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The Life For Rent Issue

October 2020

The title of this issue comes from UK artist Dido and her second album, “Life for rent”. OK, so I may again be stretching the definition of ‘classic’ album, but it was a hot seller back in 2003, and there is a line from a track on the album that speaks to the theme of this issue.

And the theme of this issue is the decision marketers need to make about building an audience on ‘rented’ land, like social media platforms, Medium and LinkedIn, or take the long road of building an owned digital channel.

The inspirational lyric:

But if my life is for rent and I don’t learn to buy
Well, I deserve nothing more than I get
’cause nothing I have is truly mine
Life for Rent – Dido

See what I mean with that lyric?

If you are building a brand on someone else’s platform; nothing you have is truly yours.

We have some fantastic insight from our house band of marketing writers and CMOs, plus we spin the dial on the interwebs for The Sample and get some different views on the rent vs. build conundrum.

Enjoy!

Ian Truscott

Editor, Rockstar CMO

@iantruscott | @rockstarcmo

Rent or build? Ask Quibi

Ian Truscott

Is there a better example of the theme of this issue of renting versus building in marketing? Although Quibi owned the land, they didn’t own what they put on it, and it seems they’ve danced their last dance…

Rent or Build? Finding a happy medium

Dennis Shiao

Dennis Shiao runs a popular content marketing meet-up and newsletter and he shares how he uses rented platforms and attention to build on his own land…

Jam tomorrow and jam yesterday – but never jam today

Keith Smith

Keith Smith weighs in on the theme of this month’s issue: Should we build our audience on rented land, like social media, or develop a property of our own? And it’s typically no-nonsense…

Rent or build? Hedge your digital property bets

Carmine Mastropierro

Carmine Mastropierro brings us some practical advice on the theme of this months issue, should you build or rent your digital property? Carmine suggests we hedge…

The Green Room: Rent or Build?

Ian Truscott

This month four of our Rockstar CMOs chime in on the topic of this month’s issue, when it comes to building an audience do you rent or build?…

Don’t rent, co-own

Ted Rubin

Ted Rubin has built an audience, you don’t become the most followed CMO on Twitter without one. So, what is his advice; should we build our content strategy and audience on rented land…

The Sample: Rent vs. Build?

Ian Truscott

Welcome to The Sample, where we spin the dial on the interwebs and record what plays to this month’s tune. The beat for this month’s tracks; should we build or rent for our fans?…

Even when your Commerce has an ‘e’, you need to think about the rent

Eric Jan van Putten

We asked Eric Jan van Putten, VP Marketing at Dynamicweb, should we build our content strategy and audience on rented land? Eric gives us a great perspective through an eCommerce lens…

What dropped in the podcast last month?

Ian Truscott

The latest from the podcast this month. A fabulous line up stepped up to the mic and we have a few cocktails along the way…

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Author

Ian Truscott

Not a rock star, but Ian is the CMO at Spotler Group, a trusted advisor to two growing martech vendors and Chief Bottle Washer at Rockstar CMO. Ian is a former techie, product marketer, CTO, agency guy and industry analyst, who applies his experience to create ART (Awareness, Revenue and Trust) for B2B tech companies.

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