You're Not a Marketer If...
A not-so-gentle note about the dangers of modern marketing
You're not a marketer if...
You depend on 'intent' and 'signal data' tools like 6sense, warmly, or others to spy on your website visitors, de-anonymize them (identify them without their permission), put together a profile on them (without their consent), and enhance that profile with another tool like Clay (using more data about them stolen from other sources where they didn't realize they were being de-anonymized).
Could you imagine if this were done on medical sites? Financial sites?
It’s bad enough that companies such as Meta listen in on peoples private conversations in the confines of their own homes, and surface ads related to things they’ve spoken out loud. But to standardize that level of invasiveness in day-to-day marketing strategies and tools? Oh, no… no no no.
That's not warmly anything.
It's not a 6th sense.
It's cold and calculated. It’s invasive. It's a spy-tool, and you’re dabbling in the dangerous industry of intelligence.
You're treating people more like opponents in War Games instead of prospective customers and clients.
You're not a marketer.
You're an aggressive door-to-door sales representative knocking on digital doors with "No Soliciting" signs out front. And when nobody answers, you start taking notes and pictures of the exterior of the home, hop the fence into the backyard trying to open the back door and fiddling with the windows to see if any of them were left unlocked.
It’s just a numbers game. Eventually you’ll find a home to get into.
Once you make it inside, you start recording all of the family photos, sifting through documents in the office, collecting all the information you possibly can before they get home, and discover you've invaded their house.
That kind of story doesn't usually end well.
I can't see how yours fares any differently.
If you’re using any of these kind of ‘marketing tools’ … you’re not a marketer.
You’re a stalker.