Marketing has lots of moving parts: SEO, PPC, brand, design, copywriting, strategy, partnerships, social media… the list goes on.
Nobody masters every part of marketing.
It’s easy to get lost in the weeds of retargets, UTM parameters and off-page SEO. But hyper-focusing on these specifics is missing the forest for the trees.
I believe the deepest learning comes from understanding the timeless principles of a discipline. Understand those and you’ll understand new tools and tactics quickly. But if you only have tools and tactics, you’ll suffer once those are obsolete.
At its most abstract, marketing’s principles reduce the discipline to two things:
- Changing behavior
- Changing belief
All marketing ultimately seeks to change behavior. This is true whether you want people to make a purchase or to vote for your party. The end goal of marketing is always an action.
But beliefs stand in the way of that action. Maybe people don’t know you. Maybe they believe your competitor is best in your category. Maybe they believe your product category is not for them. Marketing aims to change those beliefs into ones that serve the action you want people to take.
Internalize this and you’ll have a deeper understanding than many who work on marketing tactics without grasping their deeper purpose.
If you can map the action you aim to create and the beliefs standing in the way of that, you’ll understand the strategy deeply—and can layer the tactical skills on top.
But if you limit yourself to the tactical skills, you’ll always catch up.