The Modern Day Marketer is the hero in the story that we are telling at The Juice.
Over the past year, I’ve had nearly 100+ conversations with B2B marketers and have pulled away themes throughout these conversations to create The Modern Day Marketer.
I’ve obsessed over creating content around the Modern Day Marketer because I believe the ingredients that make up these individuals are what we should all be working towards to make B2B marketing, well….suck much less.
You know that feeling when you get off a Zoom call with someone new and you feel inspired?
These moments have become a regular part of my work week and I feel like I owe it to the rest of the community to share what I am learning. These connections don’t always just show up in my inbox, Twitter DMs, or Slack communities with a pretty little bow on it. That would be too damn easy and everyone would be having these conversations.
I’m listening on social media
I’m consuming more content than ever before (Finding most of the good stuff here 🧃)
I’m in Slack groups where Modern Day Marketers hang out.
I’m learning from them and then I ask them for less than 30 minutes to understand something that they are working on that is different and helps elevate the brand that they are working on.
Then we record a podcast episode or identify another opportunity to collaborate.
I promote the hell out of their work and introduce them to other Modern Day Marketers.
The cycle never stops and the new ideas and people continue to grow over time.
I’m becoming a Modern Day Marketer because I am surrounding myself with Modern Day Marketers.
New to this concept?
I define the Modern Day Marketer in this blog post. It seems like all I’m doing these days is talking about the Modern Day Marketer on the 3C Podcast. In fact, I’m jumping on other people’s shows like Real Marketers (shout out Stephanie!) to talk about it.
I’m doing this because I am trying to draw a connection with anyone who is reading this post, subscribed to our podcast, receives The Blend, our weekly newsletter, follows us on social media, and most importantly is a member of our platform.
This connection has been so inspiring and powerful for me that I want to share my experiences back to you. If more people embrace the traits of Modern Day Marketers and retire their “me-centered” marketing habits then we’d all be on a path of facilitating better experiences. Most importantly, better experiences powered by the kick ass content that we are all creating.
So where do we start?
I’ve done most of the heavy lifting for you. I’m in the process of working with our design team on creating a visual identity around the Modern Day Marketer (see header image - WIP).. I want our hero to be more recognizable when content about her hits your social media feed. In order to prepare the team for the support needed I knew I needed to take a step back and reflect.
I thought about the 100+ conversations, notes, recorded content, and other themes that might play a factor. I began to synthesize themes across this massive body of work.
These traits are what I delivered to our designers to help make the Modern Day Marketer pop. We are in the process of building right now and can’t wait to share the results. In the meantime, I'll share what I shipped over to them and what I am using to build our upcoming content.
The Traits of the Modern Day Marketer
- Audience first: all of her decision making is done to better the community that she is building
- Quality over quantity: Thinks the volume sucks because of the brand damage it can cause - she knows that you might grab a customer or two this way, but get ready for the churn
- Long game player: comes from a place of abundance and is here for the long game; ditched the transactional mindset because she knows it doesn’t help build brand
- Experience matters: values cross-functional collaboration because she understands that it can’t just be a marketing thing to create kick ass experiences
- Transparent: Shows her work because she believes outlining the process can help others
- Believes in frictionless content: views forms as a roadblock to learning
- Dedicated to distribution: doesn’t hit publish and hope for the best. She’s constantly testing new channels to share her work and match her content with the right people
- Community driven: Uses Slack groups, social networks, and online communities to meet other Modern Day Marketers to learn from and to distribute content
- Writes for people and not machines: understands the value of SEO, but doesn’t let it drive the content strategy
- Metrics matter but…: not a spreadsheet marketer or someone that uses the same cookie cutter metrics as everyone else. Believes in reporting, but around the metrics that matter to her business and audience
- Collaboration: believe in the value of creating content and collaborating with other Modern Day Marketers
- Internal activator: Understands the most premium activation channel is with her teammates. Values promoting content through them
Can you relate with any of the traits of the Modern Day Marketer?
Are there things that you need to work on?
My recommendation is to think about areas in this list where you might not be as strong and dedicate time to it. None of these traits will make you a Modern Day Marketer with a simple flip of the switch. The more you dedicate time to working on it the more change you will drive.
This change is positive and will help level up the brands that you support.
Don’t forget about the people. You don’t have to do this alone.
Put in the work and find experts for each trait and learn from them.
You’ll feel like a prizefighter getting out of bed every morning preparing for the title fight.
It’s a battle to stand out and defy the status quo.
That’s the mindset of the Modern Day Marketer though.
Gloves off.
Throwing blows to knock out the old way.
If you enjoy what we are doing we’d love for you to do a couple things:
