When to Take Off Your Marketing Hat
When to Take Off Your Marketing Hat
If you’re in the business of selling or promoting anything, you may view the world through the lens of marketing 24/7. Every interaction is an opportunity to upsell, every social media post a pitch. There’s nothing wrong with this in itself, but the best marketers also know when to take off their marketing hat.
One of the first and most important times to do this is when you’re interacting with another human being. Whether it’s a customer, employee, partner, friend, or family member, people can smell insincerity a mile off. If all you ever do is talk about your brand and pitch your products, your relationships will suffer. Instead, ask questions with no ulterior motive. Listen. Be curious. Build trust and respect. The customers you create through meaningful connections will outlast the ones you sign up through self-serving one-way communication any day.
A crisis is another time to put the marketing hat on the back of your head. When something goes wrong, whether it’s your own fault or not, your audience isn’t looking for a clever hashtag or some slick copy to make them feel better. They want transparency, accountability, and empathy. Marketing is not your first job in these moments. Communicating with sincerity and making amends is.
Try to step away from marketing when you’re in creative brainstorming mode. The most groundbreaking ideas in advertising often come when you’re not looking for an ad idea, but solving a problem or investigating something for the sheer joy of learning.
Celebrate other people, and your hat can come off too. When your customers, community, friends, family or team have a reason to celebrate, not everything has to relate back to your brand.
To summarize: The best marketing happens when you’re not trying to market. Once you remove the “marketing” filter from every interaction you have with the world around you, you’ll build trust, foster creativity and start to lead with more humanity.
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