In the past five years, if I met a genie, one of my three requests would be to teach me the superpower to sell stuff. Because why is marketing so hard?
It’s so hard convincing people to do things.
An average person is always prepared not to do what you want them to do.
They have learned to say no.
And you can’t blame them.
Every business, blogger, creator, and human is trying to sell something—every time.
That’s a lot.
People have to learn to shut all those noises off.
They are harder to convince.
So, let’s talk about marketing and its difficulties.
Why is Marketing Hard?
These answers are based on my experience.
1. Convincing people is generally hard
Your job from the start is to convince people to do something.
Because humans have emotions. Because many things influence our choices.
Each sale or decision a person makes looks personal to them.
Yet, as a marketer, you have to convince thousands or ten or a hundred at a time without meeting each of them one-on-one.
You have to convince them with your story, logo, and, most importantly, product.
And… people are selfish. When it comes to parting with their money, they take their time. The things that make them buy spontaneously are things that give them a lot of emotions in a few seconds. Except you’re a magician, it’s hard to make a stranger experience intense emotions quickly.
You can master storytelling or spend much money on ads and design. But there is no guarantee.
Your success depends on how much users can relate to what you draw or design. In the basics of marketing, you have to understand the nature of the products and think like the users, too. You can only have that with some experience.
2. Many business owners treat the marketer’s responsibility as the last peice of the puzzle.
Another reason why marketing is hard is because it is the last thing most businesses consider.
They start a company, create a product, or design a feature, and then they think of how to market it.
This problem usually happens with solo founders and people passionate about their work, forgetting that the market doesn’t usually care… Unless the product solves the user’s problems.
Start with marketing plans.
Big companies know better. They involve the marketing team from scratch. They test ideas before they go massive or public.
So, if you want to know the right way to approach marketing, start with a problem you have that others have. Create a product around that problem. Then, choose a market that can relate to such a problem.
If you’re a marketer reading this, start with psychology – the psychology of the customers. In other words, the nature of the products, as Joe Sugarman called it in his book Adweek Copywriting.
Sell things That Solve (Your) Problems
To simplify your work, sell or advertise products that solve your problem.
I will use an example here. As an SEO person, it’s so easy to convince people to use Ahref and SEMrush. I have used them. They solve my problems. I will recommend it.
Outside work, it’s easy to teach people how not to feel sad if they are living alone for the first time. It is easy for to sell people the importance of buying headphones.
I understand the problems because I am into SEO. I understand the products because I have used these tools. They make my life better. I know what problems and challenges I faced before buying these things. In other words, I know the mindset of the buyers. I know the clients because I am one of them.
So when people ask why marketing is so hard, The quick answer is that it’s ahead when you are marketing something you don’t understand.
3. Products that solve the same problems
One of the hardest things about selling products as a market is competition.
You’re trying to sell a product that already has a better alternative. It’s like starting a new blog against Search Engine Journal. Those are big guys with expert writing and creating every day.
The best products in a competitive market are those that create solutions to the problems the bigger competitors are creating. Let me explain.
When I started this blog, there were hundreds and millions of blogs already. Then, I notice a couple of things. Their content is similar, and many use ads that disturb how the user engages with their content. So, I have a problem I am interested in solving there.
So marketing is hard when you have nothing new to solve. You pitch your product around a problem you have no chance of winning. It’s like starting a company creating fast and luxurious cars. There are many in that niche of fast and luxurious. What’s new?
You may win if you sell a fast, luxurious, self-driven car. And let’s go back to understanding the product. If you have ever been in a very fast car before, would you mind if such a car were self-driven?
4. Every business wants quick solutions.
That’s why they get scammed by magician marketers.
“Master SEO in three weeks.”
“How to become a web developer and land a job in two months.”
You will find these headings all over YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter.
No, they don’t work.
Or, they work, depending on how you look at it. For instance, you can understand SEO in a couple of weeks. Theoretically. To get to the level where you can safely say you’re good at it, you have to practice it for X years and X websites/niches. Where X is a number between 1 and 5.
You can read more about SEO and content writing on this blog.
Marketing Is Predicting People’s habits or responses to Things As Closely As Possible.
Understand people. Understand the problem they are facing. The rest of the work is dependent on the product and how you can use what you know about people.