SPECIAL SERIES ==>7 Deadly Sins of MARKETING!<== | BATHROOM Break #51 COLLAB: The Marketing Millennials + Do This, Not That)

Summary

Podcast Summary: SPECIAL SERIES ==>7 Deadly Sins of MARKETING!<== | BATHROOM Break #51 COLLAB: The Marketing Millennials + Do This, Not That

Release Date: April 14, 2025

In this special collaborative episode of "Do This, NOT That!" presented by Marigold, host Jay Schwedelson teams up with Daniel Murray from the Marketing Millennials podcast to dissect the "Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing." Delivered in a relaxed "Bathroom Break" format, the episode blends insightful marketing strategies with light-hearted banter, making complex concepts accessible and engaging.

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1. Marketing to Everyone vs. Targeting One Person

Timestamp: [02:03]

Daniel Murray opens the discussion by highlighting the peril of marketing to a broad audience. He emphasizes that attempting to appeal to everyone results in diluted messaging and indistinct campaigns, ultimately making a brand indistinguishable from its competitors.

"If you market to everyone, your messaging gets vague, your campaigns are diluted. You don't have, you're not different from everybody."
– Daniel Murray

Insight: Effective marketing requires a precise focus on a specific target audience. By tailoring messages to resonate with a single, well-defined persona, brands can create more impactful and memorable campaigns.

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2. The Misconception of Best Practices

Timestamp: [02:42]

Jay Schwedelson criticizes the overreliance on "best practices," labeling many as outdated or ineffective. He argues that what is considered a best practice today may become obsolete tomorrow, urging marketers to continually test and adapt strategies rather than blindly follow established norms.

"The overwhelming majority of best practices are garbage."
– Jay Schwedelson

Insight: Marketers should prioritize innovation and experimentation over rigid adherence to conventional wisdom. Testing and validating strategies ensures they remain relevant and effective in a rapidly evolving landscape.

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3. Underestimating the Importance of Brand

Timestamp: [03:29]

Daniel Murray addresses the misconception that branding is optional or solely a component of performance marketing. He defines brand not just by visual elements like fonts and colors but by reputation, every customer touchpoint, and the unique "vibe" that differentiates a company. He advocates for integrating brand marketing with performance strategies to create a cohesive and powerful market presence.

"Brand isn't your fonts, your colors, a manifesto... It's brand is your reputation. It's every touch point. It's your vibe."
– Daniel Murray

Insight: A strong brand foundation enhances all marketing efforts, fostering trust and loyalty. Integrating brand and performance marketing ensures that every campaign reinforces the brand's identity and values.

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4. The Pitfall of Last Click Attribution

Timestamp: [04:30]

Jay Schwedelson identifies last click attribution as a significant mistake in marketing measurement. This method inaccurately credits the final interaction before a conversion, ignoring the broader, long-term efforts that keep a brand top-of-mind throughout a consumer's journey.

"Last click attribution... is complete nonsense and garbage."
– Jay Schwedelson

Insight: Marketers should adopt a more holistic approach to attribution, recognizing the cumulative impact of multiple touchpoints. Embracing multi-touch attribution models provides a clearer understanding of how various interactions contribute to conversions.

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5. Jumping to Tactics Without Strategy

Timestamp: [05:26]

Daniel Murray warns against the common temptation to dive straight into marketing tactics without a solid underlying strategy. He illustrates how focusing on immediate, tactical actions—like running paid ads or producing content calendars—without defining overarching goals and target audiences leads to ineffective campaigns.

"Come up with a strategy and then choose what tactics fit into that strategy, not the opposite way around."
– Daniel Murray

Insight: Strategic planning should precede tactical execution. Defining clear objectives and understanding the target audience guide the selection of appropriate tactics, ensuring cohesive and purposeful marketing efforts.

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6. Relying on Industry Averages

Timestamp: [06:19]

Jay Schwedelson dismisses the utility of industry averages, arguing that each brand's unique attributes make such benchmarks irrelevant. He advocates for internal benchmarking, where marketers measure their performance against their own past results to foster continuous improvement.

"There's no such thing as an industry average... All that matters is that you treat yourself like you're a swimmer or a weightlifter. You benchmark everything that you're doing."
– Jay Schwedelson

Insight: Personalized benchmarks based on historical performance provide more actionable insights than generic industry metrics. Continuous self-assessment drives tailored improvements that align with a brand's specific goals and circumstances.

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7. Humorous Take: Avoiding "Poo Tropical" Over Chipotle

Timestamp: [07:48]

In a light-hearted twist, Jay introduces the seventh sin by mocking the choice between well-known brands like Chipotle and a fictitious "Poo Tropical." This humorous segment serves to break the intensity of the discussion while subtly reinforcing the importance of brand reputation.

"The seventh sin is avoid Chipotle all day long and go to Poo Tropical instead."
– Jay Schwedelson

Insight: While presented humorously, this point underscores the critical role of brand perception. Brands must ensure their reputation is consistently positive to retain customer loyalty and avoid negative associations.

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Conclusion and Personal Anecdotes

As the discussion wraps up, Jay and Daniel share personal stories, adding a relatable and personable touch to the episode. Jay recounts his birthday celebrations, while Daniel playfully teases about their podcast collaborations. The episode concludes with mutual promotion of their respective podcasts, encouraging listeners to engage further with both "Do This, NOT That!" and the Marketing Millennials.

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Key Takeaways:

• Targeted Marketing: Focus on specific personas to create impactful messages.
• Beyond Best Practices: Continuously test and innovate rather than adhering strictly to established norms.
• Brand Integration: Seamlessly blend brand and performance marketing for a unified strategy.
• Holistic Attribution: Adopt comprehensive attribution models to understand the full scope of marketing effectiveness.
• Strategic Planning: Prioritize strategy before diving into tactical execution.
• Internal Benchmarking: Measure success against personal benchmarks instead of industry averages.
• Brand Reputation: Maintain a strong and positive brand image to foster customer loyalty.

This episode serves as a valuable resource for marketers seeking to refine their strategies, avoid common pitfalls, and achieve sustained success in a competitive landscape.

Transcript

[Daniel Murray]

Welcome to a new special series called the Bathroom break. That extra 10 minutes you either have to listen to marking tips or use the bathroom. Or both. But I don't recommend both. But that's your choice.

[Jay Schwedelson]

This collab is going to be super fun. We have Daniel Murray from the Marketing Millennials, and me, Jay Schwedelson from the do this, not that podcast and subjectline.com each episode in the series, we are going to go over quick tips about different marketing topics. And if you want to be in the bathroom, fine, just don't tell us about it. Thanks for checking it out. We are back for another bathroom break. I'm Jay Schwedelson from Do this, not that Podcast. And I'm here with the great Daniel Murray from the Marketing Millennials podcast. And today, we're going to be ripping through the seven deadly sins of marketing. But before we get to that, I want to know something. We were just talking about that you had to drive somewhere, and I'm curious about something. Are you, like, an aggressive driver? Do you honk at people? Do you go fast? Are you like, hey, man, doesn't matter. I'll get there when I get there.

[Daniel Murray]

One thing about me is I lived in LA for seven years, so I got used to having to be patient as a driver. If I'm late, then I start getting into a little panicky. But I think as I got a little older, my little road ranges got still. But what about you?

[Jay Schwedelson]

Oh, I'm. I'm horrible. I. I get honked at. I don't honk at people because I drive pretty slow, and it drives my wife crazy how slow I drive. She basically thinks it's dangerous how slow I drive.

[Daniel Murray]

That's Ari's dad, too. Ari's dad will be driving, like 60 on a 65, and everybody behind him is like, go, dude, go.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's my V. I don't care. I'll get there. And everyone, he's just chill. All right? But what's not chill is today's episode we're going to rip through right now. The seven deadly sins of marketing. There's things that just forget it. Don't do it, don't think about it, whatever. Daniel, kick it off. What do you got first?

[Daniel Murray]

This one might sound basic, but I always need people to remember this is marketing to everybody. I think that is one of the biggest deadly sins that I see. And the reason why I say this is because if you market to everyone, your messaging gets vague, your campaigns are diluted. You don't have, you're not different from everybody. So you have to market to one person because if nobody sees themselves and your brand, then nobody's going to buy your brand. So all your messaging, you should think about marketing to one person. Who's that? One person that is going to buy your product.

[Jay Schwedelson]

I totally agree with you. When you market to everybody, you're marketing to nobody. And one for me that has always stuck in my mind is about best practices. You'll go to a meeting, oh well, best practice says we should do this. The overwhelming majority of best practices are garbage. They're outdated by the time they become a best practice, they're useless. And every company that has like a resource tab on their site and they have a blog and they're putting out content, this is the best practice for this. That whatever, they're just regurgitating old information. And whatever you think is a best practice, you have to test into to see if it's true. And whatever is taboo in your organization that says, oh, we could never do that, that would never work, we're not allowed to do that. That is probably what you need to test first. So I think best practices are actual garbage. What do you got?

[Daniel Murray]

I agree on that. If you do best practices, that you're probably five years behind the curve because it's become mainstream. The next deadly sin I have for you is thinking brand is optional and also thinking brand is in performance marketing. I think a lot of people get caught up between brand and branding. Brand isn't your fonts, your colors, a manifesto that you have in your Google Docs buried somewhere. It's brand is your reputation. It's every touch point. It's your vibe. It's the reason people choose you. And your, your product isn't different as different than everybody. So stop thinking you can't invest in brand. And also I get annoyed. All marketing is performance marketing. I don't care what you're doing. So if you brand helps performance, performance helps brand. So stop thinking you can't do brand marketing.

[Jay Schwedelson]

And I want to build on that for a second. When you're talking about performance marketing, I want to talk about last click attribution. This is probably the biggest mistake in marketing. Takes people down the wrong path. Where you're running a search ad, you're on a paid social campaign, you send out an email and the person clicks on the thing, they sign up for the webinar, they ask for a demo, they buy that direct to consumer product. And then you assign the fact that you got this customer or this lead or this opportunity from that click from that thing that they did, which is complete nonsense and garbage. Marketing is surround sound. You need to constantly be everywhere at all times. So when the person's in market for what it is that you sell, you are top of mind. And yeah, they might have clicked on that that ad at that moment, but it's because of that year long effort that you've been. Your budgeting and your planning is based on last click attribution. It is probably the the biggest fail that you can have in marketing.

[Daniel Murray]

I want to build on a little bit of talking about running ads and picking channels and all that stuff. I think one of the biggest deadly sins in marketing is skipping strategy and going straight to tactics. And what I mean by that I always hear like, hey, we need to run paid ads, but who you running those paid ads to? What's the offer? What's happened next after the offer? Oh, we need a podcast. Cool. What is the hook of the project? Who's the podcast for? How does that tie to revenue? Oh, we need a 40 post content calendar. What's the strategy? Why? What are the posts? A lot of people think busy equals effective in marketing and you need the reason. Tactics seem cool because they are sexy. Strategy is slow. So come up with a strategy and then choose what tactics fit into that strategy, not the opposite way around.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Dude, I need to follow that. I'm in the middle of a mess because like all we're doing is releasing more and more garbage and we need a better strategy. So I am going to focus in on that. The last one from my side. Well, not the last one, almost the last one is don't rely on industry averages. I hate when people are like, well I'm in this industry and I just googled the industry average for open rates and click through rates for emails. Is this or the industry average for social media or whatever? Is this in my industry? Who cares? Everybody's brand is different. Your offer is different, your creative is different, how people feel about your company is different. Everything is different. There's no such thing as an industry average and if you rely on that, you're chasing a ghost. All that matters is that you treat yourself like you're a swimmer or a weightlifter. You benchmark everything that you're doing. Your newsletter sends your promotional email, sends your social posts organically, your paid social posts, everything. The type of offers, when you're sending them, what you're doing, you benchmark yourself. And then every time you do it again, every time you hit send, you try to beat yourself as if you are a swimmer. Ignore industry averages. They take you down the wrong path.

[Daniel Murray]

And it's also tell your leaders to do that too, because a lot of people will come back to marketers and say, well, industry average is 2.3 on this landing page. But we're not the industry average. We have a different campaign, we have a different strategy. So I totally agree on that. I think you have the. The. The seventh sin. Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Jay Schwedelson]

The seventh sin. Okay. The seventh sin is avoid Chipotle all day long and go to Poo Tropical instead. Because Poo Tropical under the radar, way better than Chipotle. Are you in on that?

[Daniel Murray]

No. Poyo Tropical. Last time I ate Poo Tropical, I almost barfed. I think that's the worst. The wor. Worst place. But I did actually see. I saw a poster Coachella last week that they said like, our lineup. And it was just like their bar of like, how you pick all the Chipotle. I thought that was a genius thing because Coachella is like known to launch lineup. I know I just went on a tangent about Coachella and Chipotle.

[Jay Schwedelson]

But so. So what did you so upon Tropical? They have this good mojo sauce, which is really good. Like, what is it that went wrong? I mean, it's chicken and they have like rice and beans. It's so good.

[Daniel Murray]

First of all, I'm El Pollo Loco, and if you're from California, you know, you know Pollocho Picao. Every Pollo cho pacal I've seen on Google is rated under a 3.3 star. So I don't know what you're eating at Puerto Choco. That's good.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Well, now they're never going to sponsor this podcast. Way to go. They were on the edge. They were about to jump in on this. They were so pumped. And now we lost them.

[Daniel Murray]

Wait. Last thing I want to end with is, could you tell everybody what you did for your birthday? I know we talked about your birthday last episode, but what did you do for your birthday?

[Jay Schwedelson]

So I did go see Black Bag, which was very good. Although my wife thought it was mid at best. I ate a lot of popcorn, which was great. And then I sat home. And then I went out for dinner. I had sushi, Only me and her. I lied to everybody I knew. I said I was busy and I was asleep by 10 o'clock and it was fantastic. Less is more. I don't want to go and do anything. How's that?

[Daniel Murray]

Well, you always. Yeah. And the last thing I'll have to say is for those who don't know, Jay is a Gator. And the Gators won national championship. We'll have to say Go Gators. As we end this podcast.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Yeah, Go Gators. For sure. And it made me stay up very late to watch the game, but I did it and we won. And Go Gators. And thank you. I appreciate you bringing that up. Very important. And thank you, everyone, for being here. Listen, go and follow the marketing Millennials. This is a great podcast that he's got going on there. And do this, not that is. Eh, it's okay. We'll see you at the next one. Daniel, come on, man. I gotta get back to work. Get out of there. All right, while he's still in there. This is Jay. Check out my podcast, do this, not that for marketers. Each week we share really quick tips on stuff that can improve your marketing and hope you give it a try. Oh, here's Daniel. He's finally out.

[Daniel Murray]

Back from my bathroom break. This is Daniel. Go follow the Mark and Millennials podcast, but also tune into this series. It's once a week, the Bathroom Break. We talk about marketing tips that we just spew out. And it could be anything from email subject line to any marketing tips in the world. We'll talk about it. Just give us a a shout on LinkedIn and tell us what you want to hear. Peace out.

[Jay Schwedelson]

Later.