Poetry In Marketing

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, I’m taking on a modern plague:

Why do my people

Keep giving me irrelevant

Stats that don’t matter?

Marketing today is drowning in data: social metrics, website traffic, open rates, NPS scores, you name it. But more data doesn’t always mean better decisions. In this episode, I break down how to separate signal from noise, why marketing should only be measured by what it can actually influ...

I’m a little under the weather in this episode, which actually makes today’s haiku hit even harder:

Marketing is

A discipline, and requires

Discipline in kind.

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, I talk about the gritty, unglamorous truth of marketing: consistency matters more than inspiration. Like sports, music, or cooking, your marketing muscles only get stronger when you show up and put in the reps… even on the days wh...

This time on Poetry and Marketing, I talk about the divide between sales and marketing:

What’s the difference

Between sales and marketing?

Just perceived value.

Sales and marketing have the same mission: driving revenue. So what's the difference? Sales is one-to-one. Marketing is one-to-many.

I also talk about scalability in the sales process. If you’ve ever felt stuck choosing between investing in marketing or hiring an...

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, I take aim at one of the most overused (and misleading) metaphors in the business world:

Funnels are stupid.

There isn’t any gravity

In a sales process.

Yeah, I said it. Sales funnels look great in diagrams, but anyone who’s actually sold something knows the process isn’t that clean—or that passive. In this episode, I explain why the funnel fails as a metaphor and offer a better one.

...

I love this episode's poem:

If marketing works,

Why do I spend so damn much

To be this pissed off?

It’s a joke… but it’s also not.

In this edition of Poetry In Marketing, I dig into the very real frustration so many CEOs and business owners feel when marketing doesn’t deliver, especially when they’re spending real money. The problem isn’t the budget. It’s how the money is being used. I dig into this issue and try to ref...

In this episode of Poetry In Marketing, I get into one of the more controversial issues modern marketers are dealing with, in a poem that may hit a little too close to home:

Our content is great…

At least that’s what I hear from

My ChatGPT.

AI is powerful. It’s fast. It’s affordable. And if we’re not careful, it’s going to drown us all in a sea of content that says a lot, but means very little.

In this episode, I talk about ...

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, we dive into one of the great clichés of creative work, captured in a single poetic line:

Just quit your whining

And make the logo bigger.

Design’s subjective.

Except… it’s not.

As someone who’s done a fair share of design over the years, I’m here to tell you: design is not about personal taste: it’s about purpose. Whether you’re building a website, a brochure, or a logo, the goal isn...

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, I’m digging into something that might change how you think about your entire marketing plan:

The budget isn’t

For buying marketing tactics—

It’s to fund success.

This is one of the most common mistakes I see: businesses build a budget based on what they want to buy (a website, some SEO, maybe an account-based campaign) and then assume the job is done once they’ve made the purchase. But w...

Today’s poem is a love letter to one of the most overlooked metrics in business:

Oh, lifetime value

How I long to see you grow

Our retention sucks.

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, I break down what Lifetime Value (LTV) actually is, how to calculate it in plain English, and why it’s one of the most powerful (and underused) ways to grow your business. Spoiler: it’s not just about getting more leads. It’s about making the...

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, I’m wearing a tie, so you know we’re getting classy. Today’s haiku goes like this:

Marketing can be

Unintentional, but it’s

Never optional.

Let’s talk about that.

I run into folks all the time who say, “Oh, we don’t do marketing.” They think handing out business cards, grabbing coffee, and working the referral game somehow exists outside of marketing. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.

In ...

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, I read you a haiku about branding:

If my love for thee

Could be expressed as a brand,

Of course it’s Apple.

Apple is the brand business owners mention nine times out of ten when I ask, “What brand would you want to emulate?” But here’s the catch: Apple, Nike and others in that echelon are legacy brands, built over decades with billions in investment. Most of us don’t have that runway.

So instead ...

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, I’m sharing a haiku I wrote just this morning:

Marketing planning

Needs more than authority;

It needs a leader.

I use this poem as a jumping-off point to talk about something I see all the time in small and mid-sized businesses: a massive leadership gap in marketing.

I walk through a typical (and deeply flawed) setup where a young, often underprepared marketing manager is thrown into ...