Pardon me, but I'm an Expert in Jivinese

Lets be real. Marketers and client relationships are a 2 way street, and its important to identify as early as possible if its great mutual fit. While there is nothing wrong or superior about each style of marketing-client relationship, it’s always good to know these things up front about yourself, your business and theirs before you start talking about doing business. Who is my customer? Who is my ideal marketer? When you have these things in line, you are more likely to find your best results and working relationship possible within your partnership from the initial stages to contracting business. Here are the 6 types of marketers, but which one is for you?

We Have Visual - Onsite Marketing Employees

Do you want to be able to physically see the person who is managing your marketing at all times? If so, then an agency or a freelancer, is not for you. Some businesses like the comfort of knowing the person handling the outside face just happens to be sitting on the inside. There is an opportunity, should your business nurture the right environment, to create deeper collaboration and more spur of the moment PR and marketing opportunities as they arise. The downside can be getting your marketer can be lost in the office drama, politics, extra duties and not focusing on their specific area. Without the challenge of the outside marketing world, you may find your marketer falling into predictable media habits and behaviors and less time exploring. The best thing you can do is encourage this person to take continuing education opportunities such as relevant certifications and attending a few events from Google, Comscore and industry leaders in your field. 

The Director - The One with the Marketing Degree

Most often this person proudly displays their degree or MBA on a wall and reminds you about how they have a degree at least once or twice in your first through third conversation. They understand how Coca Cola and Starbucks markets, can tell you oodles about packing labels and their design, and numerous theories. The problem is most marketing degrees cover concepts, and not practical SMB applications, and the first few years is spent on science, college math, history, etc. There is nothing wrong about higher education, but don’t think a marketing degree from 1985, 1995, 2005 or 2015 is a substitute for the extreme changes in marketing, research and data, new technology or the ability to actually execute the plans or campaigns themselves. This can be your most costly marketing line if they cannot do SEO, SEM (Google Ads, Bing Ads), OTT, TV and radio media buying 100% in house, and instead you have a glorified, overpaid a liaison for your 3rd party vendors whose fees probably cost less than the salary, taxes and health insurance for your director.

The Traveling Artist - Freelancers

Often overlooked by large companies, and found in vast numbers on Craiglist and filling your Facebook inbox, they are as wide in talent as the East is from the West. Don’t confuse this person with the ‘Stans. This person may float between a couple jobs over the years, but you can always rely on them for affordable creative design such as logos, content, graphic design to even technical fields such as SEO. They may take longer, but they often cost less. You won’t ever see them in your office, but they live in the US, marching to the beat of their own drum. The only downside is you need to make sure you spend a fair amount of time validating the quality of their work before retaining and ask how many rounds of revisions are included in the contract. You’ll find the best quality ones will have references and previous work they can show you. If they like working with you, then you can count on them to support you when you need them for the years to com.

The ‘Stans - Outsourced, Overseas Labor

This is really not needing an explanation except this is the number one source of fulfillment for campaigns and customer service for media groups, agencies and even companies like Google. It is cheap in cost and can often be cheap in quality. Why pay an experienced digital marketer of American citizen of Indian descent $65,000-$100,000 a year in the US, when you can legally pay them $5000-$7000 a year in India for work you plan to boilerplate anyways? ‘Stans are most often found in India and surrounding countries, but there is a growth in Eastern Europe and South America for technology and software development. Low price, and results may vary. Stan's are open for business for SMB's not just agencies or media groups.

Categorical Genius - Enjoyable Boilerplate Team with Years of Experience

If you want to be found everywhere, and be an expert in your field, then this is the agency for you. You’re not sure what works, neither are they, but they know how to make sure you see your name everywhere and they know everything there is to know about your business and how it relates to marketing. While the vast majority of campaign fulfillment is outsourced, these companies love the ‘Stans as their favorite source to do so. People enjoy being around the Categorical Geniuses because they are positive, social and confident. No one explains a Categorical Genius and their marketing methodology better than Veronica, from Better Off Ted, “Those are just facts, and facts can be opinions, and opinions can be wrong. The only thing that is never wrong is confidence!” They live by their boilerplate, and die by their boilerplate, which they use in everything they do from content, video, commercials and even media buying with wide rotators and remnant. You will undoubtedly see your business more and enjoy their company. If you have excellent brand recognition, unless a competitor, even an underdog, hires a Dark Matter Physicist. Bottom line, they are enjoyable experts in category repetition in each market, not marketing.

Dark Matter Physicist - Research Driven Person You Love, Hate or Both

Photo credit, my Dark Matter Physicist brother Dr. Matt Stein in SNOWLAB 6,800 feet beneath the surface of the Earth. Let’s be brutally honest with this group of people - you know they are highly intelligent and so do they. Like my brother’s field, marketing data can sound super sci-fi/made up, and it can be annoying as it often challenges the norm and they have difficulty communicating it in plain English. They are experts in marketing and application of data, and unlike Categorical Geniuses, they are not hindered by market or category. They can market any type of business, in any market effectively because it is the application of identifying a target demo and finding the most cost effective way to effectively reach, influence and gain the response the client is looking for. They are insanely driven, detail oriented, and bleed research, data and practical application through every fiber of their being. Unfortunately, they often have the worst table manners when you ask them for an opinion on what you have found if they found it to be lacking. They don’t want to go to fancy lunch with reps to catch up, they never buy based on personal relationship. They won’t stroke your ego, but you can always count on their honesty and accountability for their work, positive or negative. They get frustrated when someone wants them to market in way that doesn’t pencil out from a cost effective, research and data standpoint. They are passionate, deep thinkers who soar when they work independently, conduct research and make applications on what they have learned and are surprising creative when working with others. They love to learn and will literally go to the depths of the earth for your business, invest more heavily in development, resources, data and education than any other group, take pages to explain something to you in detail because they want to make sure you have all the information (PS you can ask for a summary line above it) and are extremely loyal. These A+++ work personalities often come in small, boutique agencies, but can be found working as reps or fulfillment for media groups. Their favorite thing in the world is taking a well deserving underdog and turning them into the market’s superstar.