Marketing Toolbox

I remember when I was kid, sitting downstairs watching Creature Double Feature on TV, not just for Godzilla and The Creature from the Black Lagoon but also for the commercials so I could see the cool toys that I could put on my Christmas list. I also remember going to my grandmother’s house and flipping through the 1,500-page JC Penney catalog looking at all the toys I wanted.

Marketing 1980-2000’s

That was marketing: Big budget, mass market, expensive carpet bombing. And companies would hire based on that model. They would hire people who could manage and execute large scale marketing projects. Could they get a commercial written, produced and aired while staying within their million(s) dollar budget? How about launch a national print advertisement?

Talent and creativity was needed, but if you didn’t work for a company with enormous resources, your work would get lost.

Marketing Shift

I know I’m not saying anything close to original here, but the internet has completely changed that marketing model. A big marketing budget is no longer a competitive advantage (or an even a necessity). Today a blogger can market their blog to the world for next to nothing. The difficulty with marketing is that a blogger can market their blog to the world for next to nothing.  This creates enormous competition for eyeball attention.

Companies must get through the clutter to reach their target audience. But how? I could list 100’s (or 1,000’s) of websites, services, apps, packages, and platforms that all claim to be marketing solutions. They all might be perfect for you, or they might all be a waste of time, but how do you know? You don’t, but you need to hire people who do. This is what companies; especially small companies need to understand when hiring for marketing.

Marketing Toolbox

The analogy I’ve been using is that today professional marketers need a marketing toolbox filled with the tools they can use to expertly design and execute a marketing campaign in this extremely competitive business environment.Now, much like any toolbox, there are requirements (Facebook is like your hammer, Twitter is like a screwdriver), but their toolbox may have SharpSpring for website marketing automation, Typeform for survey’s and Mail Chimp for bulk emails. If I hire someone to build a house, I really don’t care what tools you use to build my house, I just want it built to spec and do what it’s supposed to do. Same goes for marketing. Hire someone who has a marketing toolbox that can build your marketing program to spec and then deliver on expectations, whatever those tools might be.