Think you know what business you’re in? Think again. According to marketing gurus such as Dan Kennedy and Australia’s Mal Emery, an accountant is not in the accounting business and a life coach is not in the coaching business. They – and, in fact, all of us – are in the marketing business. Or, at least, we should be.

This reminds me of one of my first jobs. Back in the late 90s I joined the graduate marketing program at Uncle Ben’s of Australia. Uncle Ben’s is now known as Mars Australia and is part of the Mars, Incorporated group of companies. Among other things, Mars sold – and continues to sell – the leading pet food brands in Australia, including Pedigree, Whiskas, Chum and Dine.

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I’m not sure it’s the case now, but at the time, no-one in the marketing team had ‘marketing’ in their title. I wasn’t a ‘marketing manager’; instead I was a ‘franchise manager’. The reason for this was that, according to Mars, EVERYONE in the company was in marketing.

Mars didn’t want just a few people to think they were in marketing. The company wanted everyone to view marketing as part of their jobs, whether they were secretaries, plant managers or food engineers.

If you call yourself an ‘Internet marketer’ you probably already get the distinction. Whether you make money online as an affiliate promoting other people’s products or services, or you sell your own products or services, you understand that you’re really in the business of marketing those products and services. First and foremost, you see yourself as a marketer.

Why does seeing yourself as a marketer matter? It matters because it profoundly impacts how you run your Internet business and, ultimately, how successful you are.

Let’s take an example. Imagine you have expertise as a life coach. If you mostly regard yourself as a life coach, you’re likely to spend as much time as possible coaching people and, to a lesser extent, developing your coaching skills. You may view marketing as important for getting new clients, but it’s secondary to your real business, which is being a life coach.

But what if, instead of seeing yourself as a life coach who does marketing, you saw yourself as a marketer who provides life coaching? What would you do differently and how would it change your business… and your life?

Firstly, marketing would become the priority. What’s more, if you agree with my definition of marketing as generating, converting and satisfying clients, you’d take a more holistic view of what your business is about.

No longer would it mostly be about coaching clients, it would also be about generating prospects, converting them into clients, and delivering such a high level of client satisfaction that they stay with you as clients. Either by purchasing more coaching from you, or by purchasing other products and services from you.

In fact, if you see yourself as a marketer selling coaching services, you’re likely to create a marketing system that involves ongoing activities to generate prospects, convert them into clients and deliver services that satisfy them so much that they come back for more.

You might not limit yourself to providing one-one-one coaching services. Once you see yourself as a marketer, you might take the view that you’re not really in the business of marketing life coaching services, but are in the business of marketing life empowerment services. As such, you might come up with a range of other products and services to sell.

The point is, once you view yourself as a marketer, you’re likely to take a much more holistic view of your business, rather than be confined to a specific profession.

You’ll likely see opportunities for growing your business and making more money, but doing so more efficiently so that it’s no longer about being paid for your time.

Okay, but what if you LOVE coaching and HATE marketing? What if you’d rather spend most of your time coaching, and not worry about generating leads, converting them into clients, or coming up with new products and services to sell?

Well, the answer is simple: don’t run a business. Partner with someone who wants to run the business and do all the marketing. Or join a company where you can focus on excelling as a life coach (or a professional, or whatever functional activity you enjoy) and other people can focus on marketing.

But if you’re reading, watching or listening to I Love Internet Marketing because you want to run your own business, then make marketing the number one business you’re in. It will open your eyes to your true potential.

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• Internet Marketing Gurus: Watch What They Do, Not Just What They Say
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This entry was posted on Friday, August 13th, 2010 at 2:44 am and is filed under Entrepreneurship, I Love IM Podcast, Information Marketing, Internet Marketing Niche, Leadership and Management, Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.