How you work is how you market it — Kelford Labs Daily

I worked in the advertising industry for a long time, and something about it always seemed strange to me.

Advertising agencies create, as you might have guessed, advertising on behalf of their clients.

They talk about its power to shape opinion, culture, and buying behaviour.

They preach the gospel of long-term investment in ads as a way to build brands and businesses.

But do you know how many (if not most) advertising agencies get their work?

By responding to RFPs (Requests for Proposals).

They tend to take a scattershot, if-we-send-out-enough-proposals-we’ll-get-enough-work approach, and, these days, increasingly use ChatGPT to do the writing for them.

And I always thought, “Huh. If advertising worked, shouldn’t agencies... run ads? Shouldn’t that be how they get their clients?”

Because I have this deep-down, can’t-shake-it feeling that we should be our best case studies.

If what we do works, shouldn’t it work on us, too?

Frankly, I would think it deeply strange if, after all my preaching about content, expertise, credibility and building a long-term reputation the way we got clients was by mass advertising, cold outreach, or endless RFPs.

This applies to me, as a marketer, but I also think it applies to all consultants, advisors, and communicators:

You probably see the work you do for your clients as the result of slow, steady effort in the right directions. You probably believe in flexibility, adaptability, and calculated risks.

But are you approaching your marketing like it’s an urgent hustle?

You probably see your business as one-of-a-kind, offering services that your ideal clients can’t get elsewhere because nobody does your work exactly like you do.

But are you approaching your marketing like you need to copy others or follow trends?

You probably don’t use ChatGPT to advise your clients on what they should do.

But are you asking it what you should do?

When I talk about marketing consistency I mean it in the broadest sense, too. When I talk about your process as your position, I mean your marketing process, too.

And when I talk about every decision being a marketing decision, I mean the way we approach our marketing says something about how we approach everything.

If we’re impatient in our marketing, it signals an impatience in our work.

If we’re a copycat in our marketing, it suggests our work is not unique.

If we rely on AI to do our marketing thinking, it raises questions about the thought we give others.

The way we work with our clients can, and, I believe, should influence the way we do your marketing.

So ask yourself this:

“Is my marketing an accurate reflection of how I approach my everyday work?”

Or does it say something else?

Reply to this email to tell me what you think, or ask any questions!

Kelford Inc. shows you the way to always knowing what to say.