What’s the purpose of marketing?
It’s a simple question, right?
Or maybe not.
Something’s changing. You’ve felt it. And it’s not just AI — though AI is a big part of it. Once anyone can push a button and instantly write and send 10,000 emails, everyone will be sending 10,000 emails, and nobody will be reading them.
The truth is we have never liked being sold to. The explosion of digital marketing over the past two decades has only made us more resistant to sales. How many ads do you give your full attention to? How many sales emails do you even bother to open?
AI promises to reduce the cost of brute-force persuasion to near zero, and many companies are finding that temptation irresistible.
This is happening because many people mistakenly believe marketing is about persuasion. It’s not.
Marketing is about connection.
Do you know the cliché “preaching to the choir”? It’s meant as a kind of insult. A preacher who preaches to the choir is only speaking to the already converted — taking the easy way out.
But in marketing, the best campaigns are exactly that. You want to be speaking to the people who are already converted to what you’re offering. Marketing is about connecting with the people who are a great fit for your product or service. It’s operating a beacon to safely guide your people into port.
You are tired of being conned and convinced at every turn. We all are.
What if instead of being annoying, marketing was delightful? What if your marketing was beautiful?
What if you marketed with the soul of a poet?
Poets evoke strong emotions with their words. A great poem can fill you with courage, comfort you when you’re grieving, and fill your soul with the ecstasy of being seen as your true self.
Take one of Emily Dickinson’s most famous poems. I’m Nobody, Who Are You?
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you — Nobody — too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise — you know!How dreary — to be — Somebody!
How public — like a Frog –
To tell one’s name — the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!
Dickinson is stirring emotions, not spitting facts. This poem resonates more than 150 years later because all any of us want is to be seen. If you’re honest, you often feel like you’re nobody looking for another nobody to be with.
You already know that every purchasing decision is an emotional one. We love to be moved, and we hate to be convinced.
When you market with the soul of a poet you are not trying to persuade people of anything. You’re not shouting — you’re sharing.
You’re whispering the names of your favorite albums to try and find the other dorks who like the same music as you in the middle of a crowded party.
In a world of noisy, artificial algorithmic nonsense, daring to market with the soul of a poet is to show not sell.
No human wants to buy from a chatbot.
We cannot know, like, and trust a large language model.
You need to call your choir. They’re searching for you.
Just as importantly, you need to alienate people who are a bad fit for your brand. Nothing truly remarkable appeals to everyone. The faster you can scatter the people who don’t get you, the easier it will be for your ideal buyers to find you.
Marketing can be beautiful, and it should be delightful. Even if you’re selling to other businesses, it’s critical that every piece of your marketing oozes emotional appeal because you aren’t really selling to businesses; you are appealing to the people who work at those businesses with purchasing power and influence.
In the aftermath of the coming AI marketing tsunami, the companies and brands that are anchored in human connection will be the most successful. Human-to-human conversations may not scale but they do convert.
Now, you have to ask yourself who do you want to be? Do you want to be a chatbot or a poet?
I’m betting that in another 100 years people will still be resonating with Emily Dickinson’s question, “I’m Nobody, Who Are You?” and that nobody will be resonating with any AI-generated content, video, or ad, no matter how lifelike they become.
Are you willing to take that bet? Are you willing to bare your soul to find the right people for your business?
Are you going to take the cheap and easy way out with brute force persuasion, or do you have the courage to market with the soul of a poet?
Your people are looking for you—all you have to do is switch on the beacon.
Jason McBride is a freelance copywriter, content writer, and editorial illustrator working with B2B companies, professional service businesses, finance, travel, and experience-based brands. A previous version of this post appeared on Medium.
This is the best marketing article I’ve ever read! I immediately shared it.
Thanks Liz! I think it’s time to reclaim marketing and use it as a force for good, especially as we enter the AI era.
I agree 100 per cent. i wish I knew how to do it.
I think it starts with the deceptively simple idea of seeing people as people instead of customers.
I’m willing to bare my soul – just trying to figure out how to get away with it.
It’s good when readers wonder how you knew enough to write something; not so good when they can point directly to your life (not for fiction) to how you’re just Mary Sue’ing the character you obviously inhabit.
I’m wondering whether I should start posting samples – for those who might like how various chunks of my mainstream trilogy are written.
I see how that can be a trickier issue with fiction, although Jack Kerouac’s most famous and best-received works were basically lightly fictionalized autobiography. I bet readers would love a little behind the scenes look at your process.
Hi, Jason. I’ve shared your article with writing colleagues, and it has gotten a good reception. I’m passing along the $64,000 question someone asked: “Agree with all of this–but HOW to market with connection rather than “brute-force persuasion”?”
Wow! Thank you for sharing this so widely, Liz! I think the answer to that question is longer than I can leave in a comment. It’s the subject of my next blog post here, due out later this week. My short teaser is to market for connection means to worry less about the breadth of your reach and instead focus on the depth. For writers and other creatives I think we have to make peace with building an audience one reader at a time. But more to come and I think through this in a more disciplined fashion.