Author Archives: markpilip

Know and Value Your Customer: A Forgotten Rule

Posted on Friday, 24 July 2020 7:52 am

One of the hardest things to teach marketers is that our customers are everything and that our brands are–in the minds and lives of our customers–tiny, inconsequential things. That level of humility can be hard to achieve, but it’s necessary … Continue reading →

Posted in Marketing, Strategy | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Chumbox Your Users While Taboolaing Your Brand Equity

Posted on Monday, 1 June 2020 11:59 am

Avinash Kaushik created a (new to me) term the other day. In his email on Friday, he coined the term Taboolaing to refer to the use of the chumboxes offered by dreadful companies like Taboola to destroy one’s brand equity. … Continue reading →

Posted in Branding, Leadership, Marketing, Strategy | Tagged , , , , ,

You’re Probably Laundering Oligarch Bucks

Posted on Monday, 16 December 2019 9:42 am

It seems the ad fraud perpetrated by the adtech industry on advertisers (by design) might help some other folks out. Like Russian oligarchs with their stolen loot. It is way easier to setup advertising networks to launder one’s stolen dollars … Continue reading →

Posted in fraud | Tagged , ,

Killing the Paywall

Posted on Monday, 12 August 2019 7:56 am

Tom Goodwin’s recent article, “Why making content on the internet free was our biggest mistake… and how to fix it” is required reading for all marketers in publishing. I’ve felt this way for a long time. Mr. Goodwin only wrote … Continue reading →

Posted in digital marketing, Leadership, Marketing, Media, Strategy, Tactics | Tagged , , , ,

D-Day

Posted on Thursday, 6 June 2019 9:15 am

It’s pitch black, 00:16 hours and you’ve just crash-landed near Caen. You’re in hostile territory, lost, and some of your comrades are already dead and wounded. You’re just 20 years old and have never been in combat. So began D-Day … Continue reading →

Posted in Leadership | Tagged , , , , ,

USPS 3685 and the State of Marketing

Posted on Tuesday, 23 April 2019 7:00 am

Sometimes reading the USPS-required Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation (form 3685) can reveal a lot about the state of one’s industry. As a direct marketing and postal junkie, I find USPS forms fascinating. (I don’t get out much.) I … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Education, Marketing, Strategy | Tagged , , ,

First Mile Problems

Posted on Thursday, 18 April 2019 7:30 am

I was recently interviewed by Tim Furey, CEO of MarketBridge, on The Last Mile Podcast. Among our discussion of SAC, CAC, LTV, ROI, other three-letter acronyms, we also spent time on “first mile” marketing problems. As a practicing performance/direct response … Continue reading →

Posted in Direct Response, Marketing, Media, Philosophy, Rants, Strategy, Tactics | Tagged , , ,

At the End

Posted on Wednesday, 6 March 2019 11:07 am

When my brother-in-law passed away early Sunday, his wife was by his side. I hope to be as lucky. Godspeed, John. Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | Tagged | 3 Comments

Buy direct

Posted on Sunday, 10 February 2019 1:14 pm

There’s only one correct way to buy ads, and that’s direct from the publisher. If you buy any other way you’ll pay too much in adtech tax or get scammed buying something that’s not what you think it is. Probably … Continue reading →

Posted in digital marketing, fraud, Media | Tagged ,

Ads on blogs

Posted on Monday, 26 November 2018 9:24 am

I just had a chance to check my blog. Here’s the type of quality ad that gets served on blogs like mine. Do you know if the creative is automatically generated by some brilliant AI? Or have you ever really … Continue reading →

Posted in digital marketing, Direct Response, Marketing, Media, Tactics | Tagged , , , , , , ,