(If I hear this one more time, I’m gonna throat punch someone.)
If I had a dollar for every time a technical or contracting company said, “We don’t do marketing*,” I could fund my own tradeshow booth next to Lockheed Martin at AUSA. With lighting. And carpet padding (and actual comfy chairs).
Every time, I resist the urge to flip a table, shout “LIES,” and walk away dramatically. (maybe not every time—but it’s getting close.)
If your business has a website, shows up at tradeshows, sponsors industry events, or sends engineers to give a talk—you’re doing marketing.
Still confused?
- Marketing is the slide deck you send to a potential supplier.
- It’s the capability statement you pass out at a trade show.
- It’s the website someone visits after hearing your name in a meeting.
- It’s the presentation your engineer gives at a technical summit.
- It’s the LinkedIn Company Page you set up in 2019 and post to once a year (when you remember you have LinkedIn).
If you’re communicating value, telling your story, or explaining your capabilities—that’s marketing. You’re already doing it. You’re just doing it without intention, consistency, or a plan.
It is not a dirty word.
In technical and highly regulated industries—especially those contracting with government agencies—marketing is the used car salesperson, tolerated but not taken seriously.
You write marketing off because the examples don’t look like your world. You’re not selling soda or sneakers. Your work is precise, strategic, and often classified. But that’s exactly why your message needs to be clear, credible, and consistent.
Marketing is any communication that explains who you are, what you do, and why you matter. Any time you tell someone what you do or who you work for…you’re marketing.
If you’re trying to influence a decision, build a relationship, or secure funding—you are marketing.
We Just Talk to People
Good job. So does everyone else.
Do you want to be seen as a leader in your industry? Do you want your name to be the one people trust, remember, and bring into the room when opportunities are discussed?
That doesn’t happen behind closed doors. It happens through visibility. Through voice. Through presence.
That means:
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- Being quoted in the publications the industry reads.
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- Sharing expertise or showcasing technology at tradeshows.
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- Publishing technical insight that positions your company as the expert (over your competitor).
P.S. Bad sh*t happens
You work in industries where a safety incident, breach, lawsuit, contract canceled, or something worse are not unheard of. If your plan is to go dark and “let legal handle it,” you’re setting yourself up to lose not just contracts—but trust.
Crisis communications is marketing.
Planning for the catastrophic before it happens is marketing. Protecting your reputation while you fix the issue is marketing.
This isn’t optional—it’s mission-critical.
Stop saying it.
Stop saying “we don’t do marketing.”
You are doing marketing*. The only question is whether you’re doing it strategically or letting it happen by default.
And default doesn’t win contracts. It doesn’t attract talent. It doesn’t protect you in a crisis. It doesn’t position you as a leader.
So stop saying “we don’t do marketing”—and maybe understand what it is and what it encompasses.
We work with highly specialized companies—defense, engineering, manufacturing, advanced tech—to build marketing, PR, and crisis strategies reflecting your caliber of work.
If it makes you feel better, call it reputation management and remove the evil “marketing” word completely.
*By the way, rude. Imagine how you would feel if I said to an engineer, “Engineering is pointless.”
**A prize goes to the person who counted how many times I said marketing in this blog (and tells me in a comment).
