How Marketers can get "Better At" Marketing (Part 1: Discovery)

What does it mean to be "Better At" something?

According to my good friend Achim Klor , it's all about, "improving others while improving ourselves." It's a mindset of selfless improvement (instead of just continuous improvement). It’s about getting better at being better FOR each other instead of being better THAN each other. Together, we help others get better while we get better too 💖

In this series, I'm going to be exploring what it looks like for Marketers to be Better At Marketing. About how we can improve others (our teams, our customers, and even our prospects) while improving ourselves.

Because let's be real, without improving ourselves, how can we be better FOR others?

In today's installment, we're going to focus on FOCUS. On how we can improve our skills in the arena of Discovery to create Marketing Programs that work for our energy, the business goals of the companies we represent, and the contribution we can make at the intersection of those two things.

Let's go.

It Begins With Self-Awareness

If you take a look at pretty much ANY educational Marketing Program, there's no mention of self-awareness. Even the Chief Marketing Officer Program at Columbia makes no mention of it.

Now, you might think that's because it's not important.

That if it WAS that important, then it would be included in programs like that, right?

But when it comes to curriculum, it's impossible for courses to take the incoming experiences and filters of each student into account.

The programmers can't work with that volume of information.

But YOU can work with that information.

So now, let's look at some of the activities that are common in Marketing practices, and how we can bring our self-awareness to the game to optimize our potential for creating value.

Discovering YOU

Self-awareness is ALL about Discovering YOU. Who you are. What you love and what you loathe. What drives your energy. What makes you curious.

So, the first set of practices is based around how to PAY ATTENTION.

How to pay attention to YOUR experience when doing things.

Some tools that are helpful in this category include:

Energy Audit: Take some time at the end of every day to reflect on what activities energize you vs. drain you. It might be related to a specific task, or an interaction with a certain team member. It might be doing something NEW vs. doing something on repeat. It might be task-switching, or interacting with clients. Every interaction carries information💡

Now, this doesn't mean that it's possible to get to 100% activities that drive your energy. BUT, what it does make possible is wisdom in how to manage your energy throughout your day.

Curiosity Mapping: Have you ever tried creating a mind map of the marketing topics that interest you? Or even just recording the questions that pop into your head while you're doing your other marketing activities? It might be related to a category of marketing, like, "I wonder how the brands with the most staying-power got to where they are?" or "I wonder why our customers never ask us about XYZ?". Or it might be related to a specific marketing activity, "I wonder if we stopped posting on social media if it would have an impact on the business?"

There are SO many questions that are possible. And by paying attention to the ones that are already rattling around in your head, you tap into YOUR curiosity💖

Skill Experimentation: Most companies seem to have a pre-defined idea of what skills you SHOULD have as a Marketer. They probably even put them into your job description. But that's more about what they want you to DO vs. the skills that will be valuable to you as a Marketer. So experiment! Try as many things as you can. Try graphic design. Try video editing. Hang out on different social media platforms. Play with some email marketing funnels. Check out some tradeshows. Experiment with digital events.

But the most important thing to OBSERVE at the end of the day is which FIT you? Not everyone needs to be the wor;ds best graphic designer. Especially if we get good at building a robust network😉

Discovering Core Values

Now that we've started the practice of learning about ourselves, we can move into something a little bit deeper. Our values.

And here's the thing, everyone. You might think it's possible to IGNORE your own core values in favor of the business you're representing. And you might be right...

...for a VERY short amount of time.

At the end of the day, we CAN'T ignore our values. Even for a huge paycheck.

It's absolutely NOT sustainable.

You'll either end up burning out or quitting. It's that simple.

So, we need to begin with our OWN values. And understand what are the activities that we do that are in alignment with them.

Or not.

Once we can see that, we open up the window to seeing the core values of the organization we represent clearly.

And again, 100% alignment is almost impossible.

But we create the opportunity to align on what's real for us AND what's real for the company.

Which creates TRUE alignment. Not 100% alignment💡

And once we have that alignment, we can go talk to the world about it.

Some tools that can help at this level include: 1) Brand Alignment Exercises (a pressuretest if you will, for what your marketing is demostrating), 2) Values Identification Exercises (which lived values make up your top 5), and 3) Reverse Engineering (what values do you FEEL when experiencing other marketing?)

Discovering Meaningful Business Goals

When we take this practice of self-awarness and extrapolate it into business goals, now we're REALLY cooking with gas! And while you've probably heard of SMART Goals and Ideal Customer Profiles (which are both good tools, they're just not the end-all, be-all), I want to focus on two commonly ignored tools that really add value in this arena.

The 5 Whys: While this is one that most people have probably heard of, it's very rarely used in Marketing. Why? (see what I did there) Well, you reason will be yours. Which is precisely the point of the exercise. This isn't about answering a "why" level with a GUESS. It's about answering the question with YOUR answer.

The exercise enables us to get better connected with ourselves from a self-awareness perspective. But it has to be USED that way✨

Future Visioning: This is another thing that people are familiar with but tend not to do when it comes to marketing. And the challenge is that we think we need to fill the future with something we already KNOW how to achieve. Which by definition, limits the future potential to what already exists today💡

But if we can take the Future Vision and find a way to work it back into a marketing program that can take us there, now that's powerful🎉

Discovering Unique Selling Propositions

Everything has a USP. You do. Your company does. Communities do. Countries do.

And if an exploration in this area DOESN'T start with self-awareness, then you're not actually figuring our YOUR USP. You're identifing A USP.

Those are two very different things. Because if it's not YOURS, who really cares?

Often in this arena, people focus their efforts on Competitor Analysis and Tagline Development. And while it's never bad to know what your competitors are DOING, it doesn't have much to do with YOU. Especially if you never drill down to who they are BEING in the market; as opposed to whatever keywords they're using on their website.

Personally, I like to focus on using the tools that get us INTO our story. Things like Origin Story Exercises can be a fun way to figure out what's unique about YOU. After all, no two super heroes have the same one...even though they're all out saving the day 🤣

And let's not forget the power of Customer Interviews in the process of understanding our USP. Which, of course, can also get you into generic zone really fast IF you're not asking the right questions. Personally, I'm a fan of focusing these conversations around the EXPERIENCE your customers have of you; around the FEELINGS they feel about your brand and what interactions drove those feelings.

If we can use this information to identify our authentic Way of Being that adds value to our people, and HARNESS that into our marketing efforts, not only will those efforts FEEL more like us, but they will also get us closer to our people faster💞

BONUS: Discovering Ourselves Through Others

I wanted to add this in to expand on the insights available through our customer's experiences, because there are OTHER people who have insights about us that we can tap into as well. And they are available to us in pretty much any conversation; if we're looking for it.

Yes, I'm talking about networking.

But not your ho-hum, every day "show-up-in-the-room-and-pitch" networking.

I'm talking about using the information we gathered discovering ourselves and using conversation to pressure-test THAT.

I like to call this Transformational Networking. And it's been a game-changer for me.

It's about being curious about others FIRST, and using the information collected to get curious about yourself.

For example, you could get curious about what led someone to where they are in their career. And use that to see if you might make the same interpretations along the way.

The destination isn't to just AGREE.

It's to accept, and try-on.

And in so doing, learn about yourself as you go💖

Prioritizing the Process of Discovery

As you read through this, it might have sounded like a LOT of things to do.

It might have even sounded like there's no way you would have time for all that.

But what do we miss out on by NOT doing that Discovery?

We miss out on Career Fulfillment. Differentiation. Brand Trust. Strategic Focus. Innovation. Adaptability. So many of the things that drive LONG-TERM success.

So yes, we can trade those away for short-tem "fixes" (which are more like Band-Aids).

Or, we can spend the time doing the things that MATTER.

And they don't actually have to take that LONG.

But they do take PRACTICE. And consistency in doing so.

Together, we can💖

If you're ready to start practicing NOW, check out the upcoming Authentic Marketing Academy, starting on March 5, 2025. Not only will you learn how to tap into these insights from a discovery perspective, but you'll also deep-dive the remaining 3 arenas that truly bring Authentic Marketing to life😊

Or you can always start by booking a virtual chat!