Running my own business and being an avid networker, I’m never at a loss for opportunities to introduce myself. And whenever I get a chance to do so, I don’t say I’m a marketing strategist. I typically say I’m a marketing consultant or that I’m Melanie the Marketer.

Even though strategy comes into play in everything I do for my clients — from social media management to copywriting to — well, everything I do — I still get tongue-tied using that term in an elevator pitch. So I avoid it.

My reluctance for doing so is rooted in Corporate America circa 20 years ago. I worked in a communications department helping people understand the importance of saving for retirement.

Participate in your employer’s retirement plan benefit, and contribute at least as much as what the company will match.
But save even more, if possible — and 15% of your salary is a worthwhile target.

Diversify your investment choices so you can better withstand the market’s ups and downs.

Past performance does not equal future results. (There are lots of rules to follow when communicating this type of information and endless disclosures, such as this one.)

In my role as a communications consultant, I was paired with communications strategists. Their client-facing role typically set the strategy for what I worked on, based on our shared clients’ needs. Strategists rarely did any of the writing that was required, some professing no skills in that department. That seemed so odd to me.

“Strategists” vs. “Communicators”

When I first joined the team, I remember asking one of the strategists if it was okay for me to speak directly with our client. I said I wanted to build a relationship and also hear, first-hand, the client’s answers to questions about the work we would do for them — the goals they wanted to achieve, what worked/didn’t work in the past when communicating the retirement plan benefit,  etc. I also wanted to hear direct feedback on the copy I’d write for them.

This particular strategist said it was fine to have direct client contact, adding that not many of my communications counterparts wanted that. (I later found that to be not universally true, but that was her perception.)

Note: There’s more I’d like to say on this topic about the fractious relationship between the strategists and communicators and our corporate Hatfields-and-McCoys feud. But a good friend of mine who I asked to read this draft cautioned me not to publish it. “It feels a little like a therapy session,” she said. And she’s right. So I killed a few surplus paragraphs.

Why I Still Have “Strategist” Issues

I spent five years in that communications department. Thinking back, I know there were both good times and bad. I enjoyed partnering with some of the strategists and didn’t see eye to eye with every one of my communicator peers. Collectively, we were a creative bunch who did great work across our two teams. Our clients were generally happy and their needs were being met, despite our dysfunction.

Fast-forward two decades and here I am writing about ancient history. I know I should have dropped the strategist baggage by now. But those old memories still linger. It’s just that “strategist” sounds braggy to me, and it might represent someone who doesn’t understand the communications craft. Ick.

Last year, when Marketing Mentor’s Ilise Benun asked why my elevator pitch didn’t include “marketing strategist” in this podcast episode, I cringed as she dug deeper and I had to explain. (It’s right before the three-minute mark if you care to hear the answer I came up with.)

Lately, I’ve tried calling myself a strategic tactician because I enjoy doing both roles — the thinking/strategizing/planning and the actual doing of the tactical work. Strategic tactician is wordy, but I like the direction it’s going. And it seems to resonate with other creative professionals who, like me, still enjoy the hands-on work.

What Marketing Strategy Means to Me

Strategy plays a significant role in everything I do for my clients from the moment we first talk about their company and the business’ challenges and opportunities — and then throughout the weeks and months of tactical work and recurring strategy check-ins.

People don’t come to me for strategy. They tell me about the thing they need me to do for their business. Sometimes it’s managing their Facebook page. (I’m just too busy to spend time updating it, said one client when I first met him.)

While I appreciate knowing what the client is looking for — the fill-in-the-blank tactic — I don’t say, OK. Let me get a quote pulled together for you. As author Stephen Covey said in his fifth habit, I seek first to understand.

Discovery Leads to Strategy

Seeking to understand, I begin a discovery process where I get the business owner to talk about much more than their Facebook page. I ask questions about other aspects of their business because what I learn informs what I decide to deliver.

The questions I ask are focused on these areas:

• Their company history and business focus area
• Products and services they offer
• Typical client and any industry focuses
• The competitive landscape for their business
• Current challenges and initiatives they’re in the midst of
• Past/current marketing efforts — what works, what doesn’t (including social media and broader marketing efforts, too)
• Key partners, including creative agencies or contractors they use, in case I will be partnering with someone like their WordPress developer or graphic designer
• Their website — is it working for them and is it up to date
• The status of any outbound emails they do
• Their hopes and expectations for their Facebook page (and are they realistic?)

I also seek to understand if we will be a good fit since many of my clients are on a retainer and our partnership could last for years.

If You Want a Strategic Tactician, Let’s Talk

I’m not just an order-taker communicator who’s only focused on tactical execution. I can’t just do the work without knowing what all is at stake and how marketing and communication can play a role. I absolutely refuse to … (Oops, there I go heading down Memory Lane again.)

My 25+ years of marketing and communications experience give me a seat at the strategist table even if I don’t call myself one — and that’s because:

• Every marketing project I work on today is better because of the ones I developed, implemented and learned from in the past.
• Every sentence of copy I write is shaped by years and years of writing and thinking about the intended audience and what I want them to do. I still have more to learn but I’m better than I used to be, thanks to the talented wordsmiths who mentored me and edited my work. (Thanks to Julie and Lavonne and their red-pen annotations!)
• Every data point I explore today to see if marketing is moving the needle reminds me of completed projects and initiatives I measured and learned from. (TBH, there were times when I didn’t take the time to measure and now regret what I missed discovering.)
• Every marketing win I celebrate and each time I make a “well, that’s not working” course-correction reminds me that marketing isn’t always effective or predictable — but that it would be pointless to not have a strategy in place.

Hello, I’m Melanie the Marketer

I doubt I’ll ever be 100% comfortable saying I’m a marketing strategist, even though I am one. But that’s okay. I’m Melanie the Marketer and that name feels quite right to me.