Sunday, April 27, 2014

The One Phrase That Kills My Marketing Morale

The One Phrase That Kills My Marketing Morale image b520a04f b52f 40a1 8764 4ea3d4e3927c

Only one? My marketing mojo gets derailed at least once a week because of unpleasant utterances. Since I do inbound marketing for others my take on this is going to be slightly different than the usual phrases like “There’s not enough money”, “The budget can’t account for that”. The phrase the urks me the most (makes me have nightmares) is when a client says this “I’ll do it myself.”


What does this phrase apply to? “I’ll do my own blog writing”, “I’ll write copy for that email”, “Let me write our next ebook”. I create content so my experience with the DIY crowd mostly relates to copy writing.


Don’t get me wrong, when the DIY client does the work this relationship is a beautiful thing. In my experience though, this only has worked less than 20% of the time. Yes, I did just pull that percentage from my head but that is how I would describe it if asked. I think everyone has had a similar experience with a partner, client or customer. They say they are going to pitch in and do something and they don’t. They don’t at all. And this leaves you back at square one with more time passed.


Content creation is very time sensitive to our clients marketing efforts. And I think this concept isn’t something that is understood all the time. If you want to attract traffic to your website… you need content (blogs). If you want to capture leads on your website… you need unique content (ebook, whitepaper,webinar). If you want to try and convert web leads into clients… you need nurturing content (email campaigns). For our agency to prove ROI we need to get these materials produced and we need to do it on a strict schedule. When you step in and say “I’ll do it myself” you are essentially stripping us of our skills and efficiency. Why are you paying me to do this and if you are going to do it yourself? You just robbed me of valuable marketing time dedicated to your company. That marketing buzz I had… DEAD.


Lets apply this to another working relationship where this would not be appropriate. You hire a pest control company to come erradicate that pesky termite problem you have in your garage. When they show up you take his pesticide, spray the garage, then hand it back to them, thank them and cough up $500. THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN and you would NEVER do that.


So why does this happen in marketing? There is this gray area when you outsource with an agency. You are the expert in your field and I’m an expert in mine. Unfortunately I am not always an expert in your industry as well. A pest control company would never let you handle their tools just because you are an expert at understanding your garage (you lived there your whole life, you know it best!). In marketing relationships this is where you may feel the need to DIY because you are concerned no one else can hit it on the mark like you can when it comes to writing about your industry.


And this is where my marketing buzz flatlines yet again. I’ve been at this marketing thing for awhile now. I know what I’m doing. I have an expert team of writers that I have worked with for years. They get the job done and they get it done so good you will scream HELL YES. Your industry is not cryptic. The business you provide reaches customers and it does that through knowledge of what exactly it is you do. If your customers/clients can understand what you do to the point that they realize they need your services, than we can too. Plus we do market research and all those other jazzy marketer things. Our goal is to understand your industry 110% so we can do our job 110% better than the rest.


Okay. I rambled a bit. But here is what it comes down to.


When you say “I’ll do it myself.”


  1. You waste your money

  2. You waste our time and yours

  3. You push back your marketing results (assuming you wont make our deadlines)

  4. You make me angry

  5. You downgrade our expertise by hindering our ROI

I want our working relationship to be running at full speed. Yes I have a bit of a bite but that’s cause I want to do things right so you can reap the rewards. Let me drive for awhile and kick your feet up in the passenger seat. I’ll be sure to pull over at all the right pit stops :)



Source: B2C_Business



The One Phrase That Kills My Marketing Morale

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