Marketing for humans means ditching some of the tech — yes, really

Well, this seems like a bit of a strange idea — writing for a technology-focused audience to tell them that marketing has become too technology-obsessed.

But here we are.

Over the last couple of decades, marketing a business has become wildly complex — a (mostly) good thing, because this complexity is borne of an explosion of data that we can now mine thanks to the astonishing growth of the martech sector. If you’ve never seen the MarTech SuperGraphic, take a peep. Ten years ago, there were about 150 martech companies; today there are 8,000.

It means we’re way past the era of buying ads in print media and hoping it works. We can track this stuff now. We can keep score. And we must.

But many of us have gone too far. We’re so focused on the tech and the numbers that we’ve lost the human element. We’re marketing to algorithms, rather than marketing to humans. In marketing, your job is to create a connection to a human being. News flash: People buy from people. This requires a never-ending effort to create and maintain trust-based relationships that smooth the path for a human being to buy something.

Too often, this truth gets brushed aside by the obsession with building the perfect martech stack.

Technology is the enabler, not the goal. Tech can make it easier to scale your marketing brilliance, but if you focus too tightly on the 1s and 0s, your marketing will never be brilliant.

Creating this relationship begins with a deep understanding of our customers. You have to understand their wants and needs, how they make buying decisions and who influences those decisions. We need to have empathy for their position, and then create marketing materials that demonstrate that we have that empathy, and just might be able to help.

It’s a lot of work. Good news — technology can help!

But humans will bring it to life. We need to get back to that.

To help elevate this idea, Scribewise is putting on the first-ever Marketing for Humans event. It’s a half-day virtual conference set for Tuesday, April 13. We have some great speakers lined up:

• Natalie Nixon, author of “The Creativity Leap“
• Michael Brenner, author and veteran tech CMO
• Gerry Moran, former global head of social for SAP and Cognizant
• Bill Gullan, president of Finch Brands
• Plus other smart folks

The cost is $25, with all proceeds going to charities chosen by our speakers.

It’s a chance to have your thoughts provoked, do some learning, engage in debate and do some good. See you there.