Are We Empowering Our Next Gen Marketers?

I've been in the Marketing industry for nearing on 20 years now, and if one thing is certain (which things NEVER are in Marketing 🤣), the industry will look NOTHING like it does today 20 years in the future.

When I started in this game, most companies didn't have a Facebook page.

Email marketing was still new.

Websites were a catalogue (at best), with no online purchasing options.

Radio and newspaper ads were still a big part of the game.

And we had those huge paper cutters for visual samples (IYKYK).

For some of my friends who have been in the industry even longer, the transformation is even more significant.

As Marketers, we WILL have to pivot.

It's not a matter of IF; but WHEN.

Is your Marketing Team ready?

Let's look at two common scenarios for Marketing Teams today, and then we'll venture into how we can better enable them for success; or as I like to look at it, turn them into Marketers in Growth Mode 💖

Marketing Teams of ONE

In the age of AI, it's more and more common for Marketing Teams to be smaller. As a founder, you may be doing a lot of the marketing yourself, or you may have one person who is responsible for very tactical efforts, such as social media. It's also common to see companies with a Marketing Coordinator role that reports directly to the CEO.

But a team of one ALWAYS lacks perspective.

And a team of one if almost always OVERWHELMED.

You see, when one person is responsible for everything from email marketing to partner programs, from association memberships and tool management, from CRM implementations to digital advertising, and let's not forget grant writing and award applications, it's clear to see that maintaining FOCUS will remain difficult.

And they'll likely be so caught up in task management that they can't even SEE when a pivot has become necessary.

So, they keep doing the same things, over and over, generating no results.

It's all too common, I'm afraid.

But unless someone pulls them OUT of that activity, and back towards alignment with the business goals, that's precisely where they will stay stuck.

And if you're too busy as a CEO to do that for them...

Well, you can expect them NOT to pivot when necessary. And you can expect to keep paying their same salary (and ad spends) even IF they aren't generating results.

It can get expensive FAST when you're looking at it that way.

Young Marketers as Leaders

One of the things we are seeing much more often today is young marketers taking leadership roles in young organizations. Not just because their salary expectations are lower, but because they care more about matching the business from a personal brand perspective.

But when the person responsible for your entire marketing strategy isn't bringing extensive knowledge or diverse expertise, you risk getting pigeon-holed into a strategy that's not well suited for your business.

It's not because they're being malicious by any means.

It's just due to lack of perspective.

And it gets companies caught up in a belief that that's all marketing can do for them.

Back to cost-center mode.

But early on in the process is when pivots are happening most quickly. And if teams can stay on top of those, they win.

And if they can't...

Empowering the Next Generation of Marketers

Marketers LOVE to put themselves into categories like "brand marketers" or "growth marketers" or "product marketers". But when things are changing so quickly, the most effective Marketers will be those with a hybrid skillset; those that can tap into:

• Creative storytelling (like traditional marketers)

• Technical fluency (like growth marketers—think tools, data, automation)

• Strategic agility (they don’t just plan; they adapt and iterate quickly)

We're talking about full-funnel knowledge, comfort with rapid testing, a mix of brand and performance mindset, as well as knowledge of product-led growth, customer success loops, and community-driven strategies.

That's a LOT of knowledge for one person.

And currently, most people who see themselves as “next-gen” marketers are self-taught through online communities, podcasts and newsletters, digital courses and real-life testing, failing, and iterating (if you're lucky that they're brave enough and you've created a culture that supports them learning through failure).

So, we can HOPE that they're self-improving. OR...

We can give them the tools they need to do that well.

Education vs. Practice

Just like the rest of the education system, most formal marketing education still lags behind the realities of today’s fast-moving industry.

And really, we can expect this to continue indefinitely from an educational perspective.

Because a curriculum can only ever be based on what we HAVE learned.

And while there is value in that knowledge, the ability to USE the knowledge is where the wisdom truly lies.

And CONSUMING content (yeah, like the things mentioned above in courses, podcasts, newsletters and in communities) doesn't equal PRACTICE.

And it's the PRACTICE that allows skills to bloom.

When we're talking about things like figuring out how to grow YOUR brand (and what you need to experiment on to collect meaningful data), measuring what matters (to YOU), optimizing your tech stack (for YOU), creating agile workflows (that both deliver and evolve), and communicating with YOUR people as they change an evolve, PRACTICE is mandatory.

Practice Makes Permanent

This is one of my favorite takeaways from my Dale Carnegie Training. And if we want our Marketing Teams to build skill sets that are permanent (not perfect, no human is perfect), they need a place to PRACTICE.

But how often do they need to practice to make it meaningful?

Let's look at competitive Team Sports as a benchmark. Actually, to give us even more wiggle room, let's look at Youth Competitive Sports: 2-4 practices a week | 1-2 games per week.

That's a 2:1 ratio (up to 5:1 ratio).

Comparatively, most elite athletes (think Olympic level) train 10x's up to 300x's MORE than they compete.

Why does this matter?

Because training is where GROWTH happens.

And competing is where growth is REVEALED.

Oh, and recovery and analysis are a critical part of the cycle; which is often overlooked in business.

So, if your Marketing Team is spending all their time competing, but your not revealing growth, then it's the training, recovery and analysis that's getting missed.

And THAT'S where your opportunity lies.

From Practice to Empowerment - Who is taking you there?

In athletics, individuals and teams have coaches.

It's the coach's job to take the team to the next level.

And if you, as the CEO, find yourself not being able to take your Marketing Team there, it's time to bring in a coach.

A coach with their eyes on the prize (aka your business goals)...

...who can get the most out of your current team (no matter how small)...

...who can create the space for your Marketers to train, experiment & fail...

...who can refine efforts towards performance...

...and condition the team so they can eventually run their own plays.

Oh, and let's not forget about their FOCUS.

After all, a coach that's too busy with tactical efforts to do all the above WON'T help.

It's just another person playing a game you aren't winning.

And👆THAT👆doesn't make sense.

But assigning one person the role of ensuring the Team Formula works?

👆THAT👆does.

If you're ready to take your Marketing Team to the Next Level, let's chat! I might just be the coach that can take you there :)