After working in marketing for 7 years, I have been asked the same questions over and over again. Partly this is due to the lack of creativity when people are making conversation with you and they don’t know what you do for a living. Here are some of the most common, most annoying and most ridiculous.
1. THIS conversation:
‘So, what do you do for a living?’
‘ I’m pay per click Account Manager’
‘Right…How do you manage paperclips?’
Yes, I’ve spent my time hearding bent pieces of wire around and making sure none go missing. I know I don’t have a degree or anything but REALLY?
OR ALTERNATIVELY:
‘What does that mean?’
‘ You know the ads down the right hand side of Google? I write them.’
‘ Oh great. I never click on those.’
Wonderful. How do you come back from a comment like that?? ‘Where do you work? Sainsburys? Yeah, I never shop there.’
2. ‘So you work for Google?’
As soon as you say ‘no’ they’re not interested in talking to you anymore.
3. ‘So what IS PR?’
Hardest question ever to answer because the truth is, no one really knows. You just do a load of stuff to make people pay attention to and like your brand.Nothing wrong with that, it’s just very difficult to explain to someone else.
4. ‘How can you work with Google when they’re dodging their taxes?!’
Honestly? Because it doesn’t bother me at all. If I could find a way to legally avoid giving a huge chunk of my salary to HMRC I would do it too.
5. ‘So YOU’RE responsible for those ads that follow me around when I’ve been shopping online?’
Well…no. Not unless the advertiser is a client of mine. I may work in digital marketing but I’m not the internet Queen – try using the incognito window.
At least I’m getting better at answering them. When you use the terms ROI, CPA, PPC, CTR and SEO in the same sentence at the pub, people tend to wander off pretty quickly.
Pea Pea Sea Digital Consulting 