Do You Find Marketing Confusing? It's Not You: The Industry Is Out To Get You

When I started in marketing, I found it terrifyingly dizzying to try and learn the base concepts needed to be a good marketer. Analytics and stats, know/like/trust, SEO and SEM, you name it: the list of concepts to know is never ending. Despite all my education, no matter what qualifications I pursued, regardless of what I studied, there always seemed to be more content to learn.

Until I realized: there wasn't. In fact, marketing content is remarkably simple to learn.

The problem is in who writes about marketing, and really, what their goals are.

Now let me say this: I don't think any marketing company out there is actually out to deceive anyone, and no group wants to lead anyone astray. What people are trying to do though is be thought leaders...and the easiest way to do that is create and package your own concept. Considering we live in the attention economy, where companies are vying for your eyeballs (and to see their ads), they'll write and say anything to get your click.

Herein lies our dilemma: so many marketing companies have taken a concept and branded it as their own, so now we're left with a million variations of concepts to learn. This is where we're left with confusion in marketing.

Let's review some examples of confusion in marketing topics:

1. The buying journey. This is the idea that there are a number of steps, or characteristics, of people who buy. There are so many variations! Hubspot names three stages to the journey where McKinsey names four, in a loop no less! The Content Marketing Institute even acknowledges 4 different ways to look at this.
2. Target personas. This is the concept in marketing where you create fictional profiles of people who would buy your service from you. But here's the thing: there's so many names and methods of doing this! Target persona, target audience, ideal audience, perfect customer, marketing persona, the list goes on and on depending on who you read. Should you create 2? 3? 6? It's nuts.
3. SEO and SEM! You'd think this one is simple, but it's really not - marketers can't even seem to get this straight, and as a digital marketer myself, the mislabelling of the two is both dangerous and expensive. SEO, or search engine optimization, has to do with on a website to increase its own search rankings, while SEM, or search engine marketing, is everything you do off a website to increase that website's search rankings. But, companies still confuse the two, or only focus on one or the other.
4. What are all the different types of digital marketing? Well, that depends on who you ask, and what they consider main categories and which are subcategories.

5. Editorial vs. Content calendar. Can you tell the difference? Most people can't. An editorial calendar is usually the high level communication plan with key dates, concepts and metrics. The content calendar is more granular, specifying types of content, links and notes. But, it's common for companies and blogs to wrap the two together.

So what can you do in the sea of mis- and confusing information? I recommend a few things:

1. Do a quick search for the base concept. Skim (and I mean skim) articles (because they usually put things in list and number format) to explore your options. Are any missing?
2. Focus on whatever you need to solve the problem. Information for information sake is easy, but focus on answering the question you're tasked with.
3. Ask a marketer or business professional what they think you need to know, and if possible, ask for references to documents or exercises.

So don't worry - it's not you. It's the marketing industry.

Comment and let me know: what other misnomers have you seen in marketing or business?