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That advice about throwing out client personas was completely wrong
A consultant I met at a conference in Austin told me to ditch buyer personas and just focus on the product features. Said personas were a waste of time for B2B agencies. I followed that advice for 6 months and lost 3 major clients because our messaging was too generic. Turns out the consultant was selling a software tool that didn't support persona-based targeting anyway. Has anyone else gotten bad advice from someone who was just pushing their own product?
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victorh811mo agoMost Upvoted
Funny you mention that consultant at a conference in Austin. Reminds me of a time I took advice from a guy at a marketing meetup in Denver who swore up and down that email subject lines were totally dead. He said everyone just skims the preview text now. So I stopped spending time on subject lines for three months. Lost a ton of opens. Turned out he was pushing a tool that literally rewrote your entire email body for you and ignored the subject line. Your mileage may vary, but in my experience, if someone's advice sounds too simple or goes against basic common sense, they're probably selling something. Take that with a grain of salt of course.
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robins831mo ago
Man, I used to be one of those people who thought subject lines were overrated too, honestly. But hearing your story @victorh81, that really makes me rethink it - three months of lost opens is a brutal lesson. It's wild how someone can be so wrong and just pushing their own agenda, but I guess that's just the game sometimes.
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grays131mo ago
Yeah, "they're probably selling something" hits the nail on the head. I've seen that pattern way too many times. People with a vested interest always make it sound like the old way is dead and their new magic fix is the only way forward. The thing is, subject lines aren't dead, preview text is just another tool in the box. You need both working together. It's like asking me if my truck's tires are dead because I look at the road too. Nah, they both matter. Trust your gut on the basics, not some guy with a shiny pitch deck.
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