I can’t remember where I read the ancient Buddhist proverb, “Half mat, full mat, a bowl full or rice.”  To me it represents the minimalist subsistence for Buddhist monks.  All you need in the world is half a mat when you are sitting, a full mat when you are sleeping, and a bowl full of rice when you are hungry.  Some might say you don’t need a mat at all, but then again I did not write this proverb.

So what does this have to do with marketing?  Nothing really, it is a lame attempt at an analogy but here is the point I want to get across.  A half mat represents an empty blog or site, somewhere a marketer can place content.  It’s the bare minimum tool any marketer needs today in order to communicate with the world.  A full mat represents a blog full of content.  You need information with keywords so that people can find your blog and learn from you.  And a bowl full or rice represents a head full of ideas so you can create interesting content that people will keep coming back for.

The minimalist human is probably a monk (Sanyasis and Tantrics are probably a little more extreme for my taste).  The minimalist marketer is a publisher, a communicator.  Search engines and social media have made the world flat when it comes to reaching an audience on the web.  If you can publish good content that is interesting (remarkable), helpful (educational) and fresh you can compete with the largest corporations on the internet.  This is the foremost tenet of inbound marketing or minimalist marketing.

What do you think?

Photo Credit: Stefano Liboni

Some of my friends have asked me what I plan to write about in my blog and others have cautioned me that my blog topic is very broad. Blogging is about finding a niche topic and writing about it. Technology driven marketing is a very broad topic and nowadays technology drives everything. True, true, true and true!

My answer to them at this time is that I’m trying to find my voice. Anyone who’s done a lot of writing will tell you that it takes a while to hone in on that kernel that you will love to write about and you can make your own. You can choose to write about something you love, or you can choose to write about something you are good at. And usually the two meet somewhere in the middle and blend to make your unique flavor.

I’m starting with a very broad topic because I love the macro level concept of technology and marketing coming together and I really cannot see marketing execution without some involvement of technology. Specifically, today internet technology has become the backbone of marketing. Perhaps in the near future I could focus on how mobile technology supports all of marketing if that comes to pass.

Beyond that I have several areas in marketing that I love or consider myself an expert like lead generation and analytics and I’m slowly coming up to speed with new media and social media marketing. Will I get more granular talking about interface design and architecture of web assets and how those help drive conversion? Most definitely. I will be focusing on all of these in my blog posts and along the way I will discover my voice.

Your writing voice is like a business model. Most startups go through a shifting business model till they find one that works and eventually sticks with their end users. At various stages of the business the model has to be adjusted according to market conditions, growing pains, etc. The same goes for writing or blogging. All you can do is keep at it till you find what works for yourself and sticks with your readers and adjust over time. And, it truly is as enjoyable as the thrill of the hunt!

I hope you all continue to keep me company on this journey of discovery.