It's been eight years since I started working. My first job was as an engineer, then I moved through project manager, sales, and marketing roles. I have a technical background, with a master's degree in Electronic Information Engineering from Beihang University, and I've been in marketing for five years. I've done "pretty well," rising to a senior position at a new social interactive marketing company called Shiqu, leaving as Vice President of Marketing, and then founding my own company, Yingchuang Technology. My former boss, Zhang Rui, commented that I'm the "rare person with balanced left and right brain development" he's ever met. However, I believe this wasn't innate. Rather, it came from mastering a systematic set of learning methods and habits suitable for marketers that foster balanced left and right brain development. Today, I'm writing these out as 11 tips for marketing "newbies," for all of us to share and encourage each other. 1 Build a Knowledge Framework When entering a new field, I believe the fastest way is to build a framework through reading. For example, when learning sales, there's the famous solution-based selling method; When learning marketing, there's the comprehensive and systematic masterpiece "Marketing Management." I work in social media marketing. But for systematic learning, I'm actually anti-social media. Or rather, social media is characterized by new and fast content, but it's also unsystematic and can easily bring anxiety. For example: Many people entering marketing are stumped by creativity and get lost in the self-congratulatory game of chasing social media trends. Actually, for idea generation, James Webb Young's classic booklet "A Technique for Producing Ideas," published in the 1940s, states: An idea is a new combination of old elements. 2 Don't Blindly Follow Gurus Many people habitually chase gurus, engaging in various exchanges, networking, and ingratiating themselves with almost religious fervor. But in the marketing field, apart from Philip Kotler and the recently deceased Jack Trout, there aren't really any so-called "gurus." The internet is now full of various gurus, and their various statements haven't been repeatedly validated. It's not that they don't make sense, but they are just one person's opinion. Their so-called "techniques" and "methods" may not apply in different times, spaces, consumer environments, and competitive contexts. It's fine to listen, but to absorb and use them, you still need independent thinking and judgment. 3 Stay Humble and Patient The most common issue I see among young friends is having grand goals but getting disheartened at the first sign of difficulty. To put it nicely, their ideals and actual actions never match; to put it bluntly, they have high aims but low abilities. People tend to overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in five years. 4 Learn by Doing Marketing is a practical discipline. Marketing is a practical discipline. Marketing is a practical discipline. Important things need to be said three times. Many people read a lot but do little, constantly talking about "user experience," thinking they already know it all. But when they write a promotional line, it shows: "This is my friend's shop, please take care!" "Please help share this, forward it to friends in need!" Who are you talking to? Why should others care? Why should they share? What about user benefits? 5 Think Diligently From the daily work list, to each project, to the planning before starting any task, handling changes midway, and reviewing after completion, thinking and summarizing are indispensable. My experience is that between thinking and doing, I might spend over 50% of my energy on thinking. This is the soul of continuous improvement. We should learn through listening, observing, and thinking. We must study through listening, observing and thinking. As long as people are willing to think seriously, all the world's difficult problems can be solved. All the problems of the world could be settled easily if only men were willing to think. 6 Be Good at Summarizing From small things like brainstorming, weekly reports, and monthly summaries, to larger tasks like event planning, project reviews, closing reports, quarterly plans, and annual plans, all are opportunities for self-improvement through summarization. Unfortunately, many people see these as painful "tasks" assigned by superiors. 7 Develop Habits Some people habitually get up at 6 am to exercise, some habitually sit quietly when thinking, some habitually think through difficult problems while running. Some habitually plan the next week's work on Sunday evening, then sleep peacefully, and walk into the office calmly and orderly on Monday morning. It varies from person to person; the most important thing is to find your own rhythm for improving efficiency. 8 Force Yourself to Read, Exercise, and Rest Many marketing professionals either have a habit of staying up late or overextend themselves in trivial work. Time is always, always insufficient, especially for those who want to achieve something and gain more accomplishments. So, which times must be set aside? Reading, exercise, and rest. Why? Because only by doing these things, no matter how many difficulties you encounter in work and life, can you enter a positive cycle. 9 Develop Daily Habits, but Periodically Break Through Difficulties This is very much like the daily operations and campaigns in marketing activities. Daily habits and operations solve the problems of systematization and foundation-building. Some difficult problems need to be tackled in stages. For example, concentrate on writing for a period, concentrate on completing a project for a period... 10 Be Your Own Teacher In reality, from the day you leave the ivory tower, you can only be your own teacher. Colleagues, mentors, leaders, company training, external lectures... can only help you solve learning problems in one aspect, but systematic learning can only be done by yourself. Don't take it for granted that because you're young, you don't know, so you need to be taught. In fact, the smart and accomplished people I know never wait for others to teach them knowledge. 11 Supplement Spiritual Nourishment Xu Sanduo from "Soldiers' Sortie" is nourishment. "Dangal" is nourishment. The entrepreneurial stories of Elon Musk and Steve Jobs are nourishment. Excellent friends in life, "hero stories" of overcoming difficulties are nourishment. An optimistic person can absorb beneficial nourishment from the environment and others' stories, and grow rapidly. People always need to keep learning and break through their own cognition; otherwise, what's the difference between living one day and living one year? In this sense, I too am always a newbie. My definition of a newbie is: someone who dares to self-criticize and adjust, self-iterate and update, and break through their past experiences and cognition. May we always be new-style marketers, marketing "newbies," and progress together! Appendix: 10 Recommended Books for Marketing Newbies (1) "Marketing Management" (2) "Positioning" (3) "The Origin of Brands" (4) "The Copywriter's Handbook" (5) "A Technique for Producing Ideas" (6) "The Non-Designer's Design Book" (7) "The McKinsey Way" (8) "The Art of Thinking" (9) "Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration" (10) "The Lean Startup" This article has been authorized for reprint. The copyright belongs to the original author. For reprinting, please contact the original public account for permission. -END-