Put these four Ps in your creative marketing
March 11, 2010Sometime 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.
Perspective
Marketing requires you take the long view. You meet someone, hand her a business card, and get an email from her—eight months later. Those contacts are a nice surprise, because you probably wrote that person off as not being interested. Except she was interested, just not at the time. Or maybe she visited your website and started to get to know you and your work, then remembered you when the need (or desire, or both) arose for her to buy from you.
Don’t automatically assume your efforts have been wasted. Good marketing can pay off at unexpected times and in unexpected ways.
Professionalism
Who would you rather do business with—someone who has their act together, or someone who may or may not deliver on time? How much does credibility suffer when there are missing images all over a website, or when it looks like someone’s 9-year-old nephew designed the thing? “Professional” doesn’t necessarily translate into “expensive.” It means you pay attention to details and present yourself so your customer—the person who is about to give you her hard-earned money—knows she can trust you.
You need to bring that quality to every part of your business, including your marketing.
Personality
Does your website copy or print material read like a tourist brochure, or does it sound like you? If I called you on the phone, would I recognize you as the same person who wrote your bio?
Don’t panic. You don’t have to write exactly as you speak. Most of us are more formal in writing, but that’s a good thing. We tend to be more spontaneous in person—we ramble, gesture, and use vocal quirks and subtleties that just don’t work in print.
That said, it’s important to have a sense of you in your marketing materials. You want to reflect your style in your visuals (typeface, logo if you have one, colour palette), as well as your written words. It helps you seep into the consciousness of your audience, giving them the full flavour of you and your work.
Persistence
Persistence doesn’t mean getting in someone’s face until they unfollow you on Twitter or block your email address. It means you don’t give up. Be smart, gracious, funny, sincere, whoever you are in real life. Keep making your work, and keep telling people about it. Growing a business takes time. Establishing a reputation takes time (unless it’s a bad one, which can get established in a hurry). When you interact with people online or offline, talk about more than your work so you don’t sound like an over-caffeinated car salesman or bore yourself to death.
Marketing takes time, so don’t give up on it. You didn’t give up on learning your chosen medium, which took time and persistence. That process tends to be a career-long adventure, so take a good, deep breath, and keep promoting your work.
So perspective, personality, professionalism, and persistence. Or, to reframe it in human terms: be yourself, keep your wits about you, respect the process, and see it through.
Over to you: what’s your take on sales versus marketing? How do you feel about the big picture of marketing? What resonates more for you–the 4 Ps approach, or do you prefer something more descriptive?
*(Okay, I’m not that old, but I’ve been dying to use that Pleistocene joke for ages. Epochs, even. Thank you for your bandwidth.)
Marketing def. takes time, but it has long term effects. I used to think advertising was marketing. Marketing is far more complicated though. You could sell door to door or through direct mail without an extensive marketing plan, but will those customers become loyal? If they like your stuff, maybe, but they are more likely to become long-term customers and refer people to you if you build trust and authority through marketing first. These days, people are more likely to do business with you if they know you and like you, so relationships matter. I think your 4P plan can help creative solopreneurs build a successful marketing campaign. I’m currently on that path
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Stacey Cornelius Reply:
March 11th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Marketing is the big umbrella, and there’s a lot of confusion about what it really is. At the core, which is why I threw out the four Ps for your consideration, is bringing your best stuff to your best prospective customers. Definitely a path worth taking.
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“Sales” to me, always feels kind of slimy and underhanded, while marketing seems to evoke more of an educational process. I’m not just selling you a “solution”, I’m helping you do something better, and that makes it all worth it to me! I love how you put this into a nice, clear, easy to follow outline!
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Stacey Cornelius Reply:
March 12th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
I hear you, Sherice. “Sales” has a big bunch of baggage. I think of it as the point where someone pays you for doing what they hired you to do, or for the thing they’re taking home with them.
When you’re committed to what you do, it makes the process much more human. “Marketing” then becomes a good conversation. Sometimes it’s a long talk, with odd interruptions, but thinking of it that way helps keep you grounded.
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Boy, oh boy, marketing is the one area (well, and finance too!) with which I REALLY struggle. After working for a high-tech firm for 17 years as a web designer, I was laid off a couple of years ago. So, no worries, I’ll just start my own web design company.
What I didn’t realize was all the good parts of working for someone else. THEY do all the billing. THEY do all the marketing. THEY do all the stuff I never learned how to do. All I had to do was my job.
So now I’m struggling trying to wear all those hats.
OY VEY!!
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Stacey Cornelius Reply:
March 27th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Oh, yeah. Welcome to self-employment. It would be so much easier if you could just get the t-shirt and not worry about the rest.
It can take a while to really get yourself into a routine and to flatten the learning curve, but lots of people do it. One step at a time. I know that’s not earth-shattering advice, but the process isn’t earth-shattering, either. But there can be big payoffs not too far down the road. Nice to meet you here, Sherri, and thanks for the comment.
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[...] rules are mostly guidelines If you like structure, you can use the textbook marketing Ps (and add a few more for good measure), or you can make up your own [...]
[...] rules are mostly guidelines If you like structure, you can use the textbook marketing Ps (and add a few more for good measure), or you can make up your own [...]