Some people just hate marketing. Like, really hate it. Maybe you’re one of them, but alas, there just doesn’t seem to be a way of enjoying success as an entrepreneur or small business owner without devoting at least a substantial amount of your time and energy to running marketing campaigns.
Maybe the real question shouldn’t be “how can I do less marketing”, but “why do I hate marketing, and how can I fix that?”
This is a contributed post. Please refer to my disclosure for more information.
The bottom line is that marketing is the art of making your would-be customers aware of your service or product, and encouraging them to throw some money your way. That doesn’t sound too bad in and of itself, but for some reason, we all tend to imagine stereotypes of sleazy used car salesmen when we think of “salesmanship”.
Here are a few tips for changing up your relationship with marketing, so that you can stop hating it, and stop hating yourself for doing it. Because, you know, it really does need to get done.
Host a sponsored business event that lands you attention, while also making a positive impact in your industry
For many people, marketing seems trashy and cold because it’s done primarily via impersonal techniques and channels, such as sending out cold emails by rote (and according to a template), and so on.
Setting up a sponsored, in-person business event that actually does something positive for the people who attend, can help to humanise the entire process and make you feel better about yourself, too.
You can spend some time figuring out how to obtain sponsorship for an event, and can then focus wholeheartedly on making the event something sincerely positive. Maybe an industry get-together to discuss strategies for improving workplace satisfaction.
In this context, “marketing” can be done organically, in the form of earnest face-to-face conversations. Probably a good idea to have a few bullet points in mind, but no need to develop an elaborate script.
Focus your efforts on techniques and tools you enjoy — or at least, don’t hate. Cut the rest loose.
A lot of the reason why some people really hate marketing, is that they force themselves to use marketing tools and techniques that they absolutely hate — because they believe that doing so is essential for success.
In reality, though, there’s no point at grinding out forced-smile Twitter promo posts to “boost engagement” if you hate it. It likely won’t click, and your audience will get bad vibes from you, anyway.
Cut your losses, and focus your marketing efforts instead on techniques and tools you enjoy using — or at least, don’t hate. You’ll have a better time, your marketing will seem more authentic, and prospects will respond better to you.
Restructure your marketing philosophy — think about it not as “selling products” but as “helping the customer” somehow
Marketing can feel pretty dirty if you only think about it in terms of “selling as many products as possible” or “closing the deal with this sucker”.
Don’t buy into that mindset. Restructure your marketing philosophy so that you’re focusing on “helping the customer”, instead.
Don’t think about “how can I part this guy from his money?” Think “how I can demonstrate that my product will help him?”
When you do things this way, odds are you’ll like yourself more, and people will respond better to you, as well.
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