You’re in marketing, but do you actually do Marketing?

Most people don’t have a clue what Marketing is.

Many people who work in marketing probably don’t know what Marketing is either. Harsh, but true.

People with the title marketers, often aren’t Marketers.

There is marketing and then there is Marketing. And that capital M makes a world of difference.

When most people describe marketing they usually refer to tactics. Marketing for many people is advertising, your website, an email campaign or content marketing. Often short-term, campaign-based and promotional.

And often people who “do marketing” are usually doing one specific element, such as CRM, SEO, copywriting or social media. In fact, most Marketing departments are full of specialists and experts. Probably brilliant experts. But not necessarily Marketing experts.

Marketing, with a capital M, is much more fundamental. Marketing is strategic and long term. It’s the foundation upon which you build everything. It gives purpose and ensures everyone is focused and aligned to have maximum impact, everywhere.

Without that solid foundation, marketing, is pretty much useless. A waste of time and money. Because it’s not aligned, not integrated and not grounded in customer insight. There is no unified customer experience.

It’s scary how much “stuff” gets done in marketing and yet no one really knows why they are doing it or what effect it will really have. There might be a Marketing strategy, but in our experience, that strategy is often created in a vacuum and rarely makes it from the PowerPoint deck into the real world. If you asked them, probably most people in the Marketing departments couldn’t tell you what the overall Marketing strategy is.

The truth is, everyone is busy. Busy looking after their own patch. But, by having a solid foundation, teams could, in fact, focus on fewer, bigger, better things and have a much bigger business impact. Having a clear, actionable Marketing strategy acts like a rallying cry. It’s that guiding principle that keeps everyone moving forward in the same direction.

At Big M, we don’t do marketing, we do Marketing. We work with Marketing teams to help them hone or develop their Marketing strategy. And, because a great strategy is useless unless it acts as a filter for action, we help teams ensure everything they do (or don’t do) is focused and aligned.