I didn’t always consider myself a marketer…
ask me 6 years ago and I would’ve said “ugh”, “gross”, and “no fucking way”!!?
As a matter of fact, I HATED it and didn’t want anything to do with it. I hated commercials or anyone who promoted themselves wayyyyy too much.
At one point I was forced to participate in meetings, meetings that had nothing to do with me. Most of the time I just ended up doodling or wandering off into the astral plane or both.☁️
So how did I go from hating marketing to loving it?
Easy, with repetition.
If you create graphics for advertising and promotions on a daily basis like I do, you start to realize that marketing is heavily involved in everything you do. It is not a separate thing, but a symbiotic relationship.
Why is that?
Because you’re thinking about ways to execute something visually when you’re combining text with images, then posting it to social media or getting it printed.
Not only that, but you’re also thinking about the best way to say it; your copy and your taglines. Small businesses might not have the luxury of having a copywriter, so it might fall on the designer or the owner to come up with something. Should it come straight from your creative & genius brain raw & unfiltered, or simplified so that others can actually understand your message and take action?
You’re also thinking about your audience – friends, clients, potential customers and clients who might see it.
When you’re posting on social media – whether it’s a painting, something you cooked or baked, your writing, your designs, a video demonstrating what it is you do, etc…you’re showing off your skills through something you created and the potential to provide something of value to others.
All of that IS marketing.
And everyone who promotes something of theirs is actively doing it, whether they’re aware of it or not.
And going back to the concept of repetition – I finally understood that in order for people to know about you, you have to REPEAT yourself and constantly let people know about you.
Marketing has become part of my job due to the fact that workplaces have been shrinking for some time now. Most companies don’t want to hire and pay a person for marketing, and then another for SEO, and then another for web design, graphics, etc…
so without even having a clue that this would be my future, I started to learn how to do a little bit of everything and it has paid off. I’ve learned a lot and am still learning. And I don’t get bored.
But don’t think you have to do it my way; I only did it this way because it seems to work for me. I find that learning and focusing on one subject doesn’t work for me; it seems that halfway through I get bored and disinterested. And so I jump on to other things…
and another, and another.
and then I end up learning a little bit of everything.
Another reason why I know a little bit of everything?
Usually someone will ask me a question and even though I don’t know the answer, they’re kind of expecting me to have an answer or a solution. So I start to Google a bunch of shit just to know what it is they’re asking of me.
And now I just learned something else; I can add that to my knowledge bank and share it with someone who needs it.
So there you have it, one of the ways a person gets into marketing.
