Claim to fame: <\/strong>Brian\u2019s been covering digital media and marketing long enough to remember when Pets.com was a thing.<\/p>\nLesson 1: Stop peeing in the pool.<\/h2>\n
When every digital marketing channel is in a state of change, all of the usual playbooks are out the window \u2014 but Brian Morrissey sees this as more of a correction than a catastrophe.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery business got used to distribution being a commodity that you could just purchase off the shelf<\/strong>,\u201d he says. For years, you could pay for a nearly guaranteed audience on almost any channel. \u201cBut this is contrary to how marketing in general has worked\u2026 forever.\u201d<\/p>\nMorrissey points out that the rise of performance marketing led (perhaps inevitably) to an era of growth hacks. A generation of marketers trying to find the one weird trick to go viral.<\/p>\n
\u201cShow me the incentives, I\u2019ll show you the outcome. And the incentives have been about quantity, not quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result is that \u201cthere\u2019s been a ton of mid-level to low-level content pumped out. And with AI, that\u2019s going to become untenable. You can scale low-level content to infinity. It\u2019s peeing in the pool.<\/strong> Everyone<\/em> has to get out.\u201d<\/p>\nTo Morrissey, that means the Growth Hack Era is coming to a close, and he isn\u2019t mourning.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrue marketing is not just looking for distribution seams before they close<\/strong>,\u201d he says. \u201cThis shift is going to put an emphasis on having a truly great product, and it\u2019s going to rely much more on word of mouth. You\u2019re going to need to earn <\/em>distribution.\u201d<\/p>\nIn other words, we\u2019re back to the basics. Marketing 101.<\/p>\n\n
Lesson 2: Keep what works. But build for the future.<\/h2>\n
Now, Morrissey isn\u2019t saying distribution is or will be unimportant \u2014 and abandoning effective channels would be a costly mistake \u2014 but he does recommend taking a long view of marketing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean all that stuff goes away,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it probably stands to reason that, for example, marketers should plan for SEO to continue to go down.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the irony of what I\u2019m about to say isn\u2019t lost on me, but\u2026 pay attention to what you\u2019re seeing, not just what the experts are saying. Especially when those experts are also the sellers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this strange thing where Google comes out and says \u2018We\u2019re sending just as much traffic to everyone,\u2019 but every publisher I talk to is seeing way less traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n
As these distribution seams shift, Morrissey predicts that most<\/em><\/strong> <\/strong>marketers will simply continue to jump from tactic to tactic. \u201cOh, email is flooded? We\u2019re going to start texting people,\u201d he grins.<\/p>\nBut that means there\u2019s a big advantage for those who start to think about what they\u2019re working towards.<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s about continuing to try to win at the methods you\u2019ve been relying on, but also building what the future looks like in 5 years.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n\nLesson 3: People trust people, not institutions.<\/h2>\n
\u201cOne of the big shifts we\u2019re seeing right now is from institutions to individuals,\u201d Morrissey says. \u201cPeople trust people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Think of the current rise of microinfluencers, executive social presences, and lo-fi marketing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a little overwrought,\u201d he confesses. \u201cBut I think the direction of travel is pretty clear: Individuals will have leverage in the marketplace over institutions.<\/strong> I don\u2019t expect institutional trust to bounce back all of a sudden.\u201d<\/p>\nIn practical terms, that means highlighting the humanity behind your brand. Take a scroll through any HubSpot blog or email and notice that we no longer use the \u201croyal we.\u201d Three years ago, I would have written this as HubSpot. <\/em>Now I get to write it as Curt, a human being who happens to be an employee of HubSpot. (Nice to meet you!)<\/p>\nBut Morrissey cautions that you need to have realistic expectations here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s leverage in personality, but don\u2019t expect to create another Sam Parr,\u201d he says, talking about the creator of The Hustle<\/em>. Sticking with that example, he points out that HubSpot didn\u2019t create <\/em>Sam Parr \u2014 it just bought his brand.<\/p>\n\u201cThe reason people like Sam have such enduring influence is because it\u2019s organic.\u201d Creating an authentic, organic personality is rare and difficult \u2014 and that\u2019s exactly why it\u2019s valuable. \u201cI don\u2019t think Sam was created in a marketing lab.\u201d<\/p>\n