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    • Tue Jul 01, 2008

    Is Marketing Hard or Easy, Both or Neither?

    I wonder if you could help me an experiment by answering the following in comments.

    1) What’s the hardest part about marketing for you?
    2) What’s the easiest part about marketing for you?

    I’m curious how often the same thing will be one for some and the other for another.

    I’ll go first
    Hardest – 1) Remembering it’s always about the money
    Easiest – 2) Remembering it’s never about the money

    Not as simple as it seem perhaps.

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    Posted by: John Jantsch on Jul 01, 08 | 11:11 am
    Category: Marketing Strategy | Tags:

    Comments
    « Coaching Excellence Series Rolls On | Home | Learn Word of Mouth Marketing from the Guy Who Wrote the Book »
    • The most challenging thing about marketing is finding the time to market.

      The easiest is riding the "high" after seeing positive results.
    • Rod
      Hardest > Being Different, Not Better
      Easiest> Keepiing it Simple
    • The easiest part about marketing is if you do it consistenly, results are inevitable

      The hardest part about marketing is trusting that it works before the results come.
    • I have spent the last 3 years on the 'wholesale' side of the business, as opposed to the 'retail' side...so maybe my answers won't count as much, but here goes:

      Hardest Part - creating enough buzz. Since we sell to re-sellers, it's a smaller group of potential customers than End Users. Web 2.0 methods, which are exciting and valuable, often don't apply because there is not a big enough network of advocates to spread the word.

      Easier Part - telling the 'story'. We pride ourselves on offering products that are unique as well as high-value, so we don't need to sell on price.
    • John,

      great question. I belive both can be answered the same way: marketing on a consistent basis. I talked more about it on our blog today! thanks for the creative start...www.tornadomktg.com/blog
    • Here is my answer to your questions,

      Hardest: Sustaining yourself in a competitive market

      Easiest: Bother less about money.
    • Hardest: This will work!
      Easiest: I knew that would work!
    • hardest: learning what's available and appropriate and how to implement it
      easiest:knowing what I'm marketing
    • Hardest: Times Have Changed
      Easiest: Something Never Change
    • Hardest: Figuring out what works. I work in an industry where the number of sales every month is relatively small and take many months to gestate.

      Easiest: Making time for it. Since reading Duct Tape Marketing (which I'm just now rereading!) I've realized that Marketing is my #1 job...
    • Hardest: Research
      Easiest: Campaign development and implementation

      John, which money are you referring to, your investment or return?

      Wonderful post and am enjoying the responses.
    • Hardest: Accepting the fact that not every great idea always produces the results you want

      Easiest: Doing it the Duct Tape Marketing way - it's systematic so you keep going with your plan (not just hit-or-miss) - also #2 is working with a great team (that keeps me motivated as a small business owner)
    • Easiest: Targeting more people
      Hardest: Remembering More isn't necessarilly better
    • Great question John. The easiest part for me is generating the ideas and planning the strategy. The hardest part is working out the most effective order in which to implement marketing activities (esp all the web 2.0 stuff), and keeping on top of the follow up in a way that doesn't bug your clients/list.

      Would be interesting to hear the results you get from this survey and thanks again.
    • The hardest for me (and almost all of my clienst I find) is finding quality time to put in. This includes planning time in advance so that things aren't all last minute and not properly tested.

      The easiest part is PR as I find generating media coverage is far less hard that I used to and I'm always amazes at how many articles and news releases get picked up
    • The easiest thing about marketing is in the doing, applying our understanding of markets, competitors, the product or service, and the company to drive effective messages and develop need-based products that support sustainable growth for the company.

      The hardest thing about marketing is convincing executives and colleagues that marketing can actually do that - impact revenue - and not just act as a MarCom service bureau and Dilbert punchline.
    • Hardest: Getting clients to understand marketing is a long term is a process. (SEO)

      Easiest: Learning new and exciting ideas everyday.
    • Hardest: Remembering that marketing is only a PART of running a business
      Easiest: Remembering that it's the FUN part
    • Hardest: More tedious than people think. Very little can be put on "auto pilot", as my clients like to think.
      Easiest: Cashing the checks.
    • Kimber said it first...the hardest part is 'getting a round tuit." The easiest is absorbing the glow when what I do get around to doing is so successful!
    • I'll list it backwards. Mine makes more sense that way.

      Easiest: Coming up with ideas for online marketing.
      Hardest: Implementing those ideas. I hate it when I have to pick one or at most two.
    • nicole
      hardest: thinking like a salesperson
      easiest: actually communicating
    • Hardest: Remembering you're not all things to everybody
      Easiest: Getting excited by the possibilities

      Raza Imam
      http://SoftwareSweatshop.com
    • Easiest: I use social marketing theory to target healthy behavior change, and healthy lifestyles.I love my job so much, I would do it for free!

      Hardest: I do my job for free...
    • Hardest- Being patient.
      Easiest/Most Fun- Thinking outside of the box.
    • Hardest: Prioritizing time (what marketing idea should I do next?)
      Easiest: Reading about what others have done to be successful
    • Hardest: finding profitable customers
      Easiest: finding profitable customers :)
    • Hardest: Knowing when an Idea is a good idea and it can attract clients. (A lot of money goes out the window too easily without results)
      Easiest: I don't grasp the easy part... (nothing seems to work) darn it...
    • Hardest: Dealing with the increasing number of ongoing projects that each marketing project creates.

      Easiest: Finding new projects that need to be completed.
    • Easiest: Doing this work is BS that's really for newbies just out of school. Any moron can create an ad. Your job is to go to lunches and crush the egos of your underlings, not get your hands dirty. You're above it.
      Adagencysecretformula.com
    • Hardest: Dealing with unreasonable clients

      Easiest: Dealing with awesome clients!
    • HARDEST: Remembering I'm not smarter than my market.
      EASIEST: Believing I'm smarter than my market.
    • Hardest: Knowing where to begin and not being paralyzed by too many choices.

      Easiest: Being real and interacting with people.
    • Hardest:The knowledge to maintain market
      Easiest:Being reliable.
    • E - identifying bad marketing
      H - implementing good marketing
    • The hardest part is focusing the message to a specific target audience rather than the wide brush stoke approach.

      The easiest part? Once I identify the target? Writing a benefit-laden, marketing message with the reader in mind.

      Then the next hardest is realizing that instead of waiting for the phone to ring - following up in a timely manner. Waiting by the phone didn't get me a date for the prom and it sure won't bring me a new customer!

      D
    • Hardest: Hanging in through the testing until it's working.

      Easiest: Having an uninformed opinion as to what's wrong with the marketing.
    • Remembering it's /all/ about the money.
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