The individual who wants to buy an electric car has an online

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Behavior closer to that of a BtoB buyer than a consumer of general public products. Furthermore, “throwing out” articles or white papers in the hope that they will go viral is not marketing, except Hope Marketing. And hope is neither a strategy, nor a goal, nor a solution. Marketing (according to Kotler & Dubois, 1st year marketing course at any business school): “marketing is the satisfaction of the needs of a market; it is the identification of unmet needs”. Another source, again seen during the first year of any business school: “marketing is the adaptation of organizations to competitive markets” (Mercator).


Digital” marketing is certainly digital, but it remains (should remain) marketing. Waiting Email Data for it to go viral on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn is not marketing and, in general (even if there are always counter-examples), it doesn't work. It is up to the customer to know what their products are, what their markets are, what their targets are. But it's not up to him to say what he (or his company) should talk about on the web. The agency, the service provider, the consultant… who proposes this approach, is (in my opinion) not doing its job. However, it is an approach that we very often find in prospect meetings or when reading articles about content or inbound marketing.



The service provider's job is (at least) to help his client understand his online market: what do clients want? What are they looking for ? how do they search? what are their questions? what are their problems? what do they need? etc… He must provide answers to these questions to properly support his clients. Then, he must get closer to his client to share this analysis and make choices. But the choices (SEO, Ads, newsletters, white papers, etc.) must be made based on data collected and not on feeling. Brainstorming is done on the basis of data and not on feeling or according to a feeling of what may be interesting to cover.