10 Things I’ve Learnt as a Marketer in 2022

The great thing about marketing is that it can be understood by anyone.

Marketing is about communicating to people, so it ought to be simple.

Think of any great campaign you’ve seen. It was likely:

• Simple
• Easy to understand
• Memorable

But while in essence marketing is simple, it can also be complex.

After all, we’re talking about people who may not do what they say, nor say what they do.

Marketers therefore face the challenge of nurturing complexity into something simple and effective.

Here’s 10 things I've learnt on my journey as a marketer so far, which may help the process.

1. Marketing should be for the good of others

Marketers are often accused of selling useless trash, portraying unreachable narratives of life and wasting away our lives with the endless scroll of meaningless, cheap thrills.

But away from the stereotypes, the basics of marketing is that it happens all the time, everywhere, anytime someone communicates with the world. We all market.

And perhaps the only way to make a difference in the world is to market something.

Seph Godin says:

Marketing is about presenting the difference you seek to see in the world.

In other words: is what I market making a positive impact? 

Impact can be as simple as:

• Making life easier
• Creating something beautiful
• Bringing greater fullness to life

Only you know the answer, but if you’re going to do anything with your life, you might as well do something worthwhile, right?

After all, we (consumers) are increasingly savvy to companies who value money over people, so it makes sense to believe in what you market.

2. Sometimes it's better to know nothing

Assumptions are the downfall of any marketer.

Does anyone really know what people think, do or say until they’ve asked or observed them?

On projects where I've known nothing about the audience, that’s where I’ve dug deep to find out from the source.

At times where I’ve assumed, I’ve often been way off.

Try to understand your audience's pains, struggles and needs, and be sceptical of your own knowledge.

By asking the silly questions to find out as much as you can, your marketing will become more relevant and customer-centric.

So don’t be scared to take on projects outside your current circle of knowledge.

It might just help.

3. You don’t have to be good at everything

Nor do you have to be an expert at just one thing.

There’s so many career paths in marketing.

Go for a larger company and you can get really good at one thing; go for something smaller and you can have a finger in every pie.

There’s so many aspects to marketing it would be impossible to master them all.

I’ve discovered I'm a generalist, meaning I'm quite good at a lot of things, but not an expert at one thing. And that’s OK, because I know there's a place for me.

It's true that a jack of all trades is a master of none, but a jack of all trades is often better than a master of one!

4. You are not an imposter

Am I really skilled enough for my job, or will I eventually be found out as a fraud? 

Sometimes I feel I’ve faked it the whole way and ended up somewhere by luck.

This is a symptom of imposter syndrome, and as far I understand, we all fall to it sometimes. 

The likelihood is, it’s just in your head.

The world isn’t as advanced as you think, nor are people as judging as you fear.

Often it’s not about what we can do, but rather our attitude.

So embrace your imperfections and be willing to learn.

That’s all anyone can ask for.

5. Don’t compare yourself to others

I know how it feels to scroll LinkedIn seeing everyone winning at life.

I often feel inadequate and guilty for not doing more.

• Shouldn’t I have spent last year learning SEO, coding and UI?
• Shouldn’t I be getting up at 5am?
• Shouldn’t I have my own business by now?
• Shouldn’t I be reading more books?

In a world where we only hear success stories, we can tell ourselves we don't belong at the table.

But the greatest version of yourself doesn’t have the most certificates, best job title or highest salary. 

It’s the one who sees the joy of life in everything.

Very few of those who chase after the status symbols end up truly happy. 

You are enough just as you are, and you have a unique story only you can tell.

6. Care about the detail

A marketing strategy can fly or flop because of a small detail.

Caring about the detail in the copy, graphic, video, persona or marketing plan can really make the difference.

Regardless of your personality type, you are capable of going a little slower to pay attention to the nuance.

After all, marketers have such a great opportunity to tell stories about the world, it makes sense to take the time to do it right.

7. Value teamwork

As I’ve said, marketing is about people.

And with so much diversity in ethnicity, culture, belief, age, personality, education, social status, interests, values and language, this means that not everyone thinks or acts like you.

So in the goal to be customer-centric, the more diversity there is in a team, the better they can understand the world.

Matthew Syed explains in his book Rebel Ideas that diverse teams often outperform teams of lookalikes because they have a wider collective intelligence.

Even uniform teams who are individually more capable are much more likely to miss important things compared to diverse teams.

So if your team is dominated by one skin colour, gender or personality type, you may be missing out.

Besides, when we work in teams and share ownership of tasks, it gives permission to try new ideas since no-one feels a failure will be their sole mistake.

8. Think strategically

Jumping straight to tactics is a mistake we all make.

Whenever I approach a new marketing task, I try to follow a four-step process:

• Understand - How can I better understand the context and audience?
• Plan - What do I want to achieve and how will I get there?
• Launch - What will I actually do to get there?
• Learn - What did and didn’t work and what will I do next time?

For projects that need more detail, such as yearly marketing plans, I’ve found the SOSTAC framework useful, which is essentially a glorified version of the above.

The more I follow the process, the easier it becomes, the better my marketing instinct.

9. Just do it

This appears contradictory to the previous points, but sometimes we need to face the fear of failure and just go for it.

Publish that article. Apply for that job. Start that podcast. Record that video. Launch that crazy campaign. Learning by doing is sometimes the best way to learn.

I can't stress enough the need to plan, but when it’s time to move. Just do it.

10. Be kind to yourself

The most effective version of yourself is the most calm and rested.

Don’t get so busy that you forget about your physical and mental health.

We all need to regularly take our foot off the gas to look after ourselves.

We’re all human, so please, be kind to yourself.

Thanks for reading!

I hope you have found this jumble of ideas refreshing and thought-provoking.

Marketer or non-marketer, what would you add?

I'd love to hear your feedback in the comments!