Here's a puzzle for you:

• What's the most integral part of driving demand for your business, but the first thing you cut when times are tough?
• What part of our business do we put the most pressure on to get results but struggle with resource allocation?
• What is one of our biggest frustrations when it comes to our business, but also an area we've never taken the time to fully understand?

If you guessed it marketingyou would be right.

I write this as a wake-up call to business owners everywhere who think marketing is this mythical unicorn that is too difficult or it takes time to understand Or worse, they just don't care because they're too busy doing everything else in their business. Time constraints are real, don't get me wrong, but what's more important in your business than connecting with the people you want to buy from you?

Marketing is a megaphone for your brand. You can have the coolest product or service out there, but if no one knows about it, all you really have is an expensive hobby. Business owners are very high marketing expectations, but I would argue that this tends to be the part of the business they understand the least. Moreover, at the first sign of danger, they are ready to pull the parachute: fire the agency, cut the budget, rebrand, etc.

What gives?

For one, marketing is not like finance, accounting or operations. With these functions, we get black and white, cut and dry answers. We have also applied this pressure in our marketing. 'What was the return on advertising spend?' or 'We need to see the data!'

We fail to understand that while marketing metrics can tell us whatthey don't tell us why. Marketing is the part of our business that deals with people. It will get complicated.

The relationship between marketing and business can often feel contentious. This makes me sad, as I would argue that this has to be the best relationship within the business. How can we do it better? First, I think we need to understand each other better. So I came up with my top three misconceptions that I think can help us reframe the way we think about marketing.

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Misconception #1: Marketing = Sales

The job of marketing is not just that drive sales (I can hear some business owners clutching their pearls as I write this); it's about making your product desirable and known to people who might buy it. Simply put, it's saying the right things to the right people. Marketing done well drives demand and makes it easy to buy. The actual sale depends on how good your product or service is.

Furthermore, great marketing doesn't just involve promotion – it actually involves developing your offer, pricing and strategy as well. Think about it: who knows your customers better than your marketing team? They are literally on the ground level talking to customers every day. When you're developing offers, they're the first people you should ask. They are the bridge between you and the customer.

Connected: 3 common misconceptions about marketing your business

Misconception #2: I don't need to get involved with my own marketing

Let me set the scene. You own a business. You hire a marketing person or agency. You say, “There it is. Go sell it on the mountaintops – see you later.”

You expect marketing to work itself out in this vacuum. That's why you hired them, right? Wrong. Communication with your marketing team is crucial for you success as a business owner. I go back to marketing being that megaphone for your business. If you're not giving them feedback on what you like/don't like, what's going on behind the scenes, your story and thoughts on what's going on in the industry, what do you expect them to trade?

I'm not saying you should do their jobs for them — I'm saying you should be active in the content they post, how they tell our story, and what our POV is. In short, you and your marketing team need to be like peas and carrots. Not just someone they send a report to once a month.

Connected: 7 metrics to measure the success of your marketing campaigns

Misconception #3: I need to see results in the first 30 days

We all want the magic bullet of marketing. Does not exist. Marketing is like the scientific method. It's testing, adapting and taking creator. Over and over again. Until the end of time, indeed. Again, this is what makes it different. All of us are affected by those agencies that show us case studies where they 10x the revenue for a company in the first month.

We like the idea that it happens now, and it keeps getting better over time. Tell me somewhere that happened. Any results will take at least 90 days to be seen. Long-term brand initiatives can take 3-4 business quarters to start showing. I know, it's bad. understand. If you want to see results, you have to be patient AND realistic. Anyone in marketing who tells you they can guarantee a result is lying. Every business is different. There are no guarantees. So instead of looking at it as 'I need to see 3x ROI in the first month', can we be curious about what good results look like for us?

Yes, this requires patience and investment. However, if you look at it from the other side, you spent all this time, effort and energy creating your business – why wouldn't you want to invest in it and have the patience to see it grow? Rome wasn't built in a day. Your marketing program may not be either.

Marketing can be hard. There are so many factors to consider that are unique to each business, including your customer base and our environment. Complexity doesn't mean bad, it just means different. So I'm advocating that we start thinking differently about it to make it more effective. Step 1 is to understand what marketing actually is so you can make it work for you.