No one can deny that there is a certain whimsical nature to marketing. One speaks to consumers through one medium or another, trying to say something memorable that brings out a smile. Though deadly serious, marketing professionals are the jesters of the business world.
If the word ‘whimsical’ was not invented to describe Lewis Carroll, then it was probably invented by the man himself. Certainly his most memorable characters are those that spout the most sense with the least logic- or the least sense with the most logic, depending on how you think of them.
Carroll gives an exemplary pair of sales-sharks in the tale of ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter.’ As told by Tweedledum and Tweedledee,(their very names suggest social media- Twitter, Tumblr and Tweedledee) the two not only convince the oysters to come and walk on the beach(a feat impractical for any mollusk) but got them to listen to the walrus so intently that they didn’t even notice that they were being eaten.
Now clearly the goal of marketing is not to eat one’s audience, but it is a good idea to have your audience bring their clams.
The pair is an apt picture of the components of marketing- and is far more applicable to the rising world of internet marketing. (In fact ‘Wonderland’ is a great way to describe the internet- but that is for another time.) The Carpenter and the Walrus, the technical and the talkative, are the two facets of inbound marketing.
Naturally the first guy you need to work online is a nerd. Nobody likes them and everyone loves them; everyone pities them and everyone is jealous of them. You can’t make a killing with computers if you don’t know how to use them like a pro.
The second skill needed is the windbag. All the best websites, blog setups, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts will catch no eyes without compelling content to hold the readers’ attention.
This pair has always been true of successful marketing, but in the past decade the rise of search engines, social media and blogs has drastically changed the focus of marketing from interruption to inbound. This has placed a new realm of emphasis upon the windbags(or writers, as they prefer to be called). Cash -or clams- comes from customers. Customers are drawn in by conversations- and conversations are driven by clear, compelling content.
The Walrus seems to do the bulk of the work to catch the oysters- so too does the content catch the customers. Compelling content brings the clams.
