I have a complicated with marketing.
As a freelance designer, marketing designer for a medical software startup, and now agency owner, I’ve worked in marketing “adjacent” for years. I also studied psychology at East Carolina University…and what is marketing but psychology tweaked for selling?
I keep hearing the phrase “digital marketing” being spewed out and I just kinda scratch my head because I genuinely don’t know what it is…and it’s accompanied by “inbound, organic, ROI, CPC, CPI, PPC…” and a slew of other abbreviations. And that all just seems overwhelming to me.
I’ve spent the last few weeks running around my neighborhood here in Miami, saying “hi” to some of the local small businesses and introducing myself w/ my “elevator pitch”. Their reply is, “I don’t really need any help with design, but I need help with marketing.” When I dig a bit deeper they don’t usually know the specifics they need help with but they mention social media and maybe some ads.
This isn’t news: being a small business owner is hard. To me, it’s like the ultimate jack-of-all-trades job. You are an expert on what you do, in my case design and branding, but you know not much about selling, marketing, tracking, bookkeeping, or taxes…and you have to learn on the fly. So, you make a business plan that outlines marketing strategy and you kind of fill it out but you’re not totally confident. I get it. Been there, done that, have the business loan. Then a few months pass and you’re trying to get leads and you think that “but I need help with marketing” I’m currently in that exact spot for my business too, and I know it’s hard.
And if you’re trying to market your business yourself those acronyms, terms, and the entire digital world around us can be overwhelming.
So I have a toe in that world already. And I am going to jump in over and share what I learn with you. So buckle up, follow along with me, and maybe together we can learn some stuff.
