Lately I’ve noticed a trend among entrepreneurs slightly bragging about how they’re successful without marketing.
And, every time I read one of those blog posts or hear someone say it in an interview, it makes me really uncomfortable.
Because it isn’t true. (At least 99% of the time it isn’t true.)
Most of these entrepreneurs who are telling you that you shouldn’t have to promote your business in order to be successful do the exact opposite of the advice they’re giving you.
They are writing and publishing blog posts every week. They are emailing their lists. They are growing their lists through interviews and speaking engagements. They are updating their social media accounts regularly.
That’s marketing, people.
Just because you don’t have to spend lots of time promoting every single product or service you offer doesn’t negate all of the time you’ve spent blogging, emailing your list and updating social media. Those people who are following you and reading your blog didn’t just appear out of thin air.
It’s extremely frustrating to see successful (or at least seemingly successful) entrepreneurs pretend that you can sit back, produce good products and earn a full-time or six figure income without marketing.
As if they didn’t spend a lot of time, at least in the beginning, spreading the word about their businesses and products.
When I sat down to write today’s blog post, I wasn’t planning to write about this.
But I got sidetracked, like we all tend to do online, and stumbled across more than one post on more than one blog in which marketing was bashed.
Normally when I see something that I don’t agree with, I just move on to another blog that I gel with more but I couldn’t this time. Especially since I’d heard more than one entrepreneur gloating about their lack of marketing in interviews in the past couple months and this trend is irking me to no end.
I feel like I have to clarify that I’m not at all into the “look at me, look at me” marketing where it feels like the person is yelling at you to buy their stuff.
You know the kind of marketing where you can imagine the person standing on the curb with a poster screaming to come and get your $5 pizza?
That’s what my mind conjures up when I see those blogs where post after post is a picture of a product with a link to buy it online and not much else. Or those Facebook walls that are filled with the same thing: here’s my product—go buy it.
That type of marketing doesn’t work and it gives marketing a bad name.
Good marketing makes you feel excited to buy a product. And, great marketing doesn’t feel like marketing at all.
But for entrepreneurs to claim that they’re successful without spending a good chunk of time promoting their businesses is confusing and deceptive to new entrepreneurs looking to them for advice and guidance.
It encourages the “if your products and services are really good, you shouldn’t have to spend time on marketing” fallacy.
One such blog post I recently read was written by someone that spends a great deal of time on marketing: writing and publishing blog posts that sell products, emailing one’s list regularly, using social media to connect with one’s target market, etc.
So, the next time someone says that you can succeed without marketing, take a look at how much marketing that person does.
Once you get to a certain stage in your business, marketing should become easier.
At least, it has for me and many entrepreneurs that I’ve worked with.
Instead of having to pitch interviews and speaking engagements, people come to you asking to interview you and requesting you to speak at their events.
Instead of crossing your fingers and wishing upon a star that twenty people will sign up for your next online course, your course sells out within two weeks due to the amazing testimonials on your sales page and the three well-written blog posts you wrote to get your readers excited about it.
Instead of having to tweet about your latest blog post ten different times, you tweet about it once or twice and twenty-four of your followers retweet it, helping you gain lots of new readers.
Sometimes, something big will happen that completely changes the game for you.
You get featured on a blog with hundreds of thousands of readers and make more money in a week than you did all of last year. Or, you land a speaking engagement that gets you in front of the right market and helps you fill up your consulting spots for the entire year.
It doesn’t mean that you never have to work on marketing again, but it does make things easier.
However, for most of us, the beginning looks like this: one comment on the blog post you spent six hours writing and editing, twelve likes on your business Facebook page, and one sale within the first week of your product launch (that may or may not be from a friend who felt bad when you told her how upset you were that your launch didn’t go as expected).
That’s normal.
And if we pretend that it isn’t and that you don’t have to work hard to get your products in front of the right people, especially in the beginning, we’re doing a disservice to all those passionate entrepreneurs who are just getting started or have been at it for six months and are still struggling.
Most of the time, success doesn’t fall at your fingertips.
THANK YOU!!! It’s so refreshing to hear the voice of reason (that’s you, April). I market my butt off, and all the best entrepreneurs are constantly promoting themselves. Yes, it’s gotten easier as my business has grown, but the best products/services in the world won’t sell unless you get them in front of your ideal customers. That means you gotta market.
PS, I’d love to see more ranting blog posts from you. You’re pretty badasss when you’re angry about something. 🙂
I love this comment! Thank you, Sage! I started laughing so hard when I read your P.S. that my husband asked what I was laughing at, so I showed him your comment. He laughed and enjoyed it, too.
I’m glad you got side tracked! Thanks for this virtual pep talk and speaking out!
Hey Shasta! Good to “see” you. Yay for virtual pep talks! 🙂
Nailed it!
Yeah, good luck with the “not marketing” approach to business. Business must be dynamic to succeed. The world is constantly changing so your business has to change along with it or get left behind. If you are not habitually working to attract new customers, you better start working on your resume because you won’t be in business for long.
xo,
rs
http://www.theredscorpio.com/blog/howto_nyres/
Go Richelle! Thanks for adding to my argument. 🙂
Always love “hearing” from you.
This is a new trend I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing yet. (And good thing, too.) I 100% agree with you: good marketing is what helps a business succeed. And it IS necessary.
Oh my goodness. I’ve seen it popping up over and over and I thought about linking to some examples but I’ve never called out entrepreneurs or small businesses so I decided against it.
Thanks for sharing!
Say what? That’s funny…success without marketing! How else do you get your name out without marketing? That’s the ” if I build it, they will come” philosophy. In my dreams! 😉
Hey Trish! Yes…it is a dream-worthy philosophy…unfortunately, for most of us, it just doesn’t work that way. 🙂
Totally agree with you! I read a post once that said they’re sick of marketing and the hussle, they weren’t going to do it anymore. They just wanted to connect with people they could help and write good articles and connect with their tribe on social media. That IS marketing. So I didn’t really see what the point was that they were making, what was the hussle? Maybe they were doing something that they didn’t explain in the post but it was all kinda confusing. Great article.
I do think that sometimes it’s a disconnect from knowing what marketing really is but in a couple cases I saw recently the successful entrepreneurs definitely understand what marketing is and act as if they’re not doing it when they are. I think some people think of marketing as advertising and pitching one’s products when it’s so much more than that. Thanks Angela!
Awesome!
I love how you point out that the best marketing is simply connecting with your clients. I’m working on revamping my outlook and strategies for marketing, so this is right in line with where I plan to go – INCREASING my marketing best practices.
Thank you!
Sounds like a great plan! Thanks for sharing and commenting!
Well said. Glad i have not run into such blog posts 🙂
Thanks! I wish I hadn’t, either. 🙂
Thanks for this April, and for the reassurance that it’s normal to have to work your butt off in the beginning. I always feel like there’s more that I could be doing but seeing my efforts pay off bit by bit by bit is what keeps me going!
The bit by bit is so normal. Lots of us experience some “bigger moments” after a while which propel us forward faster. For instance, for me some of those have been guest posting on Design Sponge, speaking at the Etsy Success Symposium, and teaching at CreativeLive. Each of those things (along with some others) have made marketing so much easier for me, but they didn’t just happen…it took a lot of work to get there.
I couldn’t agree with you more – at least it hasn’t been my experience. Now if I had a dollar for every time I read a Quit Your Day Job or Featured Shop over on Etsy and the person interviewed said that they don’t really do any marketing, but they’ve been wildly successful just through word of mouth, I just figure they don’t want to give up their secrets. 😉
YES! Some people are wildly successful through word-of-mouth only but that’s such a small percentage. Most of us have to do other things like blog, build an email list, connect on social media, etc. And, I think there is sometimes a disconnect with creatives not fully understanding what marketing is, because I’ve read some of those and checked out the businesses and the person is blogging every week, sending out twice monthly emails, regularly updates her Facebook page, etc. So, it’s confusing to others reading those features…wondering why they aren’t experiencing the same success. It infuriates me a tad. 🙂
“However, for most of us, the beginning looks like this: one comment on the blog post you spent six hours writing and editing, twelve likes on your business Facebook page, and one sale within the first week of your product launch (that may or may not be from a friend who felt bad when you told her how upset you were that your launch didn’t go as expected).
That’s normal.”
Thanks – I really, really, REALLY needed to hear that today 🙂
Me too Jess! This was the part I liked best 🙂
I’m so glad I could encourage you a bit today. The majority of us struggle in the beginning…sometimes for a long while. I’ve worked with creatives who haven’t had much success for well over a year or two before they start to hit a nice rhythm of sales. For some, it comes easier. But, I think we all have to work for it.
I have not marketed in the past…and that landed exactly a big fat 0 dollars in my bank account. lol
You are so right in that you can’t just sit there and expect people to know you are there (although I am the guilty one that never asks for sales…:-, though I’m working on it).
I’ve not encountered blog posts where people are actually teaching to sit on your butt and do nothing, but if it was a vulnerable me reading it 3 years ago I would have listened…so, thanks for standing up for us! 🙂
P.S. Is January 26th here yet? This waiting is killing me.
ME TOO AMANDA! LOL
I recently read a blog post by someone VERY well known who wrote about not needing to market at all even though she spends time on marketing constantly. It really rubbed me the wrong way and sent me over the edge to writing this post. 🙂
We’re gonna get you over that marketing hump! I can’t wait for Monday. I’m so darn excited!!!
Hi, April!
Great article! That’s just silly and ridiculous. Wouldn’t we all be rich then? A lot of folks are looking for the “easy” way, the magic pill or “get rich quick” load of crap. It blows my mind how people still “fall” for it! It’s pretty sad really. It’s always going to take work, sometimes a lot and and sometimes really hard. That’s just the way it is. That’s why they call it “work”! 😉 I feel very blessed to to work for myself and appreciate your keeping it real, like the other ladies are saying. I love being able to count on that from you. Thanks! ♡
Hey Nancy! Thanks for commenting and sharing! I get really frustrated when I see someone who I know others look up to for advice saying something when they’re actually doing pretty much the opposite. I always try to be transparent and truthful because it’s not helpful if I’m not. I appreciate you jumping in and adding your thoughts.
Thank you!!! I struggled for a while because I believed that logic. And then nobody came. And I thought I was a crappy artist because no one came. I’ve realized though that the Internet is big and marketing is extremely important. And it doesn’t have to be sleezy. Marketing is serving other people in different ways and I love that.
This post goes down as one of my favorites!!
Thanks Mikaela! One of your favorites? Really? That makes me so happy. I enjoyed writing it…whenever I’m fired up about something, the writing tends to flow smoothly. Not sure what that says but…I’ll take it. 🙂
I couldn’t agree with you more! Yes, marketing can be time-consuming and everything but one really NEEDS to promote one’s business and, while at it, have some fun, too!!!
It’s so nice to read your posts AND the comments below, since I receive newletters fromalmost everyone here!!! Like meeting friends, thanks April!!!
I love love love that you’ve connected with others who read my posts and comment. You ladies (and the few guys) are amazing!
Thanks for the taking the time to add your two cents! 🙂
Well, that was a catchy title and for a good reason. Thank you for this article, April, it makes it a bit clearer what people think when they hear the word “marketing”. Most of the time they probably think it’s ad campaigns and paying to be featured in different mediums. But we know better, right?
It’s everything about our businesses and our products that we put out there: articles, photos, videos, answers to odd and useful questions, personal experiences. It’s just sad that marketing has gotten to the point where it only means advertising to most people…
And yes, it’s nice to see a useful rant once in a while 😀
Yes…it’s definitely true that some people don’t connect certain things (like blogging weekly) with marketing. At least two of the well-known people I came across recently making boastful statements about their lack of marketing know exactly what marketing is because they teach business and marketing. So, they don’t have good excuses however I have seen Etsy sellers claiming that they don’t spend on time marketing when they obviously do but it’s not paying for ads so they don’t associate it with marketing.
Thanks for commenting and adding to the conversation!
Thanks for this post – it was a great sidetrack topic! Hah!
I agree that sometimes successful folks are making it look too easy or that they just had a lot of luck… or things just fell into place. Sort of gives a false sense of privilege, that it just works for some people and for others there’s no hope because it’s not meant to be.
Instead, it’s really about hard work and perseverance… and maybe it’s not that romantic or sexy to proclaim that truth… but it is… the truth!
It’s definitely not as romantic or sexy to say that you work hard for your success. Although, I find hard work sexy and my favorite people to work with feel the same.
I had six people unsubscribe from my emails when I sent out my email yesterday and I say good riddance to those people. If they don’t connect with this blog post, they aren’t the right fit for me. 🙂
You go, April! I haven’t seen this trend, but I can just imagine people saying things like this. Almost like they are bragging. However, every time you interact with your customer it’s marketing – whether through customer service, packaging and shipping, or even how you write your product descriptions in Etsy. You are Marketing! Some days I feel like I spend more time on marketing than I do making products! LOL And thank you for reminding me that slow blog days and no sale days at this stage in business are normal. January is such a dichotomy – hope for the new year and big ideas…and slow sales as everyone recovers from their December spending. 🙂
It’s so true that there is such a dichotomy in January…lots of people aren’t spending money unless you’ve got a business dedicated to losing weight or goal setting or such…but most entrepreneurs are trying to start the year strong.
For me, I strategize not only when I want to offer new products/services but also when my ideal customer will be most likely to buy it and use it. For instance, CreativeLive wanted me to teach my latest courses really close to Thanksgiving but I knew that my target market wouldn’t want to travel right before Thanksgiving to attend something like that in person and many wouldn’t be at their computer screens, ready to learn. I knew that if I wanted those courses to be successful, they’d have to be much earlier in November. If I hadn’t planned better, I would’ve been disappointed.
That’s something we truly have to consider when planning our business goals and budgets. Thanks for bringing that up!
You have no idea how much I needed to hear this today. I produced a product, but it up yesterday and not sold one. In fact was told that why would they buy this from me when they could get it free by searching the internet.
🙁
Frustrating
Hey Wendy! Don’t let that get you down. I know it’s disconcerting when you offer something and it isn’t as successful as you planned, but that’s when you have to consider why it didn’t work so well and make some adjustments.
One of the first offers I ever made to my email list fell completely flat. I had zero sales. None and I had a list of well over 300 at that time. I would’ve thought that I would have had at least one interested person. But, I learned from that experience, tweaked things and now I make a full-time income from my business. I had a $20,000+ launch recently and that was just for one course.
You can do this! We’ll talk about why people will buy something when they could get it for free in the upcoming six weeks course. I promise that they do all the time so that’s NOT your problem.
Wonderful post! You really captured the frustrating parts of businesses… that one blog comment after writing for hours is so accurate. Lovely advice as always.
Thanks Jess! So glad you enjoyed it and took a few moments to comment. 🙂
Thankfully I haven’t seen this trend, but I love what you said about marketing. Especially good marketing. It’s always been tricky for me to figure out to market, but the more I learn the easier it becomes to know what to do.
So thankful that I came across your blog! It’s helped me so much, and has gotten me fired up to do blogging.
YES…it’s not easy at first. None of us were born knowing how to market a business. We have to learn and the more we do it, the better we get and the easier it gets. Thanks for adding that and taking the time to leave a comment!
What a way to tell the truth.
Being authentic and transparent is the perfect way
To use your platform.
Thanks for sharing.
I see those post and shake my head in disbelief.
Sometimes I want to respond but talk my self out of it
I forget I have a platform of my own to communicate my
Thoughts and ideas.
I like the way you turned the rant into a teaching lesson
On marketing
Well done
Malaika
Thanks Malaika! I have to talk myself out of commenting or responding, too. I’ve talked myself off that ledge many times.
Thanks for the comment…so lovely!
Very simply: YES!!!!! Thanks, April, for saying “shame on you” to these “marketers”.
(Maybe it is their trick for others to go and look at their website…and purchase something?!)
Maybe…but I don’t like it! 😉
Thanks for commenting, Indre!
Marketing is such a NEW world for me, Its something I never new I was suppose to be doing even though I was trying to “have” a business that ran mostly online.
Marketing is a HUGE world, tons of stuff that I still don’t always understand what and how to do.
Its only frustrating when I look “Big time” people in my industry that deny they do any kind of marketing at all.
For sometime now I’ve been under the impression that it just fall at your finger tips when you “get lucky” and until then you just have to hold and hope!
So glad I know that is the not the case and I can put in the work.
None of us know what we’re doing in the beginning. It’s totally normal to feel kinda lost in the beginning. The more you do it, the better you get and the easier it becomes.
Put in the work and you’ll see rewards!
Thanks for adding to the conversation and commenting.
I agree with Sage completely–this is so refreshing to read. Marketing by any other name, is still marketing.
Thanks for tackling this topic today and for all the great content on your site–which, by the way–is super easy to get excited about. 🙂
Thanks J.P.! I really appreciate your comment. One of my goals whenever I write a blog post is to inspire others. 🙂
I love how you ‘give it to us straight’ and yep, you guys should check out the fabulous marketing book 🙂 Have it, love it. 🙂
Thanks Vivayne! 🙂
Hi April!
I really needed THIS post. I’m with you and if I have to be honest, reading how hard it was for you and your own experience in the begining makes me realise that I need to keep going and learning and testing and trying because it’s too soon to see anything happening. Today I feel less alone in this chaotic online world 😉
I love what you do, keep doing it PLEASE! 🙂
I think sometimes the word marketer and especially internet marketer can come across almost as a “bad word.” Like there is some sort of bad connotation out there about marketing. I’m sure it stems from the sleezy marketers out there that are simply promoting ME, ME, ME, so it makes others that are doing things the right way want to distance themselves from that type of promotion.
But you’re exactly right that writing blog posts, sharing on social media, writing emails, etc. are all marketing techniques. But I’m glad that they often don’t feel that way! So I can understand how some people might say they are “not marketing.” They are just doing what they do. But like you said, don’t fall into the trap of thinking they are not still promoting. It’s just a different way of getting the same results of getting your name and services out there!