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In this episode, Steli and Hiten discuss the truth behind the sales and marketing tactics that have supposedly “died” in 2016. Steli and Hiten will provide a more balanced approach to understanding how to interpret the surge of advice that comes at the end of the year regarding sales strategies. Listen to see if these dying tactics and strategies are, in fact, labelled redundant for the coming year or if you are falling victim to yet another clickbait.  

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 00:37 – Steli and Hiten open today’s show
  • 00:50 – There is a surge of content that discusses what tactics are dead and won’t work in the new year
  • 02:12 – “Too much rushing into judging things being amazing in the future”
  • 02:22 – Hiten shares his experience at a SaaS conference
  • 02:50 – A speaker at the conference said, “Content marketing is dead”
  • 03:24 – Hiten disagreed with the speaker
  • 04:21 – Things are evolving and changing
  • 05:00 – The benefit of content marketing is that you build your brand on your terms
  • 05:42 – Content marketing helps you build an audience
  • 05:51 – People may even say social media is dead this year which is ridiculous
  • 06:02 – If social media sites are dead, Whale, a new social media app will be dead on arrival
  • 06:52 – A tactic or a strategy can’t be dead
  • 07:10 – Saying something is dead is a catchy headline
  • 07:45 – Google “cold calling is dead” and you’ll find out that every year “it died”
  • 09:01 – Thousands of articles are writing that cold calling is dead
  • 09:56 – Headlines are used as clickbait
  • 10:51 – Everything depends on who you are, how you do it, and who you’re doing it for
  • 11:45 – More experienced people won’t believe these headlines
  • 12:06 – For people looking for guidance, these articles might decrease chances of success
  • 13:16 – A lot of people come to their own conclusions
  • 14:44 – This year’s content marketing was more successful than last year’s
  • 15:47 – Hiten advises to find an alternative viewpoint
  • 17:10 – If marketing options are more numerous than ever, why would you stop experimenting if the option matches your audience?
  • 18:11 – In the beginning, content marketing is one of the easiest tools you have
  • 18:42 – Most writing is NOT balanced but shares the opinion of the writer
  • 18:56 – Find those alternative views
  • 20:08 – Have a framework that asks, “What do our customers care about?”
  • 20:32 – Your tactics might change over time but the framework stays the same

3 Key Points:

  1. Things constantly evolve and change, but nothing really “dies”.
  2. Click bait headlines can often mislead people looking for help; therefore, consider a variety of alternative views.
  3. If a marketing strategy is working for you and your audience, do NOT be discouraged by what people say is or is not effective.