Commentary

How To Do The How-To Lists

As you survey the contents of your inbox, which these days looks more like Aleppo than the Emerald City you once envisioned (and promised yourself) you see a seemingly endless offering of how-to stories from the ad trades. In just the last hour: "7 tips for successful client strategy meetings," "How to target high-income consumers with AdWords" — even, “How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication."

While a very small number of such byliners are actually helpful, the vast majority are thinly disguised attempts to draw attention to a product or service the author has a relationship with, whose sales he wants to boost. Perhaps that's not all bad, if the product or service is something that you hadn't yet heard of and might, at the end of the day, find really helpful. But having read thousands of these stories (and written a few) I can safely say, that's generally not the case.

And it is no eleemosynary instinct that prompts authors to think, "You know, I'll bet I could really make the world a better place if I share this insider knowledge with my fellow travelers in the martech space." Rather, it's the instinct that urges, "I gotta get my name out there."

Just once I would like to see in the comments box a note that says "Hey, I tried all five steps you recommended and my conversion rate went up 17% in a less than a week, thanks, you are da bomb."

But the most essential how-to lists have yet to be written. Perhaps in your spare time?

5 Ways to Have Dinner and Not Mention Trump

3 Easy Steps to Eliminate All Fraud in Your Programmatic Buys

8 Options To Wrench More Transparency from Facebook and Google

6 Easy Ways to Spot Ad Cost Mark-Ups in the MarTech Chain

5 Ways To Create A Super Bowl Ad That Actually Improves Retail Sales

Measuring Your Cross-Platform ROI in 4 Easy Steps

12 Steps to Stop Checking Your Phone Every 30 Seconds

7 Steps to Help Give Your Clients The Illusion You are Not Profiting From The Spread

5 Ways to Get Your Name In Print

6 Essential Reads That Give the Illusion You Are Au Courant

7 Easy Steps To Cut Vendors Out of Your Ad Stack

3 Smart Answers to Why Media Buyers Cannot Have a Discount

Stop Reading How-To Stories in One Easy Step

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