If you have a body, you are an athlete, according to Bill Bowerman, co-founder of Nike. It doesn’t matter if you’re a triathlete, casual runner, zumba fanatic, or couch potato. If you have a body, you are an athlete, whether or not you choose to engage in athletic activities. How skilled you are in athletics is irrelevant to you having the title.

The same holds true for marketing. If you have a business (this includes a non-profit), you are a marketer. Fact.

As a business owner, you do marketing everyday whether you know it or not. Whether you choose to actively engage in it or not.

Simply put, marketing is a series of interrelated activities that enable you to solve your customers’ problem. And your business exists to solve a specific problem that your customers have. So, to be able to do this effectively, its impossible to not engage in marketing activities.

As a result, we are all marketers. You are. I am. Your business partners are. All of us are marketers.

But here lies the issue. Just because we’re all marketers, doesn’t mean that we’re all good ones. However, to have a business that thrives, doing marketing well is imperative.

I love being a marketer. I’ve wanted to be one for as long as I can remember. But I know that’s not the norm. Many business owners cringe at the thought of engaging in marketing activities. That’s partly because they don’t fully understand what it is, and partly because they’ve encountered enough bad marketing to make them want to scream at the thought of doing it themselves.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Marketing is your friend. And the sooner you embrace the fact that you are a marketer, the sooner you’ll be able to do what’s necessary to build and execute a good marketing strategy so your business and your customers can reap the benefits.

Since we’re all marketers, what kind of marketer are you at the moment?

“Marketing is the devil” Marketer

Thinks marketers exist solely to manipulate and cause unsuspecting customers to spend their hard earned money on things they don’t need. As such, he tries to do whatever he can to not be the very thing he loathes.

“What’s marketing?” Marketer

Focuses only on building the product his business will sell, and has no idea of what it really means to engage in other marketing activities. Nor has he tried to learn. He doesn’t realize that “product” is one of the “p’s” of marketing.

“Reluctant” Marketer

Knows that marketing is important to the success of his business, but doesn’t want to do it. So he does a few marketing activities here and there to check off the “marketing” box on his to-do list.

“Buy my stuff” Marketer

Knows that marketing is important, and focuses disproportionately on the promotion aspect of it. He does this so much, that all his friends and loved ones (and even some strangers) have started to roll their eyes or go in the opposite direction when they see him coming, because they know a sales pitch about buying his stuff is soon to come.

“Slickster” Marketer

Engages in the marketing that the “Marketing is the devil” marketer loathes. He works to get people to buy his stuff (no matter how good or bad it is) by any means necessary, including but not limited to manipulation.

“I use all the latest tools” Marketer

Recognizes the importance of marketing, and as a result studies and utilizes all the latest tools (not necessarily effectively) such as QR codes, and the newest social media platforms to stay current and “at the top of the game.”

“Value-added (read successful)” Marketer

Knows and understands the way marketing works, and marries his marketing strategy with his business’ organizational strategy to add the most amount of value to his customers over time.

“But I’m a web developer. I’m a writer. I run a non-profit. I’m not a marketer.”

Dude. Suck it up. The minute you decided to run a business, you became a marketer. There’s no way around it. And not actively participating in it because you don’t want to doesn’t help your business in any way. But if you really are that set against working on becoming a good marketer, get someone on your team immediately to do the marketing work for you. And then of course, do everything they tell you to do because guess what, you’ll still be a marketer! Just a less engaged one.

Admission is the first step to recovery. Admitting you’re a marketer is also a big step to building the business you dream of. Don’t worry, you’re not in this alone. We’ll provide you with plenty of tools to help you become a top notch marketer. We’re in this journey to your success together. And to prove it, I’ll go first.

My name is Sonia, and I’m a marketer.

Go ahead, begin your journey to success by leaving your admission (including the type of marketer you currently are) in the comments section!

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