This Is Marketing: You Cant Be Seen Until You Learn to See

Advertising is a special case, an optional engine for growth
Media companies, telecommunication firms, and delivery services all make
money doing the same thing: selling the attention of those they ostensibly
serve.
You can buy an ad in a magazine, in an online network, or with a stamp.
In all three cases, you’ll be able to reach/interrupt/educate/engage with all
the people the intermediary promised. Anyone with a stamp can send a
letter.
You don’t have to earn this attention, since you can buy it.

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You’re no longer the outsider; now you’re the customer. You have cash
and you can use it to buy attention, whenever you want, in as much quantity
as you can afford.
Here’s the good news: when you find an ad approach that works, you can
scale it. You can scale it quickly and precisely.
And you’ve probably guessed the bad news: it’s not easy to find an ad
approach that works.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, but you need to be clear about what
you’re doing and why.
An ad, unnoticed, doesn’t exist.
A noticed ad is noticed by some people, not everyone. And, if it’s
noticed by the right people, it creates tension. The tension of not knowing
and needing to know more. The tension of being left behind. The tension
that things might get better (or worse).
Almost all TV advertising is simply semiotic noise. Reassuring the
viewer (“As seen on TV”) that this is a safe brand, a brand you and your
peers know, a brand that can afford to be on this box.
That’s a tax that major companies in competitive markets have to pay.
But it’s not the sort of marketing that’s realistic to consider for anyone else.
More than ever, but less than ever
More organizations run ads today than at any other time in history. If
you’ve ever hit the “boost” button on Facebook, you’re paying to be part of
the ad business.
It’s never been easier or cheaper to spend money to get the word out.
You can pay LinkedIn for the privilege of sending an email to a bigshot,
you can start by running free online ads for your nonprofit, and you can
easily promote your conference or your bake sale.
There are three elements to the magic of online advertising:
1. You can reach people more precisely online than in any other
medium. Not just the demographics of what they look like, but the
psychographics of what they believe and what they’re looking for.

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2. You can reach people instantly. You can decide to run an ad at 10
a.m. and have it reach people beginning at 10:01 a.m.
3. You can measure everything.
Since advertising is faster, cheaper, and more measurable than ever
before, why isn’t this the focus of all our marketing? Why isn’t this the
beginning and end of the discussion?
Because online advertising is also the most ignored advertising ever
created.
It’s not unusual to run an ad in front of a hundred thousand people and
get not a single click. It’s not unusual for an entire ad campaign to start, run,
and finish without making any impact on the culture.
Advertising is unearned media. It’s bought and paid for. And the people
you seek to reach know it. They’re suspicious. They’re inundated. They’re
exhausted.
You didn’t pay the recipient to run that ad, but you want the recipient to
pay you with their attention.
So you’re ignored.
It’s not that advertising can’t work. It’s simply that it’s not the right
answer for everyone, at least in this moment.