As a programmer/engineer/developer/etc. and marketing enthusiast, I agree with your post. I know I'm quite rare in regards to my understanding of both fields. I find more similarities that differences. Where some hackers might see marketing as voodoo, I see it in the same way I see code: Just a collection of steps that are meant to achieve something. One of the best examples I can share is the one of designing a marketing campaign using code. Yes, code. I sit down and just create a list of "objects" which are the marketing tools. Then I create the main program and write in the possibles scenarios using conditionals and loops. If I feel like having fun, I use Ruby's blocks (DO...END). It sounds really weird, but think about it. Marketing is just an object oriented program.

For example. One could sit down and write the following for an email mailing.

class Mailing:

    def __init__(self):
        self.name = "name"
        self.email = "email address"
        self.subject = "mailing subject"
        self.campaign = "mailing campaign name"

Then:

class WeekendSaleMailing(Mailing):

    def set_name(name):
    ....

    #basically define the mailing using code.

The you go on to __main__ :

    weekend_sale = WeekendSaleMailing()

    #set the details of the mailing (customer names, offer, etc.)

Then you go on and describe every scenario that you can think of and describe it using conditionals:

    if client responds_to_mailing():
        #...

    elsif client open_emails_but_does_not_buy:
        #you might want to then write more code describing what to do in this case.

You might also want to include a loop to describe what iterative process you will use to market to a customer.

For example,

    while customer does_not_buy():
        #send a different mailing or marketing tool.

and so on.

It may seem like a lot of work, and it is. But it just shows that marketing is just like code. In the way that you abstract away your marketing plan and design it as if it was a complex object oriented program. This way you still feel that you are programming and not outside of the scope of your skills.

Try it out. It works. And it takes away the sense of weirdness of marketing. After all, it is not marketing anymore, its code.

To add,

Same with doing marketing tools. I write my ads by using code. I have a basic template of an ad, and then I run through it the different headlines and paragraphs until I find an ad that works. Then its just testing to see which ads pull better than others. Testing is super easy because you now have a framework to work with. You dont go blindly into it, you have a set of parameters to measure. For example, Headline 1.a might pull more than headline 1.b, because it added the more "FREE" at the end, instead of using it at the beginning.

Anyhow, what patio11 says is true. If you approach marketing as if it was software, you are going to really get ahead because most people treat marketing as if it was black magic. It isnt.

email in profile for questions

PS. Its not real Python, btw. Just pseudo code.