Sir Isaac Newton Was A Marketing Genius
Noted marketing guru, Sir Isaac Newton, found that there are critical truths to the world of branding, advertising and marketing. He developed laws to describe what is happening in most organizations struggling to find their voice in this new digital world.
Law 1 Inertia
Content marketing efforts that are at rest will remain at rest. When was the last time you refreshed the content on your website? Are there updates of recent projects? Is your news segment up to date? How about your blogs, podcasts, white papers, case studies… We all know content marketing is essential in the digital world, yet when content marketing is at rest, it will remain at rest until a force acts upon it.
Law 2 Force = M x A
I may change the equation a bit: Instead of having the equation end in Force, it should be Speed = Mass X Acceleration. Speed thrills. And you need velocity to keep your content marketing efforts moving forward to impact sales. Velocity also measures the rate at which content is shared and distributed to the target audiences and stakeholders. It not only must be quick to respond but build both magnitude and direction with your marketing. You can’t move people without content that has a clear focus or benefit to the reader and enough importance or significance in their lives.
Law 3 Action/Reaction
You have to put your content marketing effort into motion with enough velocity and frequency to make a difference. Unfortunately, there will be an opposite reaction – internal issues, people who disagree with your stance, just the sheer magnitude of the ongoing task (we call it the hungry beast), and the press of other business.
All of this is really a definition of momentum. Momentum in a football game, a business or a content marketing plan is the force that keeps driving you forward. You can feel momentum shifts in a football game and you can see momentum in a content marketing effort. It’s time to stop thinking of your content marketing effort like a single event such as an apple falling from a tree. The laws of psychological and behavioral physics will provide the momentum to keep your marketing effort moving in the right direction.
Mark Mathis III is chief creative & strategy officer, partner and cofounder of AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle. After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant. He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.” Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.” One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College. Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board. Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.
