Werewolves, Silver Bullets, Vampires, and Marketing

In honor of the new Twilight movie, I decided to do a vampire and werewolf post today. (Yes, I know being a fan of these movies is silly.  No, I don’t need any comments about it.)

Werewolves

There are a lot of business owners who look at their marketing like it is a werewolf.  They don’t understand it.  This thing called marketing is just a big beast that scares them. Sometimes this werewolf is a nice caring guy, and sometimes it is a monster that drains business owners of time and money. It’s easy to be scared of something you don’t understand.

Silver Bullets

For the people who believe marketing is a werewolf, they believe there is a silver bullet.  They search for it constantly, sometimes believing they have found it in that one magical advertising tool. When they realize that one thing doesn’t work, they go out and try to find another one.

Vampires

The vampires are always among us.  They will always be there to prey on the unsuspecting, unknowledgeable business owners.  They are the ones who claim to have the silver bullets; they are the ones who say they can kill your marketing beast.  Everything about them draws you in; the way they look, the way they act, and the words they use will enchant you.

Busting The Myths

First, marketing is not a werewolf.  It can be scary and hard to understand, but it is not a beast.  Looking at it that will only hurt you.

Second, there are no silver bullets.  I have never worked with a business that has one magical marketing promotion that brings them tons of money.  The companies that do marketing well understand this. It is an ongoing communication that needs constant monitoring and adjusting. I know you really want there to be that one magical easy thing that instantly makes your marketing perfect, but that just isn’t how it works. Good marketing takes ongoing effort.

Finally, the vampires are real.  I hear stories about them all the time.  Occasionally, I will meet one face-to-face. They are the people who ruthlessly sell advertising product without any care or consideration for the businesses who buy their goods and services.  For these companies, it is about the quota and the money.  They will use words like “marketing plan” and “marketing strategy” to make you think they are the answer to your marketing woes, but really all they care about is selling you on their product.  Most of them wouldn’t know a marketing plan if it walked up and smacked them in the face.  Not every person who sells these kinds of product is a vampire; some are very nice and caring people who do truly want to help you.  The problem is that it is very hard to tell the difference between the companies with good intentions and the companies that are really only about the money.

Solutions

You as a business owner need to stop looking at marketing in the wrong way.  You need to realize that marketing is far more than just advertising. Marketing is about communicating who you are and what you are about to potential customers. It is an ongoing and ever changing dialog. You need to set the strategy and decide on tactics, and then you go looking for promotional solutions based on your plan.