Sometime during the Pleistocene era, when the dinosaurs were Claymation (think about it),*Â I learned the difference between sales and marketing.
The only thing that mattered at the time was knowing marketing takes longer.
If you want to get technical, sales is part of the marketing process—the good part, where nice people decide to give you money. Marketing is about creating something and telling people about it, then selling it and actually getting it into their hands.
(If you’re really smart, you will make the telling into a two-way street, and listen to your audience. Paying attention to people is a good way to learn how they think.)
But let’s get right back to the “marketing takes longer” thing, because that’s what really frustrates people. Since it’s a considerable investment of time and effort, it’s critical to pay attention to your marketing, and it’s why the following four concepts belong in your marketing and in your head. I named them the Four Ps to make them easier to remember.
There were a couple of responses to my call for your most burning questions that point to an important part of marketing and personal branding: you.
The questions were about name recognition, writing a bio, and how to write an About page for your website. Each requires talking about yourself in a way that engages your audience.
Unless you’ve gone through the process a few times, writing a bio or About page for your website can be stupidly intimidating. You’re not sure exactly what you should write. You want to impress people. You want to sound smart and talented and likeable, or smart and talented and edgy, or smart and talented and sophisticated.
Which might be exactly the wrong approach.
I’m kind of on the DL this week (that would be the Disabled List for those of you who aren’t into sports). I have a knot in my shoulder blade big enough to require a name, and it’s been sending late-night scouting parties north to make me grind my teeth in my sleep. I’m not in the best of shape at the moment, so until I get myself fixed I’m trying to stay away from the keyboard.
Instead of limping through a half-baked post, I have a question for you. Actually, I have a few questions:
