Marketing: The Art and The Craft

Having spent my whole career in marketing (bar a little foray in sales early on), it never ceases to amaze me how little credit businesses give to the craft of marketing.

I’ve worked with many small businesses and more often than not, marketing is an after thought either dabbled in by the owner or passed down to a junior, who invariably has some social media experience (who doesn’t) and little else. They muddle through pushing out average posts and everyone is relieved that something is simply getting out there.

Any great company knows that marketing is a powerful differentiator for your business. You could have the most amazing product or service in the world but no one is going to know about it if you don’t market it. It’s a cost, sure. But done well, it’s so much more than a benefit - it should be at the least self funding; at best, profit generating.

Today there is a plethora of self-help marketing guides and online courses - one quick google and you will find plenty of people willing to take your hard earned cash for a little Marketing 101.

An online tutorial to teach you to create your own brand identity could be fun - why not unleash your latent graphic designer? But is it the best use of your time and money?

In business, every hour of your day has a cost benefit to it - spend 20 hours in front of the laptop to learn to design your logo or spend 20 hours on business development to land a new client and subsequently afford to pay a professional to create your logo for you? It is your choice but my advice is always, where you possibly can, defer to the professional. They’ve taken years and education to learn their craft - why do you think you can replicate that investment in a few hours? You wouldn’t ask your car mechanic to fix your son’s broken leg would you?

We all develop skills for a reason - to be skillful. Skilled people not only do the job better, but they are quicker, more professional, current and quite simply, just know what they are doing. Period.

I promise you I practice what I preach. I took one tutorial for Squarespace to create this website and bam, 10 minutes later, I’d zoned out and was seeking Squarespace gurus. I was recommended to a pro (bradgood.net) and 1 week later, we’re up live without any laptop meltdowns, no tears and no lost work. The relief is palpable. My sanity (and my family) thanked me for outsourcing.