Let’s Re-Name the Word “Marketing”
Marketing seems to have lost its original meaning from the days of my MBA and academics. Still, in traditional agency and corporate worlds, marketing is every activity related to promoting your business and winning over a customer from the first encounter to the sale and after. This typically means everything from networking to sales to PR to customer communication to campaigns and much more. Everything you do to get people to buy your services and products is marketing. Marketing is communicating with all your customers at all stages of the buying cycle, through the entire journey.
Marketing strategy is the entire plan of how you communicate with all your customers – your not-yet customers, your current ones, and your existing ones.
These days, though, the word “marketing” is tossed around and it seems to mean closer to implying campaigns and social which is only a small piece of the entire marketing process. Those touching the edges of marketing think they know all that is needed to capture the attention of their new customers. Non-marketers use the word “marketing” to mean sales or just leads/lead generation, or marketing to mean advertising campaigns. Those are the tactics of the strategy, not the marketing strategy and only a small, early piece of actually what is needed.
Marketing has also gotten way more complicated than it needs to be. Every new platform and shiny tactic has marketers chasing activity over the potential of winning over new people without any regard to the conversation or message. It’s a lot about showmanship over conversation and the general storytelling of the benefits of the company can get lost in flash and reels.
Let’s face it —– nothing I post, video or train on is really anything new. I’m just applying solid proven principles to new vehicles, new audiences, and new techniques. Flash and creativity come after the basic foundations. You can’t skip the fundamental principles of how the dynamics of business and sales work. It may look that way sometimes with social media bullet sales, influencers, and massive groups of followers. It’s really just the shell game or a bunch of quick wins. While some businesses may do very well in the short run with quick and immediate high income, success in the longer run and scaling up will be nearly impossible doing it this way.
Here Are 18 Ways To Rename The Word Marketing Better:
- Communicating
- Conversing
- Suggesting
- Referring
- Sharing
- Promoting
- Pitching
- Serving
- Publicizing
- Persuading
- Promoting
- Merchandising
- Offering
- Endorsing
- Presenting
- Suggesting
- Introducing
- Dealing
How many can you add to this list? How do you use “marketing” in your business”?
Ardent Skills 