Most marketing requests are a solution in disguise. Under almost every “can you make me a…” sits the same wish: more customers and less stress. Here’s my unofficial translation guide, written with love, from someone who has asked for the wrong thing herself.

“I want prettier visuals.”

Usually means: “People aren’t responding, and I don’t know why.”

What I ask back: Who isn’t responding, and what exactly did they see? Sometimes it really is the visuals. More often the picture is fine and the words are doing nothing.

“Can you design me a new logo?”

Usually means: “We feel invisible.”

What I ask back: Can three people on your team say what you do in the same sentence? If yes, let’s talk logos. If not, the logo can wait a week. (I wrote a whole hot take on this.)

“Can you make us appear first on Google?”

Usually means: “I want customers to find us before they find the competitor.”

What I ask back: What do your customers type before they find anyone? That’s the page we build first. (Long version here.)

“Can you run a campaign?”

Usually means: “We need a spike this quarter.”

What I ask back: Lovely. And who answers the phone when it works?

“Can you build a landing page?”

Usually means: “We have an idea and a deadline.”

What I ask back: What should someone do after reading it, and what happens to them once they do?

“Can you write me a blog?”

Usually means: “Someone told us we need content.”

What I ask back: Who is it for, and what question does it answer for them? A blog nobody needed is a diary with a URL.

“Can you manage our trade show presence A to Z?”

Usually means: “Last year’s booth cost a fortune, and we came home with a stack of business cards.”

What I ask back: What’s the plan for those cards on Monday morning? I spent five years working trade shows from Shanghai to Atlanta, and I can tell you: the show is won or lost in the two weeks after it.

“Do you use AI?”

Usually means: either “Are you cheaper now?” or “Is a robot going to write my brand?”

What I ask back: Nothing, I just answer: Yes. No. And no. AI makes me faster. The thinking is still mine.

“Can you set up email nurturing for our clients?”

Usually means: “We keep forgetting to follow up, and we feel bad about it.”

What I ask back: What do your best customers wish they’d known in week one? That’s your first email.

And to be fair, it works both ways

Marketers have their own dialect. “Let’s align on the funnel” means “I need you in a meeting”. “Brand awareness” sometimes means “we can’t measure this one”. So if I ever say something that sounds like a LinkedIn post, please translate me right back.

None of these requests are wrong. They’re the first sentence of the conversation, not the last. The best projects I’ve worked on started with someone asking for one thing and leaving with the thing they needed.

Got a request of your own?

Send it over through Are We a Match?, or book a call. I’ll translate it for free.