Keith Richards says that all music is derivative. In fact, his quote is “There’s only one song, and Adam and Eve wrote it; the rest is a variation on a theme.” All music is building upon that theme or putting your spin on it. In order to better understand your favorite musicians, you can learn a lot by exploring the artists that inspired them. You’ll hear a lot of those influences in their own music. Also, you can look at marketing influencers in much the same way.
The main marketing themes and concepts have been around for a long time. While technologies and the form of the message may evolve, marketers put their focus on certain aspects to form their style and beliefs. And, like musicians, you can also see our influences come through in our marketing style.
I started thinking about this while listening to Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose’ s podcast, This Old Marketing. They were discussing an article by Robert M. Sacks, who Pulizzi mentioned he likes. I found and read the article because I’m always interested in knowing who the experts enjoy reading. This then led me to think deeper about who influenced them as they were shaping their viewpoints.
I came up with three examples of top content marketers (all who happen to be from Cleveland) who influence me and who influenced them. First is Jim Kukral. I first saw him speak at a conference at which he was talking about his book, Attention! This Book Will Make You Money. One of his influences is the book Marketing Outrageously by Jon Spoelstra. By reading Spoelstra’s book first, I was able to see how it influenced Kukral in his writing of Attention! Because I understood one of his influences, I got a much broader aspect of Kukral and his viewpoint.
Next is Joe Pulizzi (again). One of his marketing influences is Don E. Schultz from Northwestern University. He was a keynote speakers at Content Marketing World 2013. In his thought-provoking presentation, he made two points that stood out. These were that content marketing will bring the industry back to true storytelling and marketers would focus on customers’ needs. If you’re heard Pulizzi speak, then you know these are points that Pulizzi preaches.
Finally, Jeff Rohrs, author of Audience – Marketing in the Age of Subscribers, Fans & Followers, is someone I’ve seen speak many times. He’s influenced by the books The One to One Future by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, PH.D., Flip the Funnel by Joseph Jaffe, and Permission Marketing by Seth Godin. Now, I haven’t had a chance to read these yet, but they’re on my reading list for this year and I can’t wait to get to them. Knowing Rohrs’s background as a lawyer, I’m curious to see how that frame of reference combines with these marketing influences to shape his viewpoints.
So, who influences you? Have you looked back to see who influenced them? Tell me if you learned from looking into it below.