Everyone’s in Marketing: Deal With It
Raise your hand if you’ve received marketing "advice" lately from someone who’s not in marketing. Come on, don’t be shy…get em’ up there. Yeah, I thought so. I see a lot of hands out there. Oooo, I even see a few scowls! You guys must be in high-tech marketing!
The thing about marketing, especially if you’re good at it, is that it looks easy. Tell some stuff to some people. Write something. Build a presentation. Buy some ad space. Send an e-mail. Pick some colors. Shoot video. These things all look easy. And, hey, some of them are. Not only that, some of them are down right fun.
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise when someone outside the marketing realm offers their opinion on the way things should be. That press release should have focused more on this product. The image you chose for an ad had nothing to do with our company. Our web site is hard to navigate. All things I’ve heard from non-marketers. And all annoyed me at the time.
It’s a lot easier to look at these comments in retrospect, and cut people some slack. The way I deal with it is to think about it this way: All of these know-it-alls care about making the marketing effort better. Now, they may have no idea what the implications or budget requirements are for their request, but at least they care.
I look at the Everyone’s in Marketing Phenomenon (EMP) as an opportunity to listen to what’s on people’s minds, but then I let it go. Because I know that marketing is not always easy. I know that marketing is not always fun. And I know that not everyone can do marketing well. That’s how I deal with it anyway.
How do you deal with it?
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May 9th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I felt better just reading this.
May 14th, 2009 at 11:02 am
I’m glad I could help.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:39 am
Todd,
Ever since I was a tadpole copywriter in Chicago, I’ve felt that writers, in particular, get the short end of the deal. Back before doing a layout meant grabbing a mouse, there was always a mystique to art direction. Few clients ever thought they could draw, so they were in awe of those who could. WOW, a real PICTURE! (Their only input was “make the logo bigger.”)
Those same clients also felt, unfortunately, that “writing” was totally different. Once you pass penmanship in the third grade, you’re a writer, and fully qualified to judge/change/improve/butcher the work of any other one. Deep down, they think they could do it better themselves if they only had time.
So in this era, when a few computer skills make everyone an everything (in their minds), it’s no surprise that we get more “helpful advice” than ever. No, it isn’t easy to deal with. But the simple reality is, we have to–we have no other choice. One silver lining, though. All this new “competition” is a good reminder that we can never afford to mail it in, or give any less than our best effort on every project. The only way to distinguish ourselves is to, well — distinguish ourselves!
June 7th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Hi Mark,
So true – all that competition can be a good thing. It doesn’t always make it easy to swallow, but it can make us work harder.
Thanks for reading, and for the comment.