By Joe Cardillo
I recently became a marketer.
Technically my title is digital evangelist/marketer, and this means I get to create content and education, talk about design/collaboration, and of course, do some Rolodexing.
It’s something of a dream job, but the switch also makes me nervous.
There are a bunch of reasons for this. One is that after five+ years in operations/product, I no longer get to be the gal/guy behind the scenes.
This is unnerving because I’m pretty comfortable back there, and not half bad at it, either.
Another thing I’ve been processing is, although I’ve been hanging out with marketers for a couple years, moving fully into that world means a change in culture.
I have believed for a long time that we can and should care deeply about the quality and usefulness of our ideas to actual people. There are tricksters in any discipline to be sure, but in marketing/social media in particular it can be difficult to know if brands are who they say they are.
I worry about losing my way by osmosis.
Become a Disruptive Marketer
I’m a bit of a podcast nut, and on a recent episode of This Old Marketing (The weekly podcast from Content Marketing Institute with Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose) one quote in particular tweaked my brain:
Disrupt yourselves before you’re disrupted.
Rose was talking about agile marketing and how marketers are coping with the rapidly changing landscape. But he wasn’t just talking about what you do when you run into a discrete problem, he was talking about building a framework as a professional to constantly disrupt your own thinking and actions.
The problem, as I see it, is not the need for more tactics and tools – there are dozens and dozens to sift through already – but instead the need for inspiration and a set of practices that promote sustainable and disruptive marketing.
Or, as uber-talented designer Frank Chimero recently put it:
I don’t want a new app to help me do work; I want different ways to think about work so I can get more done.
While listening to the podcast, I quickly jotted down several ideas. After some reflection, the ones below are what stuck.
- Think Like a Journalist. On the podcast, Pulizzi and Rose likened modern marketing to building a newsroom or media organization – essentially, describing marketers as publishers who marshall different content areas/beats. I love this idea because the focus becomes telling better stories, ones that matter to people and that communicate the core of human experience. This can be difficult, especially if you’re a B2B marketer, but I don’t think it’s because there are fewer stories out there.A good journalist asks questions about the relationships between people and things, and is a master of narrative. In fact, some of the best marketers out there are more like journalists – in temperament and in practice.
- Act Like a Product Manager. When you work for a startup, you see firsthand how product makes or breaks everything. This is true in any company, and I remember it from my previous jobs, but the relationship between marketing and product has become so intimate that a good marketer is akin to a product manager. If you’re a marketer, every day is a focus group, and in that context having an understanding of things like UX/UI and customer development is crucial. As users/clients become more and more comfortable talking back to and collaborating with brands, the underlying stories and ideas that were always there are being revealed, and marketing is the vehicle for that conversation.
- Test Like a Chemist. One of the things most marketers are under the gun for is to be data-driven. I think this is something of a misnomer, because it suggests that if you crunch numbers, suddenly a halo of light will appear above you, and voila, you’ll see the absolute truth. This is silly. Any marketer who’s been responsible for even a moderately robust series of marketing channels knows there’s a lot of intuition involved.
And it’s not intuition that’s the problem, it’s the next step: Applying clear, replicable testing to validate or invalidate what you think is happening. Until you have a direct way to test something, it doesn’t matter what you think about it.
Get Your Learn On
For content marketers, especially, there is no better guide than Andy Crestodina’s Content Chemistry: An Illustrated Guide to Content Marketing.
He generously gifted me a couple of copies when I was in Chicago last year, and I’ve found it to be a practical and thorough how-to any marketer can use.
Even if you don’t go the lengths he does, you can still create a basic framework for testing.
One good and fairly easy way to do this is to steal from lean analytics/lean startup methodology.
Alaistar Croll has an excellent presentation from last year’s Lean Startup Conference. It’s a bit long, but well worth looking at. In particular, slide 24 describes what a good metric looks like, and slides 76-82 feature AirBnB as an example.
I suspect that being a disruptive marketer is largely about building culture, both the kind that involves shared experiences and the culture we keep in our heads and that informs us as to how we should work and live.
It’s a key component of strategic over tactical thinking, and something any full-stack marketer needs to prioritize.
“Some of the best marketers out there are more like journalists – in temperament and in practice.” << And of course some of them are just former journalists. Cough cough. belllindsay clay_morgan
Great thoughts here, Joe. They’ll be kicking around in my brain for a while!
Joe… Thank you so much for the shout-out – for both me and our little podcast…. I would be remiss if I didn’t properly attribute the “disrupt yourself before you are disrupted” – which I’m paraphrasing Clayton Christensen…. These are wonderful resources here – and (as you might expect) I’m in agreement with all. Thanks again….
Joe, you’re such a thoughtful guy, and a compelling writer. Sometimes, some of us think too much. Just allow yourself to be. You wouldn’t be where you are today if you didn’t earn it, and deserve it.
Robert_Rose Thanks Robert, appreciate the kind words. And likewise – in a world full of junk content you, Joe and the CMI crew are walking the walk and helping people create good frameworks.
biggreenpen They’re still thunking around in mine, too. =)
Eleanor Pierce belllindsay clay_morgan I *almost* made a grumpy journo joke a couple of times. But as cantankerous as some of my reporter friends can be they also have some of the best hearts and minds in the world.
belllindsay Hey thanks Lindsay – no one ever accused me of not thinking enough, that’s for sure. I can confirm that I’m doing a much better job this year so far of listening, and getting unplugged when I need to. I’m fairly confident I won’t become a bag of hot air.
JoeCardillo Oh, I didn’t say you weren’t a bag of hot air…..
belllindsay JoeCardillo That’s more like it.
For a second there I thought maybe we were acquaintances and not friends.
Love that you noted the intuitive nudge Joe 😉 Logic loss cripples many marketers, who ignore the small still voice that WILL lead to success, in the long run. Tweaking is involved, but please, listen to that voice. Smart post!
First, congratulations (again) on the transition! I’m excited to hear how it’s going when I see you later this year. One of the things I’ll add to your third point is analyzing data isn’t always about crunching numbers. I’m coaching my team to think about it differently. It’s not about math, it’s about the information you have available about your customers. Their demographics, sure, but also their likes and dislikes, their passions, even their friends and family. It’s about learning as much as we can about the people we do business with.
ginidietrich Thank you!
That’s a great point – another way to look at it is, are your metrics telling meaningful stories about your customers and prospects…because they are not just click-thrus. You can scale ways to help you communicate, you can scale content that engages people, but you there’s a limit to scaling being more human. You just have to do the work.
Eleanor Pierce belllindsay clay_morgan I’ve actually contemplated taking a journalism course to grow some of those “deep dig” skills. The process of digging and, hopefully, finding useful info is what makes it all so interesting.
KateNolan Eleanor Pierce belllindsay clay_morgan You know who does great classes (esp. in data journalism, visualization, etc..) is Alberto Cairo / Knight Center, they’re free and MOOC so they’re pretty easy to add to your plate http://open.journalismcourses.org
Love the “think like a journalist” advice. Too many content creators (and, by association, marketers) take the easy way out. “It’s on the Internet so it must be true.” Riiiight…
Do the research. Back up with facts and statistics. And counter with facts and statistics instead of anecdotal nonsense.
JoeCardillo KateNolan Eleanor Pierce belllindsay clay_morgan YES. DO THIS.
Danny Brown I think marketers who put together a hybrid newsroom model are going to have massive opportunity in the next couple of years. Content isn’t going anywhere.
What really bothers me about metrics is some marketers go to extreme, either they are mostly anecdotal or they think the answers will magically appear from their data….but who among us doesn’t have multiple and at times confusing sources of data? Data informed wins over data driven any day.
I really liked Content Chemistry, too. And as a person who has had a few career pivots (software developer, data architect, account manager, product evangelist), I definitely appreciate the “Act like a Product Manager”. If you maintain a great relationship with your development group, you can become the ideal conduit for passing customer/prospect feedback to them to make better products/services.
JoeCardillo KateNolan Eleanor Pierce belllindsay clay_morgan adding link to favorites! Thanks!
You’ve shared awesome and valuable tips for us to be innovative. Your words are wise, I must remark.
I like each step given, think like a journalist, act like a manager, and experiment like a chemist. Well, you’ve indeed used relevant illustrations to deliver your insightful thoughts. Marketers are required to be publishers too, so they should really think like a journalist.
I’ve indeed had a good read.
Thanks for the valuable takeaways! 🙂
Best,
Ann07
By the way, I found this post shared on Kingged.com