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- 🧡 2 things for your marketing career
🧡 2 things for your marketing career
Hey 👋
A couple of weeks ago, I went to Remi43 in Midtown Manhattan to grab coffee with someone who was early in her marketing career.
We chatted about her goals, and I also gave some perspective on how I broke into my marketing career and landed my dream job. (I even made my first YouTube video in six years about it.)
After our little coffee chat, I walked away with a realization about what separates great marketers from the okay marketers.
I came to two conclusions (#2 is key).
Marketers are actually artists. You and I are both creatives who want to express ourselves. And we both know that being a starving artist is not cute.
So, we look for practical ways to express ourselves.
And often, this leads us into a career in marketing.
Because we are natural artists, the first thing I learned about what makes great marketers is this:
The best marketers know what good looks like.
In other words, the best creatives are tastemakers. We are curious observers who are attentive to details.
One of the best skills you can cultivate throughout your professional career is the capacity to know what is good.
This is going to help you in all aspects of your career — from strategizing campaign ideas to knowing who to hire.
Especially in a world of AI, where AI-generated content, AI-generated strategies, and AI-generated images/videos are only continuing to grow, not knowing what good looks like will severely hurt your creative career.
My personal rule of thumb has been this: if it catches my attention, I pay attention. Take notes of great design, take pictures of ads you come across that stop you, save websites that make you go “woah, this is amazing.”
Feed your brain with the good, and watch as you slowly begin to develop the intuition for what is going to catch people's attention (and what is not).
The second thing I realized was this:
Build your body of work.
Most marketers have no personal website, no email list, no social media presence, nothing.
I used to think the best marketers were the ones that no one knew about. The ones that quietly sat behind their computers and built world-class campaigns.
And while I can identify a few of people like this, I came to realize how competitive the job market has become.
The best marketers, especially when applying for jobs, have a body of work to show they know what they’re talking about. It’s not enough to have a resume with credentials and hope that a recruiter will pick you.
Building your own body of work, whether that’s creating a brand or just showcasing your own knowledge in your specific niche, will help you stand out.
Instead of waiting around to gain experience, build your own.
Creating your own body of work will also help build your confidence. And it will open doors you never thought possible.
Looking back, I somehow knew this. And it’s what allowed me to get my first marketing job at an agency, followed by my dream job — all because I had shown my work (news flash: I don’t have a business or marketing degree).
So there you go.
Develop a capacity to know what good looks like, and experiment by putting your work out there (in whatever medium you feel drawn to: social media, newsletters, blogging, YouTube, etc. — you don’t have to do them all).
The world needs more creatives like you, and AI will not replace you. So don’t be afraid to sing your song.
With that, let's get into what we have in store this week (lots of good stuff):
Marketing news from the past week
Positioning with multiple products and personas
9 copywriting lessons inspired by David Ogilvy
22 customer interview questions to create great content
10 types of posts and how to use them
Ad of the week
Website of the week
Cool marketing jobs
And much more
🗞 In the news
🚀 All things growth & product
How Amplitude grows, stop optimizing for a 1:3 CAC:LTV ratio, tips to decide which events to track, and a guide to positioning with multiple products and personas.
💭 Guess the riddle
How did Yoda get his first lead?
Answer is at the bottom of this email
💌 Emails, lifecycle, & copy
A proven method for writing email campaigns, a guide to the email marketing customer journey, and 9 copywriting lessons inspired by David Ogilvy.
✍️ SEO & content marketing
How to test Google’s ranking factors, 22 customer interview questions to create great content, how to perform a SaaS content audit.
10 types of posts and how to use them, the best summer sale CTV ad examples, and how to get everyone to talk about your brand.
🦖 Food for thought
📣 Ad of the week
A Match ad that demonstrates a “misdirect” copywriting tactic.
💻 Website of the week
🏝 Cool marketing jobs
Okay, that's it for now 🧡. See you next Tuesday!
What did you think of this newsletter? |
“Look for what you notice but no one else sees.” — Rick Rubin
Riddle answer: He used the Sales Force.
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