Marketing Technique vs Marketing Instinct is a very interesting topic to me.
Some people I know got their start by reading eBooks, courses and following advise from others to develop their own technique. Others, like myself, have developed a “marketing instinct” which I feel is greatly different than a technique and is acquired in a different way.
A marketing instinct is developed from repetitive of trial and error or experimentation, regardless if you are getting your information from a technique eBook or out of thin air. Some people, that can’t afford to spend $5,980/month on all of the latest products choose to get involved with group coaching or mastermind groups.
I tend to believe that people that have developed their own marketing technique (or taught directly by a coach) are at a better place than someone that has learned about marketing through reading eBooks about it and never experimenting.
Now, that’s not to say that reading eBooks is a bad thing, it’s certainly not. There are a lot of really high quality eBooks out there, I might even do one same day. But, if ALL of your marketing knowledge is coming from words written on paper, you are not going to be as dynamic as someone out there DOING it.
This is exactly how I got started with marketing. I was in college working my way towards a particular marketing degree and at the same time I had opened an eBay business. I must have learned 10-20 times the amount by actually doing the eBay business than sitting in classes and “learning” from reading text books and taking tests on marketing material. Part of that problem was because the material was age old and it only takes a matter of months these days for material to become stale.
A lot of the marketing material and eBooks these days become yesterdays news very fast. To be a really successful marketer I believe that you need a dynamic source of information or train yourself to be THE dynamic source of information.
How do you turn yourself into a dynamic source of information?
The short answer is practice and repetition.
The longer answer is that to really become a dynamic master of something you need a mix of technique and instinct. Where does the instinct come from? I think it comes from repetition. The technique part kicks in when you need a blueprint or guidelines of what you should be practicing.
I personally got my start in marketing by trial and error and building up my instinct that way. I hardly read anything in the early days other than outdated college course material for my marketing classes. I was fortunate to have a really good mentor/coach in my early days as well.
How’d you get your start?
Great post, Brian. That’s a great topic and I’m not certain where I stand on this. I think people can learn anything but they need to take what they’ve “learned” and adapt it. Hopefully that helps them develop their marketing instinct.
If all you do is learn from others, that’s all you’ll ever do and wonder why you’re not quite successful.
I got my start by just jumping in. First with a local website service, while I was still in high school and then later with some of the first affiliate offers. I completely agree with you on this one. Sometimes I approach an ebook and realize it’s written for someone who has been in the industry for sometime. Authors write like they expect you to know things, or they make it too simple. The best learning comes from doing, and I think that’s primarily because the rate of the feedback increases. When a feedback loop is in place the pace of learning picks up. No feedback, no learning. Adapt or Die, it’s the Darwin way!