At some point in all our lives, we sit back and wonder how good we are at what we do. A number of things can bring about this potentially dangerous chain of thought, some as obvious as someone asking us the question, or something as disconnected as pulling a door that says "Push" and then wondering if you do the same with some tasks at your job.
At a marketing conferece a few months ago, I was introduced to a very creative marketer from the Asia Pacfiic region and he was introduced as "a damn good marketer."
Almost on instinct, I asked, "Oh! How good?"
A nervous silence followed after which he talked about a recently succesful campaign he was part of.
My immediate thought was to wonder that the entire campaign might have been his brainchild, but there are so many more elements that go into the creation and execution of the campaign, and doesn't the product/service itself also play a part in the whole cycle?
So is it fair for him to call himself a great marketer based on a successful campaign that involved 50 other people, an entire product and a host of other influences?
As a marketer, I've often thought about this. I've tried hard not to measure my worth based on a single campaign's execution, or on vanity metrics such as likes, shares and follows - but instead, on what people say about my work and the kind of feedback I get. The problem with that source of measurement is that I'm unable to quantify it.
According to the Social Marketer's Quiz, a 10-round quiz aimed at marketers that has been taken by more than 1,000 people so far, a marketer should be judged based on the following 10 broad areas:
- How well they engage with their audience.
- How good the content they create is.
- Their level of experise in Facebook marketing.
- Their general grasp of Marketing and Advertising.
- How ethical they are as a marketer.
- Their ability to handle a crisis.
- Their level of expertise in Twitter marketing.
- Their understanding and grasp on analytics.
- A mastery of Search Engine Optimization.
- General knowledge around social media.
It's hard to give marketers a level playing field - a platform where they simply answer questions or are given scenarios to react to.
For example, consider this question:
There are a million ways to respond to this (well, maybe 5) - and it would depend on the marketer on how to respond to this situation.
Some would flat out go ahead and delete the comment from the competitor, some would reply to the comment treating the competitor as a customer (sneaky, sneaky!) and some would ignore it. Some would react based on company guidelines - but everyone would have some kind of a response, even if it's passive.
And I feel that - is where a marketer's true worth comes out. In reacting to real life situations. It doesn't matter if the CTR on your ad is 1.04% or 1.98% - what really matters is how you swing a story in your favor, what kind of an idea you come up with to get your next product launch make some waves (no, I won't say viral) and how you react to bad customer feedback.
Marketing is a heavily qualitiative game, but with the advent of digital media, analytics is freely and easily available, thereby giving us a very interesting and informative analytical aspect as well.
Ever wondered how good you are at marketing? How did you measure it? Got an interesting way to find out? Would love to hear some responses!