The 47 Unofficial And Unwritten Rules Of Marketing
This is from this week’s Marketing Unfiltered newsletter. I invited regular writers and contributors to the newsletter to offer their unofficial and unwritten rules.
There are so many official rules we are supposed to follow, but there are a huge number of unwritten and unofficial rules of Marketing (& business).
The need for creativity is inversely proportional to budget, so if you don't have lots of money, you need to think clever and act brave to get cut through. Equally, it is possible to spend your way to fame - Harry Lang
Don’t be afraid to keep it simple - that could mean how you measure digital and e-commerce ie tie it back to business goals when presenting to the exec, not in an echo chamber of digital channels - Simon Swan
Don’t be afraid to also audit your platforms “tilling the land”, set it up for future growth, reassess what is working and what is not, reevaluate channel and processes - Simon Swan
Think like a start-up or if it’s your own business, when it comes to hiring, spending and evaluating performance - Simon Swan
Embrace the squiggly line - the hierarchy isn’t necessarily “success” get more comfortable in learning about what motivates you and drives your passion? It could be driving change, building connections in organisations- so look for those lateral moves in career (not just in same company) it might not be higher up the ladder - Simon Swan
Apply your own training and development. You’re never to old to learn and adapt. The hard reality is the business won’t stay loyal to you and find opportunities, you need to be more comfortable in finding your own path or at least have one eye on alternative incomes and opportunities - Simon Swan
Try to learn to play business politics and egos - Simon Swan
Remember to allocate time to learn and explore, and to foster this culture with the team - Nick Bottai
Build and nurture connections with all the other departments. The more insights, the better results (and value perceived from the marketing department overall) - Nick Bottai
Don’t be glued at your desk. Your customers are outside the building, allocate time (for you and your team) to study and meet them - Nick Bottai
Relationships are everything - you never know where the next great collaboration will come from - Sophie Collins
Sweat the small stuff - the incremental gains of truly rinsing integrated channels add up - Sophie Collins
Spend most of your time with business partners outside of Marketing - Sophie Collins
AI is going to change Marketing and Marketing leaders need to be on the front foot to figure out how - Sophie Collins
To be an authentic brand externally, you have to be an authentic brand internally. Customers and staff smell brand BS. Marketing should be at the table/ lead for internal brand, culture, values, and comms strategies - Sophie Collins
Data is for action as well as measurement! This drives me bonkers. Companies obsess about getting log level data into visualisation tools so they can measure, but put minimal effort into the data infrastructure that means marketing can action it (CRM, retargeting, affiliates, loyalty etc) - Sophie Collins
Be best friends with your CFO - Nicola Anderson
Deeply understand your product. Go through your own purchasing funnel - Nicola Anderson
Make sure you are looking at the full funnel - too many Marketing Teams are told to focus on acquisition when the real gold is in retention, increasing LTV and building advocacy - Nicola Anderson
Just because it didn’t work before doesn’t mean it won’t work now. Poor execution, wrong audience/creative/messaging or wrong time leading to bad results often scars a business so they won’t try again - Nicola Anderson
AI is going to make and break your business
If you cannot explain the complicated in an exec summary, it won’t be trusted
No one reads the full 100-slide deck, but they’ll notice that one typo.
The right metrics matter!
Your vanity metrics are a double-edged sword that will likely cut you
The company’s objective could be pre-determining your success (Bad OKRs will damage you)
The best data is useless if your team doesn’t want to trust it or use it
Your gut instinct will often beat data - never ignore your gut and your experiences
Good Products make Marketing easier, mediocre Products makes Marketing hard, Crappy Products make Marketing almost impossible
Brands are allowing themselves to live and die by algorithmic filtering
Quality over quantity, every time!
Signal over noise every time; however, noise often looks good on reports
Your CEO and CFO are your (internal) customers
That budget sign-off is only final until a reforecast
We are living in the more with less era - that headcount is going away
Evoke customer emotions
Going viral is not a tactic (but the C-Suite still wants viral moments to boast about…)
Internal alignment beats external hype, every time
The CMO role is always at risk - performance matters most
The CEO’s pet project will likely become a company's priority, and plan on that derailment.
Remember: Your CEO or founder likely isn’t ready for that big podcast they want to be on
Know your biggest critics and treat them as allies: Sales, Product, Growth, Finance
Cross-functional allies are worth more than the extra budget you fight all-year for
Miro boards will never be revisited, and where good ideas go to die…
You have to do Brand Marketing, but you have to rebrand it and label it something else…
Empathy matters!
If you’re not measuring it, it certainly didn’t happen in the eyes of colleagues
You have to be able to operate in C-Suite chaos
The loudest voice in the room isn’t always right, but it gains attention and will often be heard.
Your competitors’ mistakes are your best learning opportunities (apart from your own)
The simplest message is often the hardest to produce
The best creative brief is half as long as you think
Those “urgent” requests aren’t urgent
Marketing’s priority is rarely other departments’ priorities
If you don’t own the narrative, someone else will and does already
What people really think about your Product and Brand is being discussed in private group chats and pages
If your big launch doesn’t hit, go again and again and again!
Don’t just think about improving as a manager or leader, get coaching to help propel you and your career.
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