Marketing and meatballs

I got an email from a colleague this week inviting me to a Seth Godin webinar on marketing.

Now, I have a confession to make here. For someone who’s thought to be one of the more internet proficient people in the office, I’ve never watched, listened to or taken part in a webinar.

So why should I start with this one? When I read the registration blurb it was all about using marketing to produce quality leads for your company, and making sure that your marketing strategy fits with what you’re trying to sell (the premise for Seth’s latest book Meatball Sundae is that combing two good things does not automatically make one great one).

But, I thought, I’m not trying to sell anything. I work in the public sector. People don’t have the choice of which council they want to empty their bins; police forces aren’t competing with each other to see how many crime victims they can get on their books. What use is marketing?

Don’t worry – it wasn’t a thought that lasted for long. Firstly, the face of the public sector is changing. The advent of patient choice in the NHS for example means that hospitals are now competing for business, and for parents trying to find good schools for the kids, there’s more than just the league tables to look at.

Secondly, marketing too has moved on. It’s not just a sales support function. Now we’re talking about corporate reputation management, engaging with segmented audiences, and integrating marketing with other communications disciplines. The Chartered Institute of Marketing even has a public sector training course now.

I know that marketing has a place in the public sector; it may be a relatively new place, but that’s all the more reason to explore it. So Seth, I’ll be there next week for my first ever webinar.