What do you do? (a game)

Pic credit: Flickr CC, Altemark


Right, first let's get something out the way. Linking to the same person twice in two days is not a bad thing. In fact I think it's a good thing. It shows consistency. Not a lack of imagination/slight obsession with that person's blog.

So bearing that in mind, Sonia Simone inspired the following post today. That's not fair on Naomi from IttyBiz though, because it was her original post that inspired Sonia's post, that inspired me.

Too complicated. Let's start again...

A couple of days ago I read a post by Naomi (click here for it). It was an idea for a game where you answer 5 questions about yourself and what you do, both for your own satisfaction and to inform any potential customers. I totally intended to do it and write something the other day, but got completely distracted and kind of forgot.

Then I read Sonia's answers on her blog (click here for them) and liked them so much that I decided to get my ass in gear and do it myself. Here (in convoluted fashion) is my part of the conversation:

What’s your game? What do you do?
I’m a freelance marketing guy (the non-evil type). I help small businesses get the best return from their marketing efforts as possible. The people I work with generally don’t have a marketing team and their budgets are on the small side so it’s about kicking ass by being innovative, rather than just splashing the cash on useless adverts.

Why do you do it? Do you love it, or do you just have one of those creepy knacks?
Little bit from column A and a little bit from column B. I used to do marketing for a recruitment company, which was cool if a little unfulfilling. I’ve got the knack for writing good copy etc and coming up with cool (and effective) marketing strategies, but often my stuff is pretty counter-intuitive. I wanted to get more hands-on, with more people, so I could teach them about my non-evil ways.

I’m oddly (for a marketer) passionate about people doing the ‘right thing’; not screwing customers, marketing ethically, engaging in conversations, working with competitors and so on.

Who are your customers? What kind of people would need or want what you offer?
All the boys and girls who want their small business to succeed but don’t know where to start with the marketing stuff.

What’s your marketing USP? Why should I buy from you instead of the other losers?
I’m really cool, so even just hanging around with me will make your business cool. Plus, although it might be scary at first, I guarantee what I come up with for you will be remarkable.

What’s next for you? What’s the big plan?
I want to fix marketing because it’s an industry that is undoubtedly broken. I’ve started with Manchester but I’ll be disappointed if my stuff hasn’t spread throughout the UK by the end of the year, even if it’s not me doing it. In fact I’d love the marketing that I bang on about all the time to be really prevalent in the not too distant.

I think my main goal is basically to change the world. Which after all is why everybody is in business really, isn’t it?

P.S. This isn't a meme, it's a conversation (according to Naomi, which is cool because I don't really like memes, which is a deeply un-blogger thing to say, but there we go). So whilst I don't want to 'tag' anybody to spread the virus etc, I would be really interested to hear other people's answers. Louise for example, Pete Gold, Matt Alder, Dan McGuire (Broadbean Dan) and so on. So if any of you fancy it, answer the questions on your blog and let me know!