Marketing Sucks
7 reasons why it sucks and how to make it fun again
I vividly remember my excitement when I learned about a marketing job in media where you had the opportunity to work with fashion brands, but you didn’t have to be a designer (or work for one).
You see, I never wanted a degree in marketing. I spent my childhood dreaming of becoming a fashion designer. I wasn’t exactly the best illustrator, so my mom told me to go to business school for marketing and I listened.
Holding steadfast to my dreams, I spent internships knee deep in socks and men’s clothing on department store floors merchandising their displays. This led to the glamorous job of rearranging data in excel spreadsheets at Liz Claiborne to make sure we had enough inventory for the buyers.
I was literally waiting for fashion to be fun.
And then marketing came along—strutting it’s stuff down the runway with flashy imagery, sparkling events, and billboards that screamed luxury.
In marketing there was room for out-of-the-box thinking, color, pretty fonts, and the ability to take a rather simple idea and dress it up into an experience.
Marketing made your problems disappear and connected your desires with brands.
Marketing was EXCITING!
Needless to say, I took the job, it changed the course of my career, and I spent 15 years in the industry.
But suddenly, today, marketing sucks. Why do we cringe when we hear the term or think about marketing our own businesses?
Here are 7 reasons why and how to make it fun again:
Advertising has been overdone. We are on information overload being sold that we need to constantly improve ourselves and the only way to do it is through this product or service.
Make it fun: What if you talked up to people instead of constantly highlighting their problems? Focus on building relationships because you want to know your brilliant audience instead of treating them like a transaction.
Like any industry, there are slimy, unethical tactics we have all encountered that leave a bad taste in our mouths.
Make it fun: Is there something you absolutely hate in your industry or in marketing? Flip the script poking fun at these ridiculous tactics or use them as fuel in your own messaging. How can you turn a negative into a positive?
You have been sold a lie that selling your products and services is also icky, awkward, and just plain hard. It has taken the magic out of your dreams and the impact you want to make with your business.
Make it fun: It’s time to shift your mindset away from “it’s hard to find clients” and instead focus on why you got started and rewrite your story. Share the impact you want to make and turn it into a mission that others can get behind.
We, as consumers, have been taken advantaged of and unwilling to give our trust easily. Everything from food and skincare labels, to online courses promising 7-figure results are far from the truth.
Make it fun: Here’s something you probably haven’t thought of—share the hard truth. Get vulnerable, lay out the facts, let them know you will be selling something at the end of your workshop. People want to trust you, but first you have to trust them.
There are too many rules being forced down our throats. If you don’t abide by the content laws and the algorithm gods, you will never see success.
Make it fun: What’s something you have been dying to say or do on social media but you’ve been biting your tongue in fear of being judged? This is your encouragement to go do the thing and laugh at yourself if it doesn’t go as plans. Share the mess ups with your audience.
Instead of celebrating creative ideas and the human experience, every marketing idea is measured by every possible angle. Likes, comments, shares, views, engagement, time spent, CTR, open rate, every time my friend’s MIL comments on one of my posts.
Make it fun: Get out of your comfort zone and do something that inspires you. Write down all of the ideas that come to mind and go down the rabbit hole on one. Create a piece of marketing (social post, email, podcast, video, event etc) with no intention of garnering engagement. The goal is to follow your own joy and see if you are successful.
Time is speeding up and so is content creation. One marketing campaign used to last a brand at least a year. Team were built only to develop a Super Bowl ad. Now, we need to have a new idea posted to our feeds daily.
Make it fun: Write down a core idea associated with your business. Turn it into a piece of content. Challenge yourself to only focus on that idea for 30 days. You can only create content from that original piece and repurpose it to all of your platforms.
This list could certainly be expanded. We have truly gotten away from the magic of creative thought.
My favorite days are brainstorming days. I go for a walk around my favorite cul-de-sac, put on Stevie Nicks, jot some crazy inspiring ideas into a journal, and then open Canva to explore that idea for no other reason than to see what hits the page.
Working in media, pumping out client proposals, was not always glamorous. In fact, it was quite tedious and I certainly had my Devil Wears Prada moments (more on that another day). But when a brainstorm goes well and you have the opportunity to turn a silly idea into an experience, it’s like that first day I learned about my job all over again.
Marketing is magic.