Should I learn marketing myself or work with someone experienced?

If you want to become a marketer, learning the craft yourself makes sense. If you understand the importance of sharing your story but don't want marketing to become another profession, working with someone experienced may fit better. I'd make that choice around the work you want to learn, the time you can give it and the judgment you need help with.

By Eric Yim. Published by Protocol Text, a marketing services business based in Lincoln, Nebraska.

What you're drawing on when you hire experience

In the interview, I described about five years for myself and asked Brian about his ten. That's where the fifteen years in the conversation comes from: our combined experience. It doesn't mean you need fifteen years before you can do useful marketing.

My point was that you can learn the craft or work with people who have. I called the lessons “battle scars.” Those years included things we learned, times we got lucky, opportunities we got and rooms that not everyone can get into.

You can't reproduce that just by waiting out a calendar. And hiring someone doesn't guarantee you'll get the same opportunities or outcomes they did.

The useful question is what those experiences help someone decide now. Process, positioning, storytelling, design and engineering all came up in the conversation. Positioning means making clear who a business serves and why its work matters to those people. Knowing how those pieces fit together takes judgment beyond knowing which button to click.

Who I had in mind, and who should take another route

I was describing someone who knows it's important to share what makes their business valuable. They want help telling and amplifying that story. They have no desire to learn a bunch of stuff and become a marketer.

If you do want to become a marketer, I said, “I'm happy to show you what we do.” Learning can be a good reason to work together temporarily. But it takes time, and the arrangement needs to support that goal.

I also named some limits. If you want a whole large staff, the flashiest studio or a full-scale documentary, that's probably not us. The “Hollywood of marketing” isn't the approach I was describing. A capable provider can still be the wrong fit for the kind of work you want.

Compare the routes against an actual owner's week

Here's a hypothetical way to compare the choices. Say you run a service business and have one afternoon available to explain a service on your website. You know the work, but you're unsure what a prospective customer needs to hear first.

Doing it yourself: That afternoon needs room for learning and producing. You might study how to organize the page, draft it, check the facts and learn how to put it online. Then you still need to judge whether it answers the customer's question. The first attempt may use most of your time on unfamiliar decisions.

Supported learning: You could propose drafting the explanation yourself and paying someone to review the reasoning with you. Ask them to explain what they'd change and why. That gives the session a learning purpose, but you'll still need time afterward to revise and apply what you learned.

Delegating: You could ask someone to develop the explanation from information you provide. You would still need to describe the service accurately, flag claims you can't support and review the draft. Delegation reduces the work you personally produce; it doesn't remove your responsibility for the facts.

These are possible arrangements, not a list of included services. Before choosing one, write down what you'd still do that week. Include learning, supplying information and reviewing work. If those tasks don't fit your available time, the arrangement needs changing.

Ask what someone would recommend before buying the work

In the interview, I said I'd spend time finding out what's going to move the business. I also said, “Maybe my service is not going to be the thing that actually moves the needle.” That's an important possibility to leave open.

Before hiring a collaborator, I'd ask questions that make their reasoning visible:

• What do you need to understand about my business before proposing work?
• What would you work on first, and why would that take priority?
• What information and review would you need from me?
• What would make you recommend waiting or taking a different approach?

Listen for a connection between your situation and the proposed work. For example, if someone suggests rewriting a service page, ask which customer question it currently leaves unanswered. That's a proposed test of their reasoning, not a promise that a rewrite will produce results.

You don't have to learn every marketing skill to make a thoughtful hiring decision. You do need enough clarity to understand the recommendation and your part in carrying it out.

Questions about learning, production needs and evaluating help

Can I learn while working with someone rather than choosing only one route?

Yes. I mentioned working together temporarily to see the process and learn it for yourself. Before agreeing, clarify whether teaching time, access to the process and ownership of the resulting materials are included. Collaboration alone doesn't establish those terms or guarantee you'll learn every part of the craft.

What if I need a high-end documentary or a large production team?

I said that a full-scale documentary or the “Hollywood of marketing” probably isn't us. Look for a provider whose production scope matches that need. Ask what crew, planning and deliverables the project requires, then evaluate relevant work rather than assuming every marketing provider can handle that production.

What if a marketer says marketing is not my most urgent problem?

Ask what led them to that view, what they think should take priority and what would make marketing appropriate later. I said my service might not be what moves the business forward at that moment. That judgment should come with specific reasoning you can examine, not a vague dismissal.

How do I avoid mistaking a résumé for evidence of useful judgment?

Ask the person to connect their experience to a specific choice they're proposing for your business. What did they learn that informs it, and what new information would change their recommendation? Years and opportunities provide context. Their explanation helps you evaluate whether that background is useful for the decision you're facing.