5 Situations Where You’re Learning
Our industry evolves and technology changes. Best practices change and shift and it’s important to keep up. Plus, if you’re always learning, it keeps your job from getting too repetitive! ABL is my mantra, and you can embody it easier than you think. Here are 5 situations where you’re learning.
When you start
Learning something for the first time can be a lot of different things: exciting, overwhelming, and some combination of those emotions. But, it’s never too late to learn something for the first time. This could be a tool like a new analytics platform or a new update from social media (like when Instagram allowed links to Stories or introduced Reels). The good thing about this type of learning is that you’re all doing it at the same time! When something is released there is an even playing field, so learn by doing. Play around with a new tool, read up on it, and don’t be afraid to experiment.
When you go deeper
You don’t (and can’t) be an expert on everything, but sometimes it’s worth it to take a deeper dive into something you’re either currently learning or something you want to learn about. For example, maybe you have a baseline understanding of SEO, but you want to truly understand the ins and outs, best practices, and implementation behind it. Take a free online course, look for online college courses, or find training. You can also tap into your network (or colleagues) and see if anyone is an expert and would be willing to teach you.
When you apply something
When you actually start to apply and implement something, oftentimes it’s trial by fire. Something may (or will) go wrong at some point, but that’s the learning experience. Maybe you didn’t realize the importance of a certain email field or audience segmentation until you didn’t get the results you wanted on your last campaign. You might have applied new knowledge of email marketing, but now you’ve learned why you always have to A/B test the headline. That’s the learning!
When things go wrong
Sometimes failures become the best lessons. Why? Well, first, it forces you to examine what went wrong and why. Digging into the issue(s) allows you to come up with what you would do differently next time. While it’s not fun to fail, it’s a clear example of what doesn’t work and forces you to think about, research, and come up with a new plan.
When things change
As I said, in marketing things are always changing. There are always new platforms or features rolling out, new best practices to experiment with, and new competitors to contend with. Marketing is all about people, and people change their minds and preferences all the time. So, as a marketer, you have to be flexible and willing to learn new things all the time. The best thing to remember is that learning can be fun and it will open you up to new possibilities and opportunities.
