The Best Tool Might Not Be the Newest One

A CEO I knew used to say, "Our job is to convince the customer that we have his software and he has our money." As marketers, our job is to connect customers with our company and to find the right tools or mix of tools to do so. All of the options in advertising, public relations, social media, events, websites, viral videos and such are all just tools. Bland, lifeless tools with no intrinsic value other than as different paths to our customers. To favor one or another simply because it's new, or because "it's what we've always done" is way off the mark. We need to understand these tools in order to use them well. Let's embrace the new tools' abilities to do new things and add them to our tool belts.

I bought a new chisel for my stone carving hobby and couldn't wait to use it. But you can be sure I did wait until I actually needed to do what it was designed for. I look at the new social media the same way.  Just as I look at traditional advertising the same way. It's irresponsible to spend our employer's or client's money on a program that doesn't reach the intended audience or meet your marketing objectives. Want to reach a huge number of broadly defined market segments? Super Bowl TV here we come.  Want to develop thought leadership among your employees, suppliers, partners and most avid customers? Here's a blog platform we'll have up by dinner time.

Let's not let zealots distract us with "the new economy" and their bias for certain marketing behaviors. Let's remember that simply put, we have customers and prospects who need to learn about our company and it's wares. Pick the right combination of tools considering every possible option and we'll be getting the most out of our marketing resources. And that's a marketer's job, after all.

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