The most important thing young marketers should be doing
Career advice doesn't get simpler than this
I had a course called Innovation in my last trimester at university. Most marketing majors took it. It was easily my favourite: it was full of stories of disruption and business acumen and foresight, of technology outpacing the greatest companies and institutions. Even the theory in that course - Clayton Christensen and Edward Bono, mind-maps and thinking hats - was so interesting that I still remember the atmosphere of those evening classes: A large, sparsely-populated classroom, cold mountain wind coming through the open windows and doors. And sitting wide-eyed, hands on chins and elbows on desks, we discussed the fall of Blockbuster and Kodak, and the rise of Salesforce and Apple.
I was invited back to the course last month. My professor wanted me to talk about technology marketing to the present batch, and also about what they needed to do to get on board some of India’s most innovative companies.
I covered a lot of ground: The rise of Silicon Valley, the transition from services to products in the Indian and international contexts, SaaS, and how modern venture capital came from the chip manufacturing industry. The idea was to make them interested in the sector enough so they’d do their own reading and research, leading them to conclusions and subsequently action.
I spent most time on that last part, action, and on what I think is the most important thing young marketers should be doing.
They should be creating.
I’ll explain.
When you are a student, or a young marketer starting out, you have no differentiation. You have no body of work to show, you have no experience to talk about, and you have no skills you can immediately sell. You are just another face among a million others, looking to make a name and a place in the world. You have an education, sure, and a hunger to prove yourself. But how do you get that first chance, that first break? How do you make someone, anyone, pay attention to you and your potential?
You do that by creating.
It can be anything: a blog on your favourite sports team, a portfolio on Behance or Dribble, term papers made into an e-book, a photography Tumblr, a collection of marketing taglines or brand logos, really, anything. If you like to make something by hand, build an online store and try to sell. Make chocolate? Sell on Facebook. Make handmade pottery? Create a DTC brand.
Any of these is good. The point is to have work that you can showcase, not to mention the learning that will be a by-product of creating something.
Now consider this: You go into an interview along with hundreds of students from your university. As things stand, you are the same as them, with only a bit of luck and some speaking skills to help you rise above. But if you have created something, and are able to articulate that process, who do you think will be hired, you or one of the others?
This advice holds even after you land a job, and are in your early career. The easiest way to make your presence felt is to create something that bears your name and makes you stand clear of the crowd.
Put together a small event with your customers without management asking for it, take photographs, and publish on the company blog. Maybe that can become a big event that is led by you in some way. Who knows? But you have to take that first step.
Are you good at on-boarding new folks into your team? Make a document of best practices based on your learnings so it can be used by other departments. Start off a webinar series with your boss and his peers that helps marketing and raises your boss’s profile.
Do some form of the above, and you are guaranteeing yourself promotion, recognition, and forward movement.
I’m not saying anything new here at all. Marketing was and always will be a value-creation role. We are paid to create, not to maintain the status-quo. And younger marketers will be rewarded disproportionately for the value they create early, simply because there is so much room there.
So go ahead, create something, anything. Put it out in the world, put your name on it, and send it to people who matter. See what happens.