Optimal Work Daily - Career, Productivity and Entrepreneurship 1792: Direct Marketing (and the other kind) by Seth Godin on How to Improve Your Marketing Effectiveness
Aug 27, 2025
Seth Godin dives into the fascinating world of marketing, highlighting the key differences between direct marketing and brand marketing. Discover how direct marketing is action-oriented and measurable, while brand marketing focuses on cultural engagement, making it challenging to assess. The discussion emphasizes the risks of merging the two strategies, urging clarity in intent to enhance marketing effectiveness. This insightful exploration of marketing evolution and online engagement is sure to reshape your understanding of effective strategies.
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Direct Marketing Is Measurable Action
- Direct marketing is outbound, measurable, and designed to pay for itself through tracked actions like clicks or purchases.
- This approach lets you buy actions in any quantity because each action has a known value and ROI.
Brand Marketing Is Cultural, Not Direct
- Brand (or mass) marketing is cultural and narrative-driven, and its effects are hard to measure directly.
- Trying to treat brand building like direct response often destroys the cultural promise you’re trying to create.
Avoid Direct Tactics When Building A Brand
- If you want to build a cultural brand like Apple or Starbucks, avoid using direct-response shortcuts that focus only on measurable clicks.
- Reject tactics that optimize short-term metrics at the expense of long-term promise and storytelling.