July/Aug Edition:

Upskilling yourself in the marketing industry

Hello, I hope this email finds you well…

Just kidding. No one ever wants to read a mail that starts like that 😂

I do, however, hope you are all doing well. Can you believe that we are more than halfway through the year already? It’s not long before the Xmas decorations come out, and Michael Buble emerges from his cave. But before we start pondering where the year has gone, let’s get into this month’s topic.

We ran a poll, and it was a very close call between how AI is flooding the internet with low-quality content and how to upskill yourself when you are working in marketing. But there is a clear winner, even if only by 1%, we have to stay true to democracy.

I decided to stick to this method as it makes it more of a community-led thing than just me dumping random stuff on you.

One of the biggest challenges marketers face today is that many find themselves in small teams on very tight budgets at small companies without anyone to learn marketing from on the direct team. The founder and salespeople usually don’t have much to offer, leaving you to fend for yourself and figure out what works and what doesn’t. Let’s look at what’s out there for you to learn from if you find yourself in the likely position where you will not have a mentor available to you.

Skills and insight matter

What sets great marketers apart from average ones is insight, not theory. That said, I will start with the big old “do you need a degree” topic so we can get that out of the way.

Do you need a degree to work in marketing?

The quick and easy answer here is no. In over a decade in the industry, I have not encountered anything that cannot be picked up and learned with what is readily available on the internet. This goes for everything from SEO to Brand strategy and Social Media to Data Analytics. There is an abundance of resources out there to pick from.

Do degrees help you in your career in marketing?

Sure as hell they do…why? A degree helps you understand the theory behind it, and in most cases, you walk out with at least something to back your passion as you enter the most chaotic industry on the planet. It doesn’t get you far in real-life applications, and no degree on earth can prepare you to market a B2B SaaS business in the current market. But it still creates a solid, general base.

Then, there is also the sad reality that we still live in a world where people with degrees have an easier time landing high-paying jobs than people without degrees. Regardless of how many of those “hire for passion, skills can be taught” posts you scroll past on LinkedIn.

This newsletter, however, will not look at where you can study to acquire a degree in marketing. If you are, however, sitting at that point in your life where you need to decide what to study, I can tell you this much. There has never been a better time to get into Marketing. LinkedIn and Indeed highlighted various marketing specializations as some of the highest in-demand jobs in 2024/2025, and with the rise of AI, the need for creative thinking and “standing out” will become all the more important to companies. Even with the landscape changing, it’s a good place to be with a solid future.

As for degrees in marketing, any reputable university with a marketing course will do just fine. The curriculums are mostly the same across the board, and the theory has not changed. However, I can recommend going for a niche university like VEGA or Miami Ad School, where the focus is a little more on real-world scenarios than only theory from a textbook.

Personally for me:

I have a bachelor's degree in marketing with a major in marketing strategy and advertising and a post-graduate degree in Strategic Brand Communication. This helped me in my career by allowing me to find my passion for this industry at a very young age. Which, by the way, was not always there. I had wanted to be a lawyer my entire life but failed my freshman year and had to shift lanes. It was only when a career advisor pointed me in the direction of marketing that I realized that I love it and thrive in the chaotic nature this industry offers.

“Okay, Stefan, I came here to upskill, not start from scratch”

The internet is a wonderful place, and if people decide to spend half the amount of time they spend looking at memes, cat videos, and Gen-Z kids dancing on TikTok, they can really learn a lot.

On the topic of time spent on social media, there are many great people from whom you can learn marketing. The best place to learn marketing is from people who actually do it and have put in the time to figure out what works and what doesn’t for different industries and business models. Those who have managed to crack the code in some form or another.

Practitioners and real-life case studies hold by far the most valuable learning experience. Creator- and founder-led marketing is a big deal at the moment, and there are many reputable people who share insights and strategies on LinkedIn. But be careful. There’s also a tremendous amount of 💩trash out there.

Put some time into finding them, and make sure you subscribe to their content. Whether they post on Linkedin or X or have a newsletter or podcast.
Get involved.

Here are some of my favorites, to point out a few good ones that are top of mind:

• Peep Laja - Messaging, Positioning, Conversion

• Tycho Luitjen - Demand Gen, B2B Growth

• Dave Gerhardt - B2b Growth and Strategy

• Olga Andrienko - Branding and Personal Branding

• Ben Labay - Conversion

• David Aaker - Branding

• Justin Row - Linkedin Marketing

• Chris walker - B2b Growth

Don’t throw pages out of the mix. Most companies are also just posting crap, but some companies are stepping up their game. Especially in the B2B space. Ones to keep an eye on:

• CXL - Marketing taught by the top 1% of marketers

• Semrush

• Marketing Week

Mainly, it comes down to where you spend your social media hours. Would you rather learn about new travel locations or get better at marketing? For me, the choice is simple. If I’m going to consume content online, it needs to add value to my life.

Many practitioners and creators have podcasts, newsletters, webinars, books, and blogs that are equally valuable to learn from. Pick your medium and start consuming. If you are here, I assume you hit “subscribe to newsletter” buttons.

Pro tip: Create a separate Gmail account you only use for newsletters, and just hit subscribe everywhere you go. You will soon have a library of free learning material. Just don’t fill it with crap, and get rid of ones that don’t add value.

Exit Five, Forbes CMO, and RevGenius are some of my favorites to point out here.

Podcasts? I’m personally not much of a podcast listener; when I have time to listen to something, I prefer to unwind and listen to good music. But there are a tremendous amount of good podcasts out there.

Here’s one I spoke on recently with other esteemed guests like Daniel Murry, Neil Patel, and Chris Do

Looking for something a bit more serious?

Online courses. There are so many to choose from. Good ones, bad ones, free ones. The internet is a wonderful place.

The free ones:
Hubspot Academy and Google is a great place to hang out.
They have relevant, up-to-date content that’s good.

Got some money to spend? Perhaps a personal development budget to swing around

CXL is right at the top of the list. It’s like Netflix for marketing. Remember what I said earlier about learning from people who cracked the code? CXL offers 120+ practical courses taught by the top 1% of practitioners in the industry who actually figured this stuff out and successfully scaled companies. I might be biased as I am now personally heading up the marketing for CXL. But that’s partly because I believe so much in their product and content.

Other options to look at are Growth Tribe, and of course, there are some good options on Coursera, Udemy, and Linkedin Learning; you just need to work your way through the incredible amount of content from freelancers who just want to make an extra buck on the side and had enough time on their hands to slap together a few slides on a topic.

Conclusion

The best way to upskill in marketing is by learning from people who have already done what you want to do. People who ran the experiments hit the walls, stepped in the holes, failed, and learned the hard way. They don’t have all the answers, but they hold some pieces of the puzzle. It’s up to you to collect as many of those pieces as possible.

Yes, certificates are nice, but insight wins the race. Spend time to look for and find the ones most relevant to your discipline and industry, but don’t be afraid to stack up. Good marketers are T-shaped. In this industry, you need to know something about everything and specialize in at least something.

Replace the TikTok black hole and cat videos with content from experts, and you will be surprised by how much you can learn in a week.

Good luck out there, and as always, feel free to reach out if you want my opinion on a creator, newsletter, or course. I am always happy to help and think along.

Until next time.

Regards,
Stefan