Are You a Coder? Learn to Market

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2021-05-24 16:00:06

I teach an online marketing course at SAE London, where students have a real-world opportunity to create bespoke websites and applications and develop strategies to acquire, retain and engage users.

I get it. Media portrays coders living in a basement or other windowless room, lit only by multiple screens and placed far from sales and marketing, who they only venture towards if absolutely necessary. Programming is also a discipline that requires sustained focus and concentration, which may appeal to more introspective folk. But to simply decide that you "don't market" is a dangerous folly, and here's why.

Whether you're job-hunting, dating, looking for a place to live, buying a car, selling stuff on Ebay, or finding a D&D group, you are marketing. You are a marketer. You are letting people know "Hey, I have these skills/abilities/talents, and I am looking to help others solve their position-vacancy/companionship/home-vacancy/car-sales-quota/thing-I-need-on-Ebay/need-a-fourth-player problem." This is not selling, which may make people feel icky. This is so that if they encounter these problems, they'll remember you as a potential solution.

Why, then, are we comfortable marketing in the rest of our lives, but not when it comes to work, where we spend up to a third of our lives? As an introspective, I think it's because marketing seems only about manipulative glossy ads with false promises; that is one approach, after all. Others, like those described above, show that marketing can be germane and honest. It's how we wield our marketing skills that matter.

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