Nothing gives you a better snapshot into the current state of corporate marketing quite like LinkedIn. For better and for worse.
LinkedIn is a corporate cesspool of terrible ideas, people begging for jobs, and DEI initiatives.
Case in point:
When I did my quarterly check in on LinkedIn that I do every once in a while to make sure there’s not a good opportunity sitting in my DMs, I scrolled through the hundreds of notifications LinkedIn sent me and stumbled upon pure gold:
LinkedIn wanted my answer to the following question, “You're facing client resistance to inclusive marketing. How do you turn pushback into progress?”
I about barfed.
They do NOT want my answer to this question for if I were to answer it honestly, I’d be booted from the cesspool itself.
Not because my answer is wrong, but because my answer is right.
First, this goes against one of my Ecom Cowboy Codes: Always be on Team Client. If you provide a service, serving your clients is the most important thing you do. Forcing them into a virtue signaling campaign in the name of the mystical and elusive “progress” which is nothing more than an Orwellian term instead of actually, you know, marketing their services and helping them grow their business is a fireable offense.
Second, as I alluded to in the last paragraph, it completely misses the point of marketing. Marketing ain’t about social justice, DEI initiatives, or pushing your political views on an audience. It’s about generating attention and sales for your business.
Third, are we kidding ourselves here?
Did Jaguar not just receive immense backlash for their woke ad and soulless rebrand?
Did Bud Light not just have to poach Shane Gillis to get rid of the terrible aftertaste Dylan Mulvaney left in Bud Light consumers’ mouths?
Did Victoria Secret not suffer a sales collapse after trying to be more “inclusive?”
Didn’t Trump just win in a landslide for many of these reasons?
And wtf does “inclusive marketing” even mean?
Are marketers now pretending that having a tightly defined niche and speaking to that specific audience is a bad idea so they can virtue signal about their political views?
It’s silly at best and insidious at worst.
But you know what?
There are still some “good guys” out there, like your humble daily-ish narrator here, who are more interested in helping grow your business than shaming you into being more inclusive because of reasons.
Hit reply if you need help growing your business with email—as long as you don’t want me to write “inclusive” emails that will make your customers hate your guts.
John
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