I recently met a friend of a friend, about to go on tour as an indie musician. She asked what I did. I started by saying, “I’m in marketing.”
She said, “You’ll have to explain what you actually do, because that’s as if you said, ‘I do hocus pocus.’”
Good point. How do you describe what you do to non-marketers?
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Karl Sakas helps marketing clients navigate and launch complex website projects, something he's enjoyed doing since 1997. Karl is a web project manager at hesketh.com, an interactive marketing agency in Raleigh, N.C. (now hiring!). He grew up in a log cabin 15 miles from the White House and volunteers as a bartender on a 1930s railroad car. Karl likes marketing, history, coffee, technology, and writing about himself in the third person. [Read more...]
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I usually say “marketing to best customers” or “sending e-mails” but that’s not much of an elevator pitch.
Generating leads.
It all depends on their level of knowledge about branding, marketing, or PR. If they have some experience or familiarity, I cut right to it – here’s what I can do, why it’s important, and how I’m going to do it. If they have little to no exposure, it’s time to break out the portfolio and discuss what projects have been done with other clients, why it’s relevant to their business, and what to expect from it. For many people, it’s a “show me” thing — they just need to see something to get the wheels turning. For other, it’s a numbers thing — what’s the ROI going to be?
I tell people that I help small businesses build their customer base by helping them do web stuff. And yes, I say web stuff. It covers a lot, and I can do a lot. Plus, it saves me from having to get detailed right off the bat for people who may not truly be interest. For those who do want the nitty gritty – I have that and we can get into a different conversation.