Marketing campaigns require a combination of hard skills and soft skills. And a clear quantification of your organisation’s vision and objectives.

Knowing who you want to reach. And who you don’t.

Knowing why people pay attention. And why they won’t.

Knowing when people respond. And when they don’t.

Isn’t marketing just using the 4Ps?

Yes, but it’s more than that. Way more than that.

For example, it’s also defining which relationships actually matter to you using proven methods such as the so-called 30Rs:

Relationship marketing is one proven technique which recognises that, these days especially, trust can down as well as up. And surprisingly quickly too.

It’s possessing the hard skills of applying marketing technology (MarTech) to help bring about the commercial results you need without exasperating the very people you want to buy from you.

Alienating a target audience or a primary customer cohort is all too easy when powerful martech system is placed in the hands of those who don’t have the real-world experience of how best to use it.

The ability to quantify who you want to reach, how many times they will need to be reached, what they do about what you reach them with, and how you did after you reached them are some of the many decisions which form part the more scientific side.

When done right, marketing campaigns are not really a cost centre; they are more of an investment.

Woe betide anyone who forgets that marketing is the engine room of any organisation.

And efficient engines use flywheels, don’t they.

Got you thinking?

Good. Since you’ve read this far, you’re beginning to unpack some of the complexity of modern marketing.

Here’s one more thing to think about:

So much business is transacted online. Growth has been relentless. Proliferation of vendors has been exponential. And levels of adoption of online sales platforms is high but fragile; trust is easily broken. This means that, if you haven’t already, you need to be able to deliver marketing campaigns into digital business marketplaces:

2-sided marketplaces

3-sided marketplaces

If that wasn’t hard enough, there at least two other things you might need to contend with:

Fediverse (not metaverse, Fediverse)

Generative AI models powering words, pictures, sound and video

None of this exists to frighten you. It is all part of the mix, in a modern marketeer’s tool box.


Marketing campaigns that work. A science. And an art.

Marketing campaigns require a combination of creativity and intuition. And a deep understanding of people’s logical and emotional motivations.

Knowing what gets attention. And what won’t.

Knowing where you place your message. And where you don’t.

Knowing how you get response. And how you don’t.

Isn’t marketing just making eye catching ads?

Yes, they play their part, but it’s more than that. Way more than that.

For example, marketing to blind or visually impaired people, or people with certain cognitive disabilities; these people are not ‘niche markets’ but are your mainstream customers, with real buying power.

Engaging sensory approaches involves more than a rudimentary grounding in psychology of colour, sound, taste, smell and touch.

It involves having subject area experts to call upon. You know, those with genuine expertise in the visual arts. The graphic arts. The cinematic arts. The performing arts. The dramatic arts. The olfactory arts. The kinesthetic arts.

The anatomy of a successful marketing campaign is often as important as the implementation of it.

Doing things with a bit of panache and in good taste is often as important as reducing time to market.

Good news travels. Bad news travels faster.

When buying, some people make logical choices. Some make emotional choices.

Their heart rules their head. Or the other way round.

Knowing how to appeal to both is an art in itself.

Got you thinking?

Good. Since you’ve read this far, you’re beginning to unpack some of the complexity of modern marketing.

Here’s one more thing to think about:

History is littered with seeming creative marketing ideas which failed spectacularly.

There are many such bloopers written into marketing text books and splattered across the internet. You won’t want any mistakes you make to be the next.

Words have power.

Just supposing if each word cost £25,000 then you would chose carefully which words and how many to use.

And they say a picture paints a thousand words.

If that’s still true then consider this: how you depict your brand, your organisation, product or service will be remembered.

And will give you a reputation whether you want one or not.

Therefore, what kind of reputation is up to you.

Marketing campaigns that work. A science. And an art.