I teach students about digital marketing. All the time. And I know why they come. They just want to get an expert to tell them what to do. Unfortunately, they get me. I wish I could tell you that I feel like an expert–like I know what I am doing. I wish that I could tell you that I have all the answers. The truth i,s I would feel better if I even had all the questions.
If I have learned nothing else about digital marketing, it is this: if you ever think you know everything there is to know, just wait ten minutes and it will change.
So, if you are waiting until you learn enough to be comfortable, I have some bad news for you. I’m not comfortable yet. I don’t think that you will become comfortable by merely learning more. You’ll become comfortable only when you get used to the fact that you only figure out what to do by trying it.
That’s why I tell my students that digital marketing isn’t really about knowledge. It’s about bravery.
It takes courage to try things when you don’t know if they will work. It takes courage to try something and actually measure whether it works or not. It takes courage to do it in front of your colleagues, your boss, and your customers.
And we don’t want to do it. We don’t want to be brave. We don’t want to experiment. We don’t want to be wrong.
But the problem is that if you are a marketer who doesn’t try anything, you never learn the most important lesson–what your actual customers want. Only by experimenting do you figure that out.
But bravery is even more important than that–because no one will pay you any more money for being smarter, or for knowing more. They will only pay you more when you make them more money.
So, don’t be a fraidy-cat. Take a shot, and then learn from your mistakes to take a better shot next time. Eventually, you’ll start hitting your target. If you’re brave.
