Unserious product marketing and some airbrushed trucker hats

Hey thanks for being here, welcome to episode 4. I’m writing this as I prepare to head out on some much needed PTO. Which reminds me, take your PTO. It’s not going to take itself. (I need to take my own advice)

I’ve been getting asked a lot about some of my Linkedin posts. Specifically, where the ideas come from. And honestly, this is a lame answer, but they just come to me. I also have a running list of random thoughts in my phone’s notes app, so if something sparks, I jot it down there.

A better answer:

• I think about the ‘everydayness’ of work (or something millennial coded): what’s the experience of using Slack (for example). How did we (millennials) navigate through those times we waited for someone to get off the phone to use the internet? And so on and so forth.

• I think about what people relate to. Back to the first bullet; the everyday experience of work, or Slack, or living in the world (as a millennial, for me at least). I usually find inspo from just the public conversation happening (usually on Linkedin) about said topic(s).

• I think about what will elicit a response. Topics and trends people naturally engage with, have opinions about, what they might strongly disagree/agree with, etc.

• Express something in a new way; something non-traditional

• Keeping it short and sweet. Something someone can read in a few seconds and keep scrolling. We don’t have the attention spans we used to. We want stuff quickly.

Anything I post related to Slack I consider what I call ‘unserious product marketing.’ Basically, I just say it. Whatever ‘it’ is. So for example:

Ultimately, product marketing comes down to getting people using/adopting the product, right? And voicing it in the way shown above is very different from what would traditionally be shared on a platform like Linkedin. Back to my fourth bullet above.

I’ve been doing some thinking on corporate swag too. Throwbacks and nostalgia is very much in the cultural zeitgeist, and I think would land well in the corporate sphere. Which leads me to airbrushed trucker hats, circa my bar mitzvah. Because why not? Imagine walking around a conference or expo hall with an airbrushed trucker hat with your brand’s logo or colors, or some funny product-specific lore.

I love the merch business (at work, that is. I don’t need junk collecting in my house). When done right, swag can definitely help with visibility, engagement, and awareness. It also creates a sense of FOMO which I think is very healthy to create, esp for products and brands people generally like and have a positive affinity to.

An item I’ve been really loving the past year or so has been lapel pins. They’re small, so they don’t take up that much shelf space and generally just carrying it around is not as heavy of a lift, and they are for very specific usage; usually to put on clothing or a bag. There’s something about a custom pin that elevates the merch experience. It also gives us, the ones in charge of the merch, the opportunity to build a ‘collect them all’ experience, if you produce multiples, or a series across a certain number of days/weeks. Or even event-specific ones; a great way to get folks on site too. Develop event-specific swag.

Anyway, I could ramble forever on corporate swag.

Thanks for reading and for being here. I don’t take for granted that you care what I have to say. Or even if you don’t care, and you’re still here; thanks for being a fan anyway. ❣️

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