I think of marketing and my writing life as a love-hate relationship. In my mind, marketing is all about hard sales and finding channels to keep generating profit.

After giving it some thought, I came to a realization: marketing is like maths. You can’t escape them. They’re always there. They’re part of your life, and you need them. Creative work is not the exception.

There’s ads on TV, YouTube, Google and social media. The call to action, for whatever product or service, is similar. “Buy these shoes;” “buy my webinar;” “buy my course.”

Buy, buy, buy.

However, advertising, in all its formats, is only one of the many aspects of marketing.

Marketing is the spreading of ideas. – Jeff Goins

Jeff Goins, author, blogger and speaker, hated marketing just like me. In his article Everything We Do (As Writers and Artists) is Marketing, he describes his own journey while interpreting that concept and using it as a tool to “help an idea get more attention.”

You may be creating the most wonderful stories right now, and that’s fantastic. On the other hand, if you want your projects to take a different direction, then it’s necessary to use marketing and think strategically so that you can spread the word about your work, and about yourself, the person adding magic to every sentence and paragraph.

I’m convinced that the best way of doing marketing, especially in the online world, consists of being human and not a sales machine. It’s sharing a piece of you every day. It’s expressing your thoughts when you’re having either a good day or a bad day. It’s showing who you are and what you care about. It’s seeking meaningful connections with like-minded people.

Marketing does work when your intention is genuine. Profit will follow as a result of sharing, caring and connecting. Doors will open for new possibilities.

What do you think?