My Best Marketing Career Advice (a note to myself 10 years ago)

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I was recently chatting with a young marketer and they asked me for my best career advice.

It took me a while to reply to them (because I think there’s a lot of BS career advice out there) but here’s what I shared with them (I also expanded on each of the 15 pieces of advice be as helpful and actionable as possible).

My Best Marketing Career Advice

1) Learn copywriting. Practice daily.

Great copywriting fuels every area of growth throughout your career.

Especially when communicating with company leaders, sending out emails to hundreds (or thousands of people), and even your in-person communication skills.

I remember early in my career being afraid to speak up during meetings and present to groups on my work because because I was afraid of people judging my communication.

These days I’ll write out my talks or presentations like I was pitching a product.

I try to boil things down to the key points that the audience needs to know and force myself to think things through — just like a sales pitch.

All of this practice has helped me as a commencement speaker, during internal company presentations for thousands of people, and whenever I to get my point across when speaking to company leaders.

And of course this translates to producing social content, writing scripts, ads, blogs, videos, etc.

A good book to help you get started: Ogilvy on Advertising

2) Find your preferred content format.

Playing with different content formats early on in order to figure out what you enjoy most.

Some people love blogs and others love video.

I love creating social-first content. Mostly short form written content but enjoy longer form posts as well (like this one that you’re reading now).

Knowing your preferment content format will help you improve the specific skills you need to transcend your career and which projects to take on along the way.

3) Study marketers 3-5 years ahead of you.

If you’re early in your marketing career then you probably don’t fully know what it is you want to do within the general “marketing” field.

Studying marketers who are 3-5 years ahead of you will help you understand their roles and how you could potentially get there yourself.

I’d suggest finding 2-3 people from a few different functions (product marketers, social marketers, comms professionals, etc.) and ask them for advice.

Invite them to coffee, lunch, or if they’re located in a different city, see if they’d be open to a Zoom call.

Position your pitch like this:

“Hi ___,

My name is ___,

I’m new to the industry and think the work you do is really interesting.

I’m not entirely sure which direction I’d like to take my career yet but would love to learn more about your journey since it seems like you really enjoy what you do.

Would you be open to a 15 minute call?

If not, I can send over a handful of questions that would really help me in this discovery process.

Thank you!”

4) Obsess about the customer.

In order to be a great marketer, you need to understand your customer (or target audience).

Figure out exactly who they are by asking your teammates, manager, or leadership.

Attend sales meetings if possible.

Talk with the customer service team if you work in a company that has one.

Learn who the customer is, what they like, what they hate, how they spend their time, what they read, their spending habits, and their perception of your company.

You should obsess about the customer until you know them better than anyone else at the company.

This will help you in all of the work that you do as a marketer.

5) Ask the "dumb questions" .

If you have a question, it’s usually a good idea to ask — especially if it’s related to your work or the company goals.

I’ve learned that there’s usually at least one other person with the same question but they’re too shy to ask.

When asking, try to clarify exactly what you need to know, why you need this information, and how it relates to your work.

6) Figure out how you can help your manager.

Middle managers do a lot.

On top of managing you (and other employees), they have their work and are supporting their managers on other projects that you don’t know about.

If you’re already doing a good job in your work, you should ask how you can support them or take on other projects to help the team.

In the long run, this translates to promotions — but more than anything, you’ll be remembered as someone who was willing to help (which makes you indispensable as an employee).

The key here is to be sure you are doing a great job in your current responsibilities before you try and take on more work.

Find out by having a 1v1 with your manager where the sole goal of the meeting is to review your past performance.

7) Speak up when you have an idea.

Similar to #5, people are usually too shy or embarrassed to speak up when they have something on their mind.

If you have a great idea that you’ve thought about thoroughly and mapped out suggestions for implementation, bring it up with your manager or during a team meeting.

Even if the exact idea isn’t implemented, it will probably spark other ideas or a discussion around current processes.

8) Invest 10% of your time into actively building relationships.

Spend at least a few hours every week into deepening relationships with colleagues, teammates, mentors, leadership, and anyone who you find to be interesting.

Meet others in your niche (even if they work at other companies).

This can translate to coffee chats, lunches, 1v1 zoom calls, happy hours, industry events, conferences, off-sites, etc.

The relationships you build early in your career will be invaluable later on.

9) Understand how your role helps the business more productive or successful.

This is a huge one.

Doing great work as a marketer means fully understanding your role and how it helps the business be more productive or successful.

What’s the 1 metric that you should be laser focused on?

Reach? Conversions? Signups? NPS? Engagement? Leads? Sales?

Figure this out as soon as possible then prioritize your efforts accordingly.

10) Regularly ask your manager what the most important thing you should be working on every week -- until you intuitively know on your own.

This ties in with #9 but is something that you should be doing on an ongoing basis since marketing employees work on several different projects.

During 1v1s, ask your manager what the most important thing you should be working on and how it ladders up to bigger project goals.

Keep on doing this until you intuitively know on your own and can inform them on what it is you are prioritizing (for reassurance).

11) Attend every All Hands. Ask thoughtful questions. Listen carefully.

This seems obvious but you’d be surprised how many people don’t fully take advantage of company All Hands.

Attend every All Hands.

Prepare questions ahead of time.

Listen carefully (and take notes).

Study your leadership team on how they present & inspire the company.

Practice what you’ve learned in your own presentations.

Find people within the organization to ask more questions that arise from All Hands meetings.

12) Learn how the company makes money.

You need to know exactly why your company is in business.

It’s usually to make money but for some companies, it could be to drive downloads, signups, or some form of engagement which will eventually lead to revenue down the line.

I’d suggest spending a lot of time with your sales team or attending meeting led by the person who is responsible for company growth.

Understand their priorities and start to map out how marketing (and your role specifically) plays a role in helping the company grow.

13) Read fewer books. Find the top 5 and implement learnings via projects.

I was a learning machine early my career (still am to this day but am much more methodical about the content that I consume and actively learn from).

I remember devouring 60-80 books a year and being super proud.

But honestly, I would’ve better off by just reading the top 5 books that were aligned with the specific skills, mindset, or knowledge that I was trying to acquire.

Then, spending most of my time implementing what I learned and practicing on a daily basis.

My advice: Find your top 5 books or courses by asking mentors (or the people who are 3-5 years ahead of you) and implement everything you’re learning into a project. Your project could be work related or a personal project (like building your personal social audience, newsletter, etc.

14) Learn about different parts of the business.

I found this one to be a superpower.

If you are able to understand different parts of the business (not just sales/marketing) and can map out how they all work together (or function individually), then you will be able to spot opportunities where others see nothing.

The truth is that most employees go to work and only think about their specific job. Some do the work to study their team or function but very few will learn about the different teams across other verticals like engineering, product, growth, operations, HR, etc.

As you learn about different parts of the business, ask what their priorities are and if there’s any way you can potentially help them.

Even if your role isn’t tied to their work, they will usually be excited to have an outsiders perspective.

This also leads to a diverse network that you’ll accrue over time.

15) Act like an owner in everything you do.

This one seems obvious but not everyone lives by it.

Act like an owner in everything you do.

In the quality of your work.

In the interactions with teammates & customers.

Constantly think to yourself “If this was my business and I were spending my hard earned money, would I be happy with how this is being done?”

If the answer is “no” then do the work until it’s a “yes”.

Act like an owner and you’ll eventually be recognized and/or compensated appropriately.

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