Is Marketing “Dirty Business?”

This conversation happened yesterday as I discussed with an executive coach how to grow her business.

“I hate marketing,” she said.

“Why?” I asked.

“It seems like dirty business,” she said. “I just want to connect with people who need me, serve them well, and get paid for my effort.”

“If you market the right way, you’re serving them well. You’re revealing to them a path to progress,” I said.

I shared with the coach the story of a business owner who refused to use the word “marketing.”

He called it “strategic communications.”

The boss said he’d seen lots of bad marketing. He’s seen marketers behave badly.

They indiscriminately pitch without assessing need. They fill your inbox with content that offers little or no value. They use dirty tricks to persuade prospects to buy unneeded products.

Like the coach, the business owner thought “marketing” is a dirty business.

He’s onto something when he calls it “strategic communications.”

The owner’s vision for strategic communications: A deliberate, strategic, value-generating exchange between his company and individual prospects.

Here’s the thing: That’s exactly what I suggested the coach should do to “market” her business.

Develop strategies to discover what’s relevant to your prospects. What do they want and need? How can you provide value?

Send content that includes interesting, informative, valuable information, not just product pitches. Don’t resort to a constant flow of just product pitches.

That’s not dirty business. That’s serving them well. That’s the first step in the path to progress.

To those marketers who do it the other way, the dirty way, I’m not saying you and “marketing” are bad. I’m saying you behaved badly.

Well-behaved marketers are strategic communicators. Good strategic communications is good marketing.