I love software. I use software as a consumer. I use software as a businessperson. I use relatively simple software for simple needs – Outlook for email, Salesforce for CRM, QuickBooks for accounting, WordPress and others for publishing and content management, and so on and so forth. I also make part of my living from advising and providing services to software companies, and those services often include software recommendations.

Great software is irreplaceable. Most software is easily replicated, but nonetheless irreplaceable. As a matter of fact, some types of software are so irreplaceable that they have even made certain types of people…well, replaceable.

Marketing software comes in a lot of flavors – CMS, CRM, Analytics, Marketing Automation, PPC Management, Email Marketing – and can help you accomplish many of your marketing goals.

Here’s what it can’t do. It can’t build your marketing plan. It can’t develop your core message. It can’t replace leadership. It can’t generate creative ideas. Software is just a tool, not a marketing strategy.

Do Businesses Actually Think Software Can Solve all Marketing Problems?

Yes, some do. The blame for this lies with both the software providers and the business decision-makers.

I met with well-respected software executive a few weeks back to discuss some upcoming projects. He makes and sells B2B software, and therefore needs to market his B2B software. We discussed how we work with software companies, tossed around ideas about what is working from a lead generation and nurturing standpoint, and made some plans to address some of his company’s immediate needs. Towards the end of the conversation, he asked a seemingly innocent question:

“What about using HubSpot? Seems like a pretty sophisticated, comprehensive solution. What are your thoughts?”

My problem wasn’t the question. It wasn’t the mention of HubSpot, or software in general. It was the implication that this type of software could really represent a “plug and play” marketing solution. Marketing strategy, design, tactics and tracking in a box. Fill out a few forms, and…BAM, you just built a world-class marketing program.

(Disclaimer: This post is not a rant about HubSpot. I don’t know a single person that works for the company. I’ve never even seen their products, never hired them for their services. I am familiar with the model they are pursuing because they’ve been pretty transparent about it (kudos to them) and familiar with the company because they’ve been very smart about marketing their wares (kudos again). Hell, I even invested in a company that was designed to deliver on the same promise HubSpot wants to deliver on.)

Anyway, I answered the question in the most diplomatic way I could think of, and we moved on to other topics of discussion. That being said, the brief conversation clearly stuck with me and inspired this post.

So What’s the Real Problem You Are Getting At?

The real problem is two-fold.

First, many software companies are being deceptive. Deceptive with their messaging. Deceptive with their sales tactics. Even deceptive with how they represent the people they employ.

Second, while many of these software companies profess to “make your business stand out”, in the end they are contributing to the “Me Too Marketing” that results in every company looking like a mirror image of the next one. Sure, they put a nice messaging spin around it. I’ve seen Find/Get/Keep. I’ve seen Find/Convert/Close. And one more: Turn Searches into Sales. Is that all that marketing is about? Is it that simple?

Let’s dive into the deception topic quickly by way of example. One particular company raised a boatload of money a few years back and used it to build what amounts to an automated pay-per-click search engine marketing platform. They also used the money to hire “Internet Marketing Consultants” in bulk, in every major city, and now in secondary markets as well. Here’s the problem. These “Internet Marketing Consultants” are media salespeople. The only consulting they do is helping their small business clients figure out whether to spend 5k or 10k per month on…you guessed it, their pay-per-click platform. Need I say more? Is that what a company really wants out of their “Internet Marketing Consultant”?

And now, let’s get into the “Me Too” issue. I love processes. I love systems. I love software (really, I do). If everyone follows the same “rules of the game” put forth by the same 2-3 software companies, social media superheros, or agencies, then we’re just building factories. Factories that find, get and keep. Factories that listen, engage, connect. Factories that crank out the same website, PPC campaign, email template or landing pages as the next guy.

It’s a beautiful thing that so many entrepreneurs (and accompanying businesses) have been created over the last 10-15 years. It would be awfully sad for those same entrepreneurs – after exhausting the requisite blood, sweat and tears – to look, feel and operate just like the next guy. That will make for a lot of followers, and very few leaders.

My Advice to Businesses

Strive to be different. Sure, go ahead and look at the 800 pound gorilla, then decide to do something different.

Recognize that no piece of software can replace strategy.

Recognize that no piece of software can replace a well thought out plan.

Recognize that no piece of software can replace talented people.

If marketing software continues to encroach upon the “human” facets of marketing, will all marketers just become software consultants who know how to operate the latest and greatest on-demand, dashboard-based, WYSIWYG, web-based solution?

If so, I’ll certainly take myself out of the game. Maybe I’ll just write blog posts.

Oh wait. That won’t work. Just read about a new software company that reads your mind, writes and formats your blog posts, distributes them, reads and responds to comments, and even compiles all the good ones into an e-book. Sigh.

About the Author: Mike Sweeney is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing. Don’t hesitate to drop Mike a comment on this post. Follow Mike on Twitter for more marketing commentary.

Search marketing is one of the great tools in a marketer’s arsenal.  We help our clients with search and find it’s often one of their most effective lead generation vehicles.  That being said, I’m going to take a few minutes and pick on pay per click search here because, in so many cases, businesses are getting sold on paid search as a “full marketing solution” — and they’re believing it.  In these cases the reality is it’s usually being sold by salespeople disguised as marketers who only really look at the media side of marketing (Yeah, you know who you are!), and not all the other facets.

I could have chosen social media, broadcast or a host of other channels – it’s not this specific channel that I have an issue with as much as the focus on any one channel as some sort of magic bullet.  But, for some reason we see this in the search channel far more than any of the others.  Likely this is because the ability to so directly track — spend to searches to clicks to leads/sales to CPA — creates such a clean picture that it’s tough to argue against continuing to feed that success until it’s maxed out.  And once maxed out then, and only then only then, moving on to another channel.

The problem with that single channel focus, however, is it is incredibly risky.  Not Shaun White, Half-Pipe X-Games Cool risky but Russian Roulette Foolish risky.  The reason is simple – all of your eggs are now firmly placed in one basket.  And we all know the rest of that cliché.  And we all also know this – the marketing landscape is constantly changing, and now more rapidly than ever before.

So, maybe paid search is knocking it out of the park for you today, but what happens if Google adjusts the rules of AdWords again?  Or when Yahoo and Bing unify their platform in the near future with their deal now having cleared the biggest regulatory hurdles?  Or with just the fact that the amount of competitors you’ll find in paid search now looks to be far greater than even 2 or 3 years ago with later adopters coming to the table, the growth of automated platforms, locally focused management tools and a host of other reasons.  By now you can certainly see where I’m going with this.  It’s incredibly likely that no matter your industry, there isn’t just one magic bullet but an integrated mix of tactics.

Rather than getting sold on pouring everything you have into paid search, the better move is to diversify your tactics.  As Mike often says, think of your marketing approach like a stock portfolio.  By investing in and testing multiple channels, and adjusting based on which ones succeed and fail, you’ll have multiple sources of leads/sales and not be exposed to the risk of just one channel.  Certainly include paid search in the mix, but don’t make it your only ingredient.  Because that doesn’t make you X-Games Cool, it makes you Russian Roulette Crazy.

Will Davis is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing.  Don’t hesitate to drop Will a comment on this post.  If you liked this post, follow @willdavis on Twitter for more commentary like this.

About six months ago, I was invited to meet with a top 10 Washington D.C. law firm to discuss helping the firm address its social media and search engine marketing strategy. I was very excited about the meeting. In my mind, since this law firm was comprised of sophisticated, well-educated and talented people, we’d likely be able to uncover some unique marketing opportunities.

We talked search engine marketing. The firm had never addressed it formally. We talked social media. This area had not been addressed either. We talked website. Built 5 years ago, and the four folks in this meeting had no idea how to change it or who makes changes to it. OK, so this is going to be fun – a green field if you will. That was my mindset.

Well, at least that was my mindset until I asked the following question:

“What is it that makes you guys different from the thousands of other large law firms? What differentiates you from the competition?”

A seemingly innocent, basic marketing question. Actually, it’s not even a marketing question. That’s a business question, one that every single employee in the organization ought to be able to answer.

Someone gave an answer, but all I heard was stumble, bumble, stumble…our partners are world-reknowned…stumble, bumble, stumble….we have 10 offices in the U.S. alone….stumble, bumble, stumble…we’re very well-known in real estate…stumble, bumble, stumble.

Unfortunately, this does not represent a unique scenario in the professional services category. More than any other industry, professional services firms struggle with building a marketing strategy that creates some separation from the pack. Instead, they fall into the “me too” marketing trap over and over and over again.

A lot of professional services firms do look the same from the outside. They offer the same services. Same rates. Same structure. Same types of people. Same tired glossy brochure. There is no easy fix for this problem, however, there are some clear mindset changes your firm can embrace in order to start creating separation:

1) Stop listening to the same 5 – 10 people that every other firm is listening to.

Reputation matters. Connections within an industry matter. Vertical knowledge matters.

You know what else matters? Creative ideas and solutions. Perspectives carried over from other industries. People who challenge you to look at your firm’s identity in a different way than you’ve looked at it for the past 20 – 30 years.

Always look beyond the usual suspects. You may just find some new superheroes that can help you separate from the pack.

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Whether you live in the Baltimore/Washington area like we do, or have only heard about it on the news, everyone knows we’ve been hit here by record snowfalls.  I saw yesterday that Baltimore just passed Syracuse NY for first place as the snowiest city in the U.S. this winter.

While technology has allowed me to continue working on just about everything I would in a normal day, some of the down time “snowed in” got me thinking about how people might use some of that down time to address items on the “marketing list” (you know, that list some people never quite get to).

With that mind, I went back through some of our posts to highlight 5 pretty tangible and actionable items you can think about, evaluate and improve right away.  And while I tried to avoid the “clip show” format — Didn’t you always hate when sitcoms did those episodes that were just recycled material? – It did seem to work best in this format.

So here you go – 5 Marketing Fixes for a Snowy Week.

1). Fix Your Core Messaging:

We all know how important it is to have a clear and consistent message – But do you have a messaging problem?

Your Marketing Message in 30 Seconds

2). Diversify Lead Generation:

In an ideal world, you are managing multiple buckets of leads, each bringing a different volume, a different quality, and a different set of metrics.  But are you putting all your eggs in one basket?

Buckets of Leads

3). Convert More Visitors to Leads:

Make sure you are getting the most from your online visitors.  Tune up your contact forms and landing pages by looking at 5 common problems.

Better Contact Forms = More Prospects

4). Improve Your Search Marketing:

Writing ad copy for pay-per-click ads, particularly for Google AdWords, is an extremely challenging task.  Are you getting the most from your paid search campaigns?

The Most Challenging Copywriting Job in the World

5). Update Your Website:

Your company may have all kinds of exciting things going on – new customers, partners, upcoming events, etc.  But if from the viewpoint of the random website visitor, you’re not doing much lately it may not be worth taking the next step to get in touch.

Keeping the Newsroom Fresh

Implementing these 5 fixes will help you to upgrade your marketing — And give you a reason to avoid that snow shovel.

Will Davis is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing.  Don’t hesitate to drop Will a comment on this post.  If you liked this post, follow@willdavis on Twitter for more commentary like this.

For those of you reading this in a location outside of the Mid-Atlantic, here’s a news flash: the Washington DC/Baltimore area is buried under 30 – 40 inches of snow and blizzard conditions right now. This leaves a lot of time for shoveling, family time, movies, sleep, and….doing business?

Joe Mechlinski, President of EntreQuest and a good friend to the Right Source Marketing team, wrote an interesting post today that describes why this type of time period is an excellent time to push your business forward, even when face-to-face meetings aren’t possible. I loved Joe’s post as I think that most people “throw away” weeks like this, but Joe forgot to include the one item that he was already engaged in – producing and distributing valuable content.

Much like the EntreQuest team, Right Source Marketing has had a busy week even with the nasty weather conditions. Much of our time in between shoveling has been spent developing proposals for existing and new clients who want to pursue aggressive content marketing programs. Of course, before we get to the point of putting together a proposal, the client needs to first understand what content marketing is, and why it’s become a very hot category.

So what is content marketing?

Let’s quickly address what content marketing is NOT in order to get to our definition.

Content marketing is not new. Some of the most sophisticated marketing organizations in the world have been using content marketing for years.

Content marketing is not advertising. Advertising still has its place, but most advertising is still designed to interrupt the consumer or businessperson and ask them to pay attention to a particular product, service, or offer.

Content marketing is not about just creating compelling pieces of content. The phrase “If you build it, they will come” does not apply here.

Content marketing is a marketing technique that stands on three pillars:

• Creating unique, valuable and relevant content for a particular target audience

• Distributing that content to that target audience in an organized and systematic manner, in order to…

• Encourage members of the target audience to read, think about and act on the content

In essence, a content marketing strategy requires your organization to become a custom publisher. You can publish blog posts like this one. You can publish ebooks. You can publish videos. You can publish white papers. The possibilities really are endless, which is why most organizations require a content marketing strategy for creation and distribution.

Why is content marketing so hot right now?

Joe Pulizzi of Junta42, one of the foremost experts on content marketing and a fellow judge of the B2B Twitter of the Year Awards, recently published the 2010 Content Marketing Spending Survey. Based on a survey of 259 marketing professionals, Junta42 found that content marketing spending will comprise 33% of the average marketing budget, up from 29% in 2008.

While I can likely come up with 20-25 reasons why content marketing is growing in popularity and sophistication, you don’t need to know 20-25. These five reasons should be enough to push organizations to pay more attention to content marketing:

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