs not just optimizations
• Capture the unmeasurable

@dougkessler
Creative, compelling, crafted, clever and,
above all, confident marketing that respects
its audience makes more money than timid,
tepid, turgid marketing that doesn’t.

@dougkessler
Thank you.
Me again,
Just now again

Plumbers vs Persuaders. Martech is Only Half the Story

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Plumbers vs Persuaders. Martech is Only Half the Story