So.
Marketer or Vending Machine.
Which are you?
Advice For The In-House Marketer.
Here’s some advice for the in-house marketer.
Working hard to support an in-house sales team.
Marketer or Vending Machine.
In my experience.
You’ll either be being treated like a marketer.
Or a vending machine.
If it’s the former.
(A marketer).
You’ll almost constantly be thinking deeply and strategically about.
Very often leading convincingly on.
And reacting in a timely, coherent and expert way to.
A whole host of key Business Communications subjects that link directly to the measurable performance of the business itself.
Alternatively.
If it’s the latter.
(A vending machine).
Some bloke or lady will send you an email.
Asking for a brochure.
Or a new set of business cards.
Or branded water bottles.
They’ll ‘push your button’.
And you’ll spit them out.
Some Background Thinking.
But let’s dig a bit deeper.
For any in-house marketer that just realised they’re a vending machine.
(Before you hand your notice in).
Here are a few more things to consider.
It’s Your Own Fault.
First.
If you are being treated like a vending machine
It’s your own fault.
So it’s useful for you to immediately take responsibility for the fact that you are allowing yourself to be treated like a vending machine.
And just as importantly.
My advice to you today only really applies to you if you are any good.
A ‘really good’ in-house Marketer, I mean!
Or if you aspire to be really good and are doing all that you can to get there.
And quick!
Really Good.
‘Really good’ means.
Being able to appreciate, balance and work towards optimising three things.
All at the same time.
Either by getting them right yourself.
Or overseeing good people to get them right for you.
These are:
BRAND: What you stand for. The change that you, uniquely, want to make. Why you really are the only solution to your customer’s problems. What you want to be uniquely famous for and own.
MARKETING: Deciding the most effective, coherent, brand-supportive/additive ways to communicate in order to support the sales effort, and – at the same time – build your brand reputation precisely, clearly, and consistently.
DESIGN: Distinctive yet consistent/coherent/clear message, branding/aesthetic/design and tone.
There are more things, of course.
But these are the basics if you think you’re ‘really good’.
Marketer or Vending Machine?
It’s a funny little question, isn’t it?
‘Marketer or Vending Machine?’
But then all of a sudden.
If the realisation is that you are a vending machine.
Or that you are not ‘really good’.
It’s not so funny.
And the real question isn’t really,
‘Marketer or Vending Machine?’
It’s two questions.
First,
‘For how much longer am I going to allow myself to be treated like a vending machine?
And second,
‘Am I really good? And if I’m not. What am I going to do about it?’
Because if you’re not really good. And you don’t propose to do anything about it.
Then why should you expected to be treated like anything other than a vending machine?
Over to you.
