Gimme Presents! Sass Marketing Turns 1

On Thursday, Oct. 6, this sassy little corner of the Web hits its one-year blogiversary. Now sure, I could quote some Grateful Dead with the classic, "What a long strange trip it's been ..." but that's not accurate. It hasn't been strange — it's been eye-opening, it's been challenging and, most importantly, it's been career-driving. I'm not a classically trained journalist, or even someone with a shiny degree in marketing hanging on her wall. I'm a former English major/theater minor who decided teaching a classroom full of children was not for her, so I went to graduate school to study the nitty-gritty of the publishing world, and I ended up here. Need a layout crafted? No problem. Need an article edited and copyfitted, and some design notes drafted for an art director? I'm your lady. Need a marketing automation case study? *Crickets* And because of that, for a very long time I had convinced myself I wasn't a writer — at least in this industry — and my place wasn't to write for Target Marketing ... instead, that's something my colleagues do very well, while I excel at project management. Then I went to Content Marketing World in September 2015, got all fired up and upon my return I basically walked into Thorin's office and told him I was going to keep a weekly blog. I declared that I was going to be sassy and have an opinion on just about any little thing I found in marketing ... and his response was "Cool. Do it." And so I have done just that, thanks to support from friends and colleagues, as well my never-ending bucket of opinions. In honor of this milestone, here's a quick list of both my favorite posts, as well as some fan favorites! Fan Favorites • Netflix Causes Customer Freakout. Fun fact ... a number of my coworkers found out about the Netflix increase through this post! It's one of my most-viewed posts, and while it was a bit more newsy, but my major takeaway was this: "Your customers, subscribers, readers should not have to google to find out about necessary information, like a price increase." • Finger Lickin' Gross: KFC Goes Too Far. Much like me, people had FEELINGS about this one ... so much so they jumped into the comments. Of course, this was simply the start to KFC taunting me (in my opinion). And though I am trying to be less cranky, this still stands true for me: "I’m a firm believer in creating and marketing worthwhile products. Does that mean I’m anti-fun? No. But there are limits, and lickable nail polish exceeds the limits for me." • You Won't Believe What Happens Next in this Shocking Post About Clickbait. Yeah, I went there. I wrote a jokey, clickbait headline and people clicked, read and commented. The key takeaway? "... remember, there is a difference between provoking your reader to make the click, then delivering on that headline, and being a lazy marketer who's just out for clicks. Don't be that guy." Sass Favorites • Stop Kanye'ing Your Audience. First confession: I have a professional crush on Wil Reynolds because he is both incredibly smart and a fantastic presenter. But I digress. What has always stuck with me is when he said, "People don't buy products, they buy better versions of themselves ..." • David Bowie: The King of Reinvention. This was a piece that I knew I needed to write, but I also wanted to make sure it was appropriate for our audience. I found my connecting thread as I wrote: "We could all stand to learn a thing or two from The Thin White Duke, as marketers, as dreamers, as humans." Though this probably hits home the hardest for me: Know who you are, and if you don’t, stop and figure it out. It might take a while, and that’s okay. Bowie spent time in his early career grinding through things, figuring out the industry, music and himself. ... Marketers: Find yourselves, then find yourselves again. Shake things up. Be weird. Be genuine. Believe in what you’re doing, put yourself into it, and delight people who go from being strangers to being your customers, then finally declaring themselves your most loyal fans. Through Sass Marketing, I've found myself. I've found my voice, and while every post may not be genius, I keep reaching for the brass ring. One of those brass rings was launching the video series "What Were They Thinking?" and I'm excited to see what 2017 brings. Thank you dear sassy-pants readers ... here's to another year of opinions, memes and gifs.

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Gimme Presents! Sass Marketing Turns 1

Melissa Ward

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Melissa Ward