If you are in a Sr. Marketing role please stop buying Seth Godin Books!

DISCLAIMER: Just because it is Lindy Dreyer Week here at www.saulcolt.com does not mean she agrees with any of my opinions...in fact I am pretty sure she doesn't because she is a free thinking woman and while the following posts were inspired by a conversation with her they are all my own ideas and opinions. Don't hold her responsible for my views :)

I am a big fan of Seth Godin and think he is one of the smartest marketing minds of my time. I have bought and read all of his books except Meatball Sundae cause I haven't gotten around to it.

So now that you understand I am kinda a Seth Godin expert I am going to urge you to please stop buying his books. Not because they are not well written or are full of useful information (because they are) but because they all come to the same conclusion.

BE REMARKABLE

So please from now on instead of reading about being remarkable why not actually follow through and BE REMARKABLE.....and this will lead me into a big announcement I have coming tomorrow.

So please come back tomorrow to find our what I am up to that is remarkable!

Seth Godin and I are the same....

I love the Internet!

I love the way it works and functions and the fact that I can post about something and actually see stuff happen as a result.

Yesterday I wrote about Seth Godin (and Andy Sernovitz) and today, like magic, I got an email pointing me to a blog post discussing me and Seth Godin in the same post!

Pretty cool if you ask me.......you did ask me.....right?

-saul

Marketing Stunts...This one is better then any little gimmick!

A couple of guys who I respect a great deal have been discussing gimmicks and stunts in your marketing plans.

Seth Godin thinks that if you provide an added value to the customer then it no longer is a gimmick and becomes something worthwhile.

and

Andy Sernovitz wrote about how "all the gimmicks in the world aren't going to make lasting impact if the whole company isn't worth talking about. Some of the greatest word of mouth successes are silly stunts, but so are most of the biggest failures"

I have been thinking a lot about this since I am planning a huge event/spectacle where I and few others from work , including the CEO, are driving half way across the United States (from FOWA in Miami, FL to SXSW in Austin, TX)in an RV to promote the FreshBooks service while at the same time we will be attempting to meet up with as many customers as we can so we can share a meal or a coffee with them and gain valuable insight into why our customers love as us much as they do.

This could easily be seen as a stunt but I hope most recognize that the intention is to treat our passionate customers to a cool experience that most companies just wouldn't bother doing....this is the value and why we are worth talking about.

I will keep you posted on this as it gets closer but in the meantime I hope when this is all over that Seth Godin and Andy Sernovitz acknowledge that this was one gimmick that cut through and could only be called a marketing success!

-saul