Why “The Frustrated Marketer”

I think it's time now to address the elephant in the room. Who am I and why did I choose the name “The Frustrated Marketer” for this substack?

Well, it’s mostly because I’m frustrated. A lot. In fact, almost always. 

I’m frustrated because marketing is hard. Even when you know what you’re doing, you can still get sub-optimal or even no results. It’s frankly mind-boggling, and, of course, frustrating. 

There is so much that I’m frustrated about. 

I'm frustrated at the gaps in my own knowledge and expertise. I've been employed as a marketer, website designer and developer for 15 years, and I’ve learned and accomplished a lot in that time. But it wasn’t always like that. I came at this profession a little sideways. I was not a marketer when I got started. In fact the only marketing that I had really done was when we designed posters and flyers for our school plays in High School. So, really, not much. Somehow, though, I managed to land a job as a social media manager and webmaster for a corporation with several locations and franchisees. This was mostly due to the fact that I had worked closely with another employee at that company (one of my good friends actually) at a previous job. We had also applied together, along with a couple of other people, to redesign the company website and build some interactive games (which I had some non-commercial experience in). But that deal fell through, and my friend was hired to take over managing the website on his own. About six months later he called to tell me about the new position that was opening up. After doing some research, I interviewed and got the job on the spot. That’s what started my career journey into marketing, social media, website design, and website development. From there I took on several different roles within those spaces, learning more every time. But still feeling like I was only chipping away at what it means to be a marketer in this modern era. 

I know I’m not alone. There are so many marketers out there who have taken on or were thrust into a marketing role because there was no one else to do it. I’ve talked to some of them, heard from many others, and they are as frustrated as I am.

One of the main frustrations we share is for the amount you have to know in order to be a marketer in today’s age. 

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Threads, etc. Those are just some of the main social media platforms you have to be familiar with in order to reach a small section of your audience digitally. There are others which are industry specific or where you might be able to find smaller bits of your loyal customer base. You have to not only know about these platforms, but you also have to know which ones you should be on for your business, what you should be doing on them to attract a customer base, and how they can tie in with your overall marketing strategy. 

That’s not even taking into account the tools which are available to monitor, respond on, post to, and advertise on these platforms. There’s a lot. Trust me. I’ve used a ton of them.

There’s also other ways which you can market to your customers: email, text messaging, digital ads, print, tv commercials, radio spots, search marketing, and your website. The list goes on and on, especially as new mediums pop-up. Know when and how you should use all of these? Don’t worry, we’re all still trying to figure out the best way to incorporate all of these into a cohesive marketing plan. Because the landscape unfortunately changes. A lot.

Then there’s the tools which help us do our jobs better. Programs like Photoshop or Canva for designing and resizing images for different platforms, project management software to keep track of everything, note taking apps to write down ideas and flesh out strategies, and so much more that I don’t have time to mention here.

It’s a whole marketing and productivity ecosystem that has frankly grown to leviathan proportions. And it’s insane to think that any one person can know about, let alone know how to utilize all of it. 

Throw on top of all of that the frustration of needing to deal with customers in these spaces where communication is (to put it nicely) not always ideal. And, of course, there’s always the pleasure of dealing with other marketers and vendors in order to get your job done. There is an unfortunate amount of incompetence out there. 

With all this frustration you might think that I should quit my job. And, sometimes, I definitely feel like that. Just ask my disappearing wine collection!

Being frustrated, though, doesn’t mean that I give up. In fact, oftentimes it means that I work harder or find some kind of workaround so I can find a way past whatever is frustrating me. There’s still a lot of cussing involved (and wine ;)) but, at the end of the day, I still have to get the job done. If I don’t, then I don’t get paid.

But that leaves me and other frustrated marketers with a conundrum. How do we navigate using a plethora of modern marketing tools, dealing with clients and vendors who can be hard to work with or incompetent, while delivering on the results we promised?

That’s what this newsletter aims to do. 

I’ll share…

What’s working for me. Ranty posts about what’s not. Tutorials, tips, and tricks for specific strategies and platforms. What to look for to cut through the “nonsense” out there that a lot of paid marketing guides and courses try to teach you. And how we can all band together to figure out a way through this mess of the modern marketing ecosystem. 

This is also a way I can give back to a community which has helped me become a better marketer. I DO NOT want to take on more management work. The amount of work I have right now is plenty, especially considering I am a one-woman show. But if I can help someone else do better marketing work. Get smarter and not spend so much time in areas where they’re bleeding money and time. If I can help them get better at their jobs, then that means their marketing improves and the business makes more money. Which is ultimately what marketing should do.

If you also share a frustration for what it means to be a modern marketer, just want to read rants about my current frustrations, or want to learn how to navigate this crazy profession, then I humbly ask that you subscribe. I’ll be publishing some things (mainly tutorials and other how-tos) under paid subscription. If you want access to those, I’ve got the current price set to $5/month (with no plans to change this anytime soon). I know how hard it is to afford things these days. Or you can use the 7 day free trial to check out the paid content before you decide. :)

And I want to hear from you. Have a particularly frustrating marketing related incident happen to you today? Let me know. Want specific advice on how to do something? I may know the answer. If not, I’ll do my best to get you an answer, or refer you to someone who does.