The Courageous Marketer – A guide for the fearless
Harnessing the power of depth, emotion, and the human mind to break through the digital noise.
We live in a time when noise can be overwhelming. We scroll through tons of content every day, and we are bombarded with marketing messages, and billions of dollars are spent on bland marketing communications that are quickly forgotten – if noticed at all. To stand out, we need to do things that make the audience stop, engage, and take action. We, as marketers, need to put quality over quantity. This is especially true in B2B, an industry that has focused on short-term measures to reach immediate goals for decades. Too little emphasis has been placed on building a brand, and too many companies only focus on the upcoming fiscal year.
This guide is adapted from an original set of whitepapers developed by our Norwegian Partner, iteo. Listen to our podcast with Andreas Thue where we discuss his views on what makes a courageous marketer.
According to Wikipedia, an abbreviated and simplified definition of “courage” is a person or a group’s ability to be brave, fearless, and dare to challenge themselves to something that usually triggers anxiety, risk, fear, etc. Those with barriers and who challenge themselves also show courage. We believe that’s the roadmap the marketing manager of the future must follow; challenge themselves, dare more, dare to let the brand take up more space and create engagement in new ways. It’s about breaking norms. Challenge established truths. Challenge leaders who only think short-term and take actions that catch attention. Change is not created with rational messages. We don’t engage the target audience without speaking to the heart. We, as marketers, need to bring people together. We’re going to entertain. Inspire. Create value and belong. Be guided by ethics. Avoid shortcuts. This is the marketer who has the potential to take the business into the future. Above all, the brand must be remembered, and BEO (brain engine optimisation) is more important than SEO (search engine optimisation). The brain is the fastest search engine in the universe; we search it before searching the web.