6 ways to kill your marketing career

Thanks for all the enthusiastic comments. If you enjoyed this post, also check out a follow-up post I did called "What is innovation?" at http://www.tractionco.com/blog/50-what-is-innovation

Adam

Great article, thank you. I am old enough to remember when the marketing world was non-digital and it seems like some of the basics have gotten lost in the impulsive knee-jerk need to try every single available platform without first figuring out whether it makes sense for the brand or client.

This should be required reading for anyone related to the ad industry or for students headed there! Congratulations on a great article.

Thanks Adam.

I Like your point of view. fun to read, useful to apply every day..And different from everybody write lastly

Bye

Loved the post, Thanks Adam :-)

Great post. I especially like your point about listening. In my career there has never been a time when subtle changes in messaging made such a difference in response. The only effective way to communicate an effective message is to listen, hear, and respond.

Hearing not only what is said, but taking it a step further, to hearing what is unsaid... it makes all the difference.

Thanks - Spot on and a good reminder to all

Thank you for saying what needed to be said. It isn't only about marketing; the race to mediocrity is affecting all media, bringing us 'good enough' and quickly drowning 'great.'

I love it Adam, thank you for writing such an excellent piece....your last paragraph- stellar closure.

I love it Adam, thank you for writing such an excellent piece....your last paragraph- stellar closure.

Completely agree with you Adam. Thanks for adding a dose of common sense to a crazy industry. We need it.

See...I just made a mistake by not completely proofreading. I meant ..."always smart TO listen"

Excellent, excellent, excellent....there are so many ways to screw up...sometimes unknown until we experience them...AND then learn from them. So thank you for giving us some "oops" insights, so that we may not have to make as many mistakes. It's always smart ti LISTEN...to real pros.
sky

Thanks, Chas (and the rest of you),

You're right. Five years ago, no one knew what to do with interactive, so agencies built silos. Today, it's obvious that EVERYTHING is interactive and digital needs to be thought of holistically.

Now, no one knows what to do with social media, so they're creating silos again. It still boils down to understanding human motivations and creating communications that appeal to them. The only thing that has changed are the tools we use to accomplish that.

Cheers,

Adam

Adam,

Not only is your article "spot on" accurate but I love your writing style. Too many "experts" in our industry are blinded by the light. They believe social-media, digital and interactive is separate from all other forms of media. They become mesmerized and fail to appreciate that all these new tools and technologies are simply ways to connect with people. But people are humans. If there is no emotional currency - binding the message to the community - there is not results.

It's human nature - which is not going to change anytime soon. Again, great article.

Chas.Salmore
CEO
Marketingworks, Inc.
www.MWKS.net

Great article! There are a ton of shiny objects that appear every day in this industry and it's easy to forget what we all really do for a living.

OMG I could think of 106 things I've done personally to kill my marketing career. Mostly it's saying what I believe to be true instead of what people need to hear.

Great Article! I see many marketers (and other business leaders) that are impacted by the Shiny Object Syndrome.

Thank you for pointing out that we create business and marketing plans to achieve objectives and while it is important to be flexible - it's more important to learn from (and not relive) past mistakes.

Just because it's "cool" doesn't make it the right thing for every business.

Great article, very well thought out, it has just been forwarded to everyone on my team. The only point that I felt was missing is the fact that not only will these things kill your carreer/ personal brand, they will also kill an agency/ marketing organization even faster. When an entire grpoup of people collectively engage in these types of behavior it only compounds the problems you've listed and leads to poorly formed and executed marketing plans that can quickly tarnish a brand, sink a product, and cripple future success.

I always love the things you write. The points and the style. You really are one of the joys of this business. All that soft soap, and I don't even need a favor from you! ;-)

My favorite is the first reason. Fear of mistakes is the worst place to be in this business. If you haven't made mistakes you aren't imagining what could be, you're only focuising on what was.