Summary: Why does most marketing stink?<br> According to Michael Brenner, “the reason most of the marketing that we do that stinks and doesn’t work is that some executive with a big ego asked us to do it.”<br> On top of that, marketers are not in a happy place.<br> According to MarketingProfs <a href="https://www.marketingprofs.com/content/report/39801/conversion">2019 Marketer Happiness Report</a>, “Only 10% of marketers say they were very fulfilled in their work.” The report looked at the dimensions of feeling fulfilled, valued, energized by the work, that our work is impactful, and engaged.<br> That’s why I interviewed Michael Brenner (<a href="https://twitter.com/BrennerMichael">@BrennerMichae</a>l), the CEO of <a href="https://marketinginsidergroup.com/">Marketing Insider Group</a> to talk about his new book <a href="https://meanpeoplesuck.com/">Mean People Suck</a>.<br> We need more empathy and inside our companies so that we can empathize more with our customers.<br> According to Michael Brenner, “The most counter-intuitive secret to success in business and life is empathy.” I’m excited to bring his thoughts on empathy to you.<br> In this interview you’ll learn about asking what’s in it for the customer, rethinking your org chart, and the changes you need to make to be more successful today.<br> <br> Why did you write Mean People Suck?<br> Michael: Again, I must give you credit. You were out in front of this empathy topic in marketing.<br> I think long before me. Kudos to you. It just took me a little longer, but mainly as a content marketer and as a former internal corporate marketer, I reached out to folks that I know that are still living and breathing corporate marketing struggles every day.<br> And I found a couple of things, number one was that marketers were miserable. It’s like that scene from, I think it’s Poltergeist where the obsessed woman has help written on her. Was it Poltergeist? Anyway, there was a woman possessed, and the words help showed up on her stomach because<br> I feel like a lot of internal corporate marketers feel that way. They’re miserable.<br> Why marketers are so miserable?<br> Michael: When you get down to it, what I’ve found is that it’s mainly because they hate their boss.<br> They don’t love the corporate culture. They’re not happy with what they’re being asked to do. They feel they don’t have an impact.<br> When I looked at why content marketing programs aren’t successful, the answer superficially was content ROI. What’s the ROI of content? And if you don’t mind me, I’m not being promotional, but I wrote a book called <a href="https://thecontentformula.com/">The Content Formula</a>, All About Content Marketing ROI.<br> And when I went back to folks, I sent the book to, what I found was that it wasn’t enough. The math isn’t enough to get people over the challenges that we’re facing and how to do marketing that doesn’t suck.<br> Most marketing stinks for this reason<br> Michael: The answer is the reason I wrote the book is that most of the marketing that we do that stinks and doesn’t work, is because some executive with a big ego asked us to do it.<br> [click_to_tweet tweet=”‘The reason most of the marketing that we do that stinks and doesn’t work is that some executive with a big ego asked us to do it’ – @BrennerMichael author @MeanPeopleSuckk #marketing #empathy” quote=”The reason most of the marketing that we do that stinks and doesn’t work is that some executive with a big ego asked us to do it – Michael Brenner”]<br> Executives love seeing logos on stadiums, and they love seeing super bowl ads, and all the things that we make fun of marketing about primarily come from a request from sales or marketing or product people.<br> And the companies where content marketing is successfu...
