If I asked you to define marketing, what would you say?

When I ask a room of seminar participants to describe their idea of marketing, the common answer is always advertising. Most realize that marketing isn’t exactly synonymous with advertising, but it’s the only concrete way they know to describe this nebulous term that gets thrown around in a wide variety of contexts.

Ask anyone who sells radio or billboard advertising what they do and they’ll likely say that they are a “marketing consultant.” Ask someone who develops brochures and Websites. Ask someone who sells personalized mugs and t-shirts. All will likely tell you “marketing consultant” or something not too dissimilar.

From my lens, it seems the world is somewhat baffled by the concept of marketing whether it knows it or not. Collectively, we may never have had it straight anyway, and with the speed at which the marketing landscape is changing, it is becoming harder to know what to do and where to allot our resources. We have just cause for confusion. However, we must hold firm and steady on our quest to be smart and aggressive marketers. Survival is always at stake, and marketing is our greatest armor. With the proliferation of small businesses and independent entrepreneurs, all trying to survive in a hypercompetitive marketplace, we are called more than ever to get our marketing act together.

No doubt that can be challenging. There is a lot of skewed thinking and misinformation lurking in the collective consciousness of the business world. So let’s hit the reset button. If you are to be a marketing machine, if you are to stand out, and if you are to make your marketing automatic, then you’re going to need a fresh perspective and a new slate. Let’s address some of these misconceptions head on by getting clear on what marketing is, what it isn’t, and what it really means for your business.

Do you need to get your thinking straight? See how you fare with these common and costly misconceptions about marketing.

“Marketing” is not synonymous with “advertising” or “sales.” These terms are mistakenly interchanged by marketers and non-marketers alike, but each is a separate and distinct function and must be treated as such.

They are akin to each other and should be used collaboratively as I will explain in detail shortly. For now, consider advertising and sales to be the offspring of marketing.

Marketing is not just what you do “out there.” This is an eye-opener for many people. How about you? When you think of marketing, do you think about everything you do day-to-day inside your business as a means of marketing your business? Negligence of what you do internally undermines all of the hard work you do externally. This is uncharted territory for many companies, but it’s like striking oil when you figure it out. Companies who operate strictly from an external marketing standpoint are operating half-mast. They are leaving tons of marketing opportunities on the table and working much harder than they need to. If this is you, you’re about to hit the jackpot because I am going to outline for you in great detail how to capitalize on the marketing goldmine in which you’re working every day.

For now, take a look around your business. Think about what happens every day as you service customers and perform standard operations. What are the events, tools, and common exchanges that impact what customers think of you? That make you attractive to prospects? That open doors for more opportunity? These are clues to what can become great marketing moments for you. We will dive deep into this subject in the coming chapters. For now, let it sink in that marketing encompasses everything you do both outside and inside your company. This means you have far more marketing tools to work with than you likely realize—many that cost you little or no money. I’ll teach you how to find them in Phase 4.

Your targets want you to market to them. Yes, you read that right. If you offer a product or service that improves the lives and businesses of your target audience, then they want to know about it. Targets may not be ready to act right away, but when they are ready, they’ll want to know where to go. Customers generally like to buy from someone they know. (Don’t you?) There is comfort in familiarity, even if their only experience is pulling your flyer from the doorknob and glancing at it on the way to the trashcan. At least they know something about you when they know nothing about everyone else.

If you are hesitating to tell your story because you are concerned about “bothering” people, then you need to shed that thinking right now—unless you don’t want to be concerned with having any money. One step removed from bothering a target is ignoring a target. Most critically, if targets aren’t getting your story from you, then you can bet they’re getting it from your competition. Why leave anything to chance? Take charge of your message. Your targets want to know if you can help them, so tell them.

You cannot be everywhere so stop trying. Sometimes we marketers just need to calm down. We get all worked up about the latest marketing tools and technological advancements that can help us spread our message broader and faster with ultimate coolness. Accept that you cannot be everywhere and do everything, even if you did have the money. The world is moving too fast. Too many minds are at play. There is no keeping up, only more chasing and diluting your hopes and resources. Do what makes most sense for you and forget about the rest, even if it does make you uncool. Do fewer things well and do them better than everyone else.

More than ever, we are called to edit where we put our time and attention, to focus on that which gives us the best returns with the most speed and surety. A well-crafted, well-tracked marketing program like the one I will teach you in Phase 4 will help you immensely, though you’ll still need a heavy dose of restraint. Just remember that one thing working perfectly is better than 10 working halfway.

Marketing comes with a guarantee after all. It is commonly said that marketing comes with no guarantees. What in business really does? There is, however, a guarantee that if you don’t market yourself well, you will lose. You may not lose your business, but you will lose potential. You will lose costly hours and precious effort to replace business and generate more from scratch. You will lose momentum to help you push forward faster. When it comes to guaranteeing success, the answer could be grim if you rate marketing by each independent endeavor. But when you take a birds-eye view and consider its enduring, accumulated achievements, the results are seldom disappointing.

Marketing can be far more predictable than it gets credit for. It is seldom a mystery why successful companies achieve what they do, and why unsuccessful companies flounder. Those who complain about marketing generally are not doing marketing, or doing it well. Those who think, act, and communicate like a marketer have grand stories to tell, at least overall and in the long term. Marketing can be as predictable as you want to make it. Make yours predictably good.

Buzzwords come and go, but principles are forever faithful. There always seems to be a new marketing buzzword. As of this writing, it’s “drip marketing.” There we go making marketing complicated again. As Shakespeare would agree, marketing by any other name is still marketing. Yes, you need to understand “new concepts,” but I assure you, if you think like a marketer, you will see through the labels. You’ll come to understand that the “new marketing” is just everyone else catching up with what you already know to be the basic laws and tenets of marketing. The methods for applying those principles will change rapidly. Tools will come and go, but principles will serve you forever, no matter what buzzword is attached to them today. Certainly you need to be awake and attuned to what is available to you and where your targets are going. In the early 2000’s, no one thought about blogs or online social networking groups as tools to generate business. As long as your marketing machine is driven by principle, you can call it whatever you like.