All throughout my marketing career, it has always made me kind of chuckle (and shiver) when people said, "You're the marketing guy, you can make it look nice.”
While being "the guy" might be something that a lot of people seek – myself included – I can't say it really makes me feel good when people celebrate how great the PowerPoint template turned out for the upcoming kickoff meeting. Or worse, god forbid someone has tweaks to the template – we all know that’s going to save lives.
HINT: The best PowerPoint template is the one that has a small logo in the bottom right and multiple versions of the text layout or spots for images.
“You’re the _________ guy/girl”
I’m probably biased because I am a “marketing guy,” but I feel like the marketing function is where that’s used the most and for some odd reason people still think it’s a compliment. I am here to tell you it’s not – it distills any expertise down to what kind of sounds like, “You play around all day and I just gave you one more toy to play with while I’m off doing real work. You can thank me later.”
It has been said time and time again (no intention to disguise this as a breakthrough thought) that everyone thinks they’re a marketer. What’s the quote from Steve Tobak? “Marketing is like sex: everyone thinks they’re good at it.” From the outside looking in it is by far one of the easiest functions to critique because there’s always someone out there, in that very moment, with stronger growth, a catchier campaign, better retention, and more than likely – a bigger budget – that makes your latest activation look mediocre. More often than not it’s not even an apples-to-apples comparison.
“Why are we so focused on getting local media outlets interested in our press release? I saw (insert competitor with 5x annual revenue) on CNBC yesterday.”
It takes daily reps and consistency to build a strong brand and marketing function. That’s the practice. There is no shortage of ideas – simply practitioners. The combinations of variables in play for your brand versus another, in favor and in opposition of your marketing strategy, are potentially limitless. You have supply chain issues – they don’t. They have a sales spike through a PR campaign because their name kind of sounds like something a celebrity said and unfortunately yours does not. Or maybe it’s vice versa and you’re the one on top. Whatever the case may be it demonstrates the ever-changing landscape for business in general – not just for marketing – that we all must navigate to be successful. Finding the right combination of variables and talent to move your brand forward, while ignoring the distractions (i.e. building a PPT template) is the goal as a marketing leader.
That’s the work of the team. That’s the practice (see above).
And for me, that’s what makes being a marketer so damn rewarding. It’s not about seeking a silver bullet, but mastering the execution of marketing campaigns within your organization/industry to be ready to strike when the right combination of variables is available to you. I’ve worked with a number of brands and clients that have had a powerful idea but have gotten hung up on, “But how can we segment our email audience to only reach those people?” It’s not that you have to be able to know the future, you've just got to give yourself options within your marketing strategy, technology, and team strengths.
Let your marketing team focus on that and maybe save the feedback on the PPT template for another day.
HOT TAKE: The best PPT slides are just a GIF that takes up the entire slide anyway.
Does your business need a tailwind? Stop waiting on one and create one. Tailwind Marketing Shop is here to help you accomplish your growth goals in a variety of different ways. Check out our services here.
Comments