Number 8 is the hardest.
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It’s important to learn how to improve your marketing skills because it’s one of those things everyone must do to survive.
You have to learn how to market things.
Want to get a job? You use marketing ideas to sell your skills to recruiters.
Want to woo a woman or a man for dating? You start your marketing approach by looking nice and refining what to say.
Especially if you want to start a business, you absolutely need to learn how to be good at marketing.
What if I tell you there are simple ways to improve your marketing without getting a degree?
Getting a degree is great if you want that. I will recommend it.
When you need to start a small business from scratch and don’t have much, you can use these simple activities or steps to improve your marketing.
Let’s start.
How to Improve Marketing Skills
#1. Learn from your business
Starting a business is the toughest way to learn how to improve your marketing skills. Business terrains are delicate and complicated, even if you’re a seasoned marketer. Situations and business changes will test the best of the best marketers.
However, starting a business is the best marketing. It forces you to implement your marketing ideas. It’s the connection between theory and results.
If you haven’t started a business, you should try to work for a small business. Or, you can start something small. More than all the other things on this list, starting a business is the best way to improve your marketing skills. It forces you to learn.
#2. Copywork
Copywork is one of the tricks used to learn writing. Writing is one of trying ways you can sell an idea to people. People write emails, letters, newspaper ads, and other forms of writing to convince others to take specific actions.
The process of copy work is to write/copy someone else’s write-up by hand to learn how the ideas are phrased. It forces you to observe the pattern, rhythm, and cadence. Because quality writing is not usually what you say but how you say it.
Research even says strong writing skills improve your communication skills. In other words, if you know how to sell with writer’s copy, you will get better at videos or conversations.
So, how do you go about it?
By picking the best ads or write-ups, you have ever come across and rewriting them by hand. Be patient and read as you go about it.
Trust me when I say it. You will notice a lot of things as you write.
Though it doesn’t directly make you how to be a good marketer, it teaches one aspect of it, which is writing. You can master the rest through the other things recommended in his post.
#3. Study Trend
Yesterday, I checked Google Trends to see the trend in ‘artificial intelligence.” And it’s great to know that it’s gone up so high.
Everyone at this point in 2023 wants to know the direction of Artificial intelligence is heading.
Trend gives you deeper insight into user behaviors and needs.
A lot of trends have birthed new ideas.
I once read that the average reader will read the introduction of an article and bounce 70% of the time. This idea has pushed some bloggers to summarize their posts after the introduction often. Some choose to write a magnetic introduction that will likely keep readers curious.
I also read that Amazon discovered that the average romance reader reads up to five books per month. Book lovers even read more than that. This trend brought about the creation of subscription-based reading called Kindle Unlimited. Instead of buying five books, Amazon gives them a better choice. How about paying a fixed price so you can read as many books as you want?
So, how can you study trends? You can start with tools like Google Trends, Ahref, and Semrush. If you have a website, keyword research will give you insight into what people are curious about.
You can also subscribe to a newsletter that provides insights about marketing trends or news about your industry or niche.
#4. Follow The Expert
Depending on your industry, find the thought leaders and follow them. Some of them are on Twitter, Linkedin, or Substack. They write about their experience and ideas for their followers to learn from. This exercise can save you years or hours of work by picking the brains of people who know better than you.
#5. Do Some Homework
This is one of the differentiators between the better learner and the average reader or follower. Some will do the extra work and practicalize what they have heard.
Did you just read about keyword research? Use the lessons to start your blog.
Are you learning about the concept of storytelling? Why not pick your laptop and write a story?
I have just told you about Copywork. Will you try it today? It will take ten minutes or less.
#6. Be obsessed with one industry (not marketing as an industry)
Some of the best marketers are often players in certain sectors. Most industries have specific dynamics, so it will be hard to take the lessons from one field and apply them to another.
So, what are the skills needed for marketing? 1) Active playing in one industry for a long time. 2) Experimenting continuously and learning in the said niche.
So, pick an industry and be obsessed with it. Study it. Read everything you can about it. Try things out.
#7. Read
Find quality books in your industry and human psychology and read them. Marketing books are great, too. However, if I hire a marketer, I want someone who understands human psychology much more. Marketing and psychology have a lot in common: they study humans. Understanding one helps you understand the other.
#8. Start
You have read all the activities in this post. Some are easy to begin. Others, like ‘starting a business,’ will require time, finance, and effort.
You have to start now. You can’t master marketing in a few days or months. It’s a consistent journey of, say, decades. So, you need to start now.
Because the best marketers show portfolios, not theories. They bring results. And that’s how to improve marketing skills.