Call me a geek if you want. I love technology.
I'd just finished delivering a marketing masterclass in partnership with Santander UK Business Banking and Rosemount Financial Solutions. Delegates had joined from all over the country, and nobody had to travel to be there.
Online events are pretty normal now, and that part still fascinates me. What got me excited that day was the AI summary that landed almost as soon as the session finished.
It had pulled out the main points, the questions people asked and, my favourite bit, a section called "best quotes". Things I'd said in the presentation, chosen by a machine as the lines most worth keeping.
It's a strange feeling, being quoted back to yourself by software. Flattering and slightly unnerving at the same time. A bit like hearing a recording of your own voice. Here are the top three it picked.
The goal of marketing is to start conversations. It's to get people engaged with you, having a conversation with your brand, your business, your people.
I say this a lot, because it's the heart of how I think about marketing. If people don't know you and aren't talking to you, they can't buy from you. Every post, email and advert has one job: get someone to talk to you. Selling comes later.
Good marketing makes you look clever. Great marketing makes your customer feel like they're the clever one.
This is the one I'd most like you to take away.
So much marketing is built to show off. Clever wordplay. Industry jargon. Big claims about how expert the business is. It might win an award. It might make the team feel good. But the reader often walks away feeling a little bit stupid, or a little bit left out.
Great marketing flips that round. It explains things so clearly the reader thinks "oh, that makes sense". It gives them a simple idea they can repeat to someone else. It makes the decision to buy feel like their own smart choice.
Next time you write something, ask yourself: after reading this, will my customer feel cleverer, or will I just look cleverer?
What is a brand? That's what other people say when you're not in the room. The brand is the conversation that happens around your business, not just the conversation that happens in your business.
Your brand is what people say about you to their friends when you're nowhere near them. Marketing starts the conversation with you. The brand is the conversation about you.
I found it fascinating that a piece of software picked those three. I'm not sure I'd have chosen differently.
