Marketing rules have transformed dramatically since the dawn of the digital age, yet some fundamental principles remain unchanged. In this episode of “Marketing Demystified”, host Jenn Mancusi, Growgetter CEO and co-founder, speaks with David Meerman Scott, author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR,” now in its ninth edition, about the evolution of marketing strategies and what really works today.
The birth of new marketing rules
David’s journey into modern marketing began in the late 1990s. While others viewed the web primarily as an advertising vehicle, he recognized its potential as a publishing platform. This insight gave him what he calls an “unfair advantage” in understanding the future of marketing.
“I saw that the web was a metaphor around publishing content, as opposed to what all marketers thought it was, which was an advertising vehicle,” David explains. This perspective led him to advocate for content creation through websites, email newsletters, and photographs when others focused solely on advertising.
Timeless marketing strategies
While tools and technologies have evolved dramatically since the first edition of Scott’s book in 2007, the core strategies remain constant. The fundamental shift has been from the old rules—buying attention through advertising and traditional PR—to new rules centered on understanding buyers and creating valuable content.
David emphasizes that many organizations still make a crucial mistake: focusing too heavily on their products and services rather than their customers’ needs. “Most people don’t care about products. What they care about are about themselves, and they care about solving their problems,” he notes.
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The power of educational content
To illustrate effective content marketing, David shares his experience planning a month-long hike on Vermont’s Long Trail—273 miles from the Canada Border to the Massachusetts border, with 68,000 feet of vertical elevation gain. As a novice hiker, he needed to learn about gear, communication tools, and survival essentials. His research led him to companies that provided educational content about ultralight backpacking and gear selection.
These companies earned his business not through aggressive advertising but by understanding his needs as a buyer persona and providing valuable information.
“I felt as if they knew who I was, that they understood me,” David reflects, noting he was “somebody who was ready for a long distance backpacking trip, but still needed to learn about the gear.”
Major marketing transformations
Two significant changes have revolutionized marketing over the past two decades:
Real-time communications
About a dozen years ago, the shift to real-time web communications transformed how marketers could engage with their audience. This change led David to develop the concept of “newsjacking”—now in the Oxford English Dictionary crediting him as the founder—which involves creating real-time content around breaking news to insert your expertise into current conversations.
Artificial intelligence
The emergence of AI, particularly in the last two years with tools like ChatGPT, has opened new possibilities for content creation and data analysis. David emphasizes the importance of using AI with your own data rather than relying on public internet content.
“I’m not really a fan of using AI to create content on public internet data, because that’s a rehash of what someone else has already done,” he explains.
Navigating change while staying focused
With constant changes in marketing platforms and tools, he advises focusing on a few key channels and doing them well rather than trying to be everywhere.
“My recommendation always is to focus on a few things and do them really well, rather than try to do too much,” he says.
He encourages marketers to choose media formats that align with their strengths—whether that’s writing, video, audio, or visual content—rather than feeling pressured to excel in all formats.
“I have many people who say to me, I don’t know how I can do content and create content and do marketing, because I’m not a writer. Doesn’t matter. Use video, use audio. There’s all sorts of different ways to get out there,” David advises.