You’ve probably heard someone at your job say “Everyone’s a marketer”. You may have even gotten the same message from a company or two that want you to use their self-service marketing platform. However, no matter who it was that shared this “encouraging” quote with you, they lied. That’s right, I’m saying it.
No, not everyone is a marketer.
In fact, some people who get paid to be marketers are barely marketers.
If your first reaction to the statements above was something close to: “Who said you get to decide who’s a marketer?” or “There’s no license for marketing”, I completely understand. You’re right. There is no official certification for becoming a marketer and I am certainly not the final authority. But I bet you’ve never heard someone say “Everyone’s a pastry chef!”
I’m not saying this to imply that being a marketer is similar to being a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. But I’d say it’s pretty similar to being in the “Bey Hive”.
You see, like any job or profession, marketing requires some unique skills and abilities. More importantly, to be a successful marketer you also have to have passion for the craft. Think about it, eating a piece of gouda doesn’t make you a cheese connoisseur.
Now, I could fill this blog article with as many metaphors as I want. But I’m sure you understand. You probably have a job. You probably know that not everyone could do your job. If you’re good at your job, you probably know that not everyone could do it well. Simple concept, right? Wrong. I’m quite sure my marketing fam knows the pain of being told how to do their job day in and day out. People have a really hard time accepting that they just simply are not marketers and that they don’t need to be.
Let marketers do what they love. Let them help you. Let them make your business great.
No, this doesn’t just mean constantly asking marketers to “do this thing on social media that this other business is doing” (that is super annoying). It definitely doesn’t mean asking a marketer to do something for you then suddenly pretending you know everything about UX design and email best practices (also extremely annoying).
Everyone has ideas and a good marketer should want to hear them. But like anything in life, not every idea is a good one and a good marketer will tell you why an idea might not be the best for your unique brand. Hear them out.
There’s a good chance that if you’re not a marketer you read this piece and thought “Whatever, anyone can send an email.” That’s fine. But the next time you’re wondering why no one’s really taking advantage of the promotion you just sent them, or even opening the emails...shoot me a message.