Following up on last week’s conversation of Marketing vs. Prospecting, let’s talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of marketing. At this point in our cultural evolution, advertising and marketing is part of our aesthetic, psychological, and experiential landscape. Marketing experts have estimated that we see between 4,000 and 10,000 advertisements a day. As salespeople, the least we can do is make marketing materials that are good.

Good marketing is generous, authentic, and thoughtful. It pays attention to the rounded experience of the people it targets by aiming to improve the instant in which they experience that marketing. This often means it’s inspired by listening to clients to understand their point of view, and marketing in a way that’s about them, not you. Good marketing is about building trust by offering effort, thought, and expertise free of charge, and trusting in the relationship you’re building passively. It’s unique, not just to you, but to those whom you’re targeting. Worse case scenario, good marketing goes unnoticed. Best-case scenario, it improves someone’s day, makes them think, and helps them feel a sense of connection to you.

Bad marketing is egotistical, shallow, and manipulative. Sometimes it targets people’s fears, negative emotions, or lack of knowledge. Sometimes it’s blind to people’s experience as consumers of the marketing, simply talking about how great one’s service is. Often it’s manipulative, and doesn’t give people enough credit to realize they’ll see through the inauthentic persuasion tactics. Bad marketing takes a short cut away from understanding the audience, and catering to their needs.

Let’s all hold ourselves to a higher standard for marketing. Let’s take the time to be creative and genuine, creating marketing that is truly good. It’ll work better, and wouldn’t it also be nice to live in a world where less of the approx. 10,000 ads we see a day were irritating?