It is common to see people confuse sales and marketing, because both of them they end up by the desire to sell the product. If your sales team isn’t selling, then they are failing, and if your marketing efforts don’t yield sales, it is failing too. So if both sales and marketing have the same ultimate goal, but what is the main difference between both?
Marketing is one single word? Subtlety.
Simply, sales is more direct: “Here is my product, it is great because of these three features. Buy it.” Marketing is more subtle. And to be clear, I’m not talking about performance marketing advertising, I am talking about all other types of marketing, including branding, social media, PR, content, and value driven. Be subtle, tell me a story, get my heart pounding, and don’t be a salesman:
A press release is not a sales document.
A story to tell and you want that story covered by the press, sending a document about how you are revolutionizing the world and how your product is the best thing; let the product sell itself, with more fact-oriented, one that tells the actual story, you are more likely to get a story that exceeds what you would have written had the press release been focused on how great your product is. Let the journalist, and by extension, your audience reach the conclusion about how great you are, by themselves, without you shoving it down their throats. Be subtle.
Don’t ask me to promote you, give me a reason to.
By being valuable, and not by asking others to promote you. Because If you provide your audience with great value, they will ultimately promote you without you asking. When the decision is theirs, the actual promotion will be more heartfelt, more authentic, and by definition, more effective. Don’t cut corners. Invest the time needed to offer real insights. People will be more inclined to promote you. Be subtle.
Enjoy the spot right next to them.
Instead of writing a blog post about how amazing you are, promote others and their work. Give them the stage and what ends up happening is that you share that stage. By giving others a stage, you are strengthening your relationship.
Instead of using your power to self-promote, use it to promote others and you will end up gaining in the long run. With subtlety. This single word defines the viral marketing, WOM and brings your value to a known brand that last ages in memories of people, in a digital world where things change faster and dramatically.
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