Monthly Archives: April 2014

My Advice for a Soon-to-Be Marketing Graduate

By Dr. Laura Hills, Blue Pencil Institute, www.bluepencilinstitute.com

Online Marketing Key Can Be Blogs Websites Social Media And EmaiThis week, a marketing student from a local university wrote to me to ask for my thoughts about entering the field. Here’s what I told him. See if you agree:

Marketing is a fast moving train — a field that constantly evolves. What worked yesterday won’t necessarily work today and what worked today may not work tomorrow. So to do well as a marketer, you’ve got to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s going on and be willing and quick to change strategies.

Social media has been a game changer. Not all that long ago you needed loads of money to get people’s attention. Today anyone with an Internet connection who is smart and works at it is in the position to create marketing buzz and scoop up market share. That’s both exciting and scary.

There is creativity in marketing. But marketing relies on being very observant and cool-headed too. Past performance, focus groups, surveys, and other marketing tools can help you predict future outcomes. But these are only predictions. That’s where the creativity comes in. Every now and then someone comes along who breaks all the rules and captures the market. There is science to marketing. But there is also art.

A marketer can never sit on his or her laurels. You’re only as good as your latest effort. Marketing with passion is key to a long and successful career. Care about what you’re marketing, to whom, and why you’re marketing it. Otherwise you’ll spend your life selling more widgets no one needs and not living your passion.

Devote Your Life to Something Lasting

By Dr. Laura Hills, Blue Pencil Institute, www.bluepencilinstitute.com

Most of us want toHourglass be remembered for something positive after we are gone.That’s because the personal and professional legacy we leave behind for future generations serves for many of us as a kind of immortality.Our enduring legacy gives each us a way to create something or to influence people while we are alive so that we can endure, even long after we die. Most of us find that idea quite attractive. However, it can be challenging to craft and ensure our legacy when we’re caught up in day-to-day concerns. Legacy thinking requires bigger-picture thinking, and everyday concerns can easily derail us.

The time to start thinking about your legacy is right now. In fact, you can’t wait until your life is almost over to start thinking about your legacy – not if that legacy is ambitious and requires a lot of effort. Carve out some time soon to think about what you want your life to have meant when you’re gone. To what purpose can you devote yourself so that what you work on now and the days ahead lasts longer than you do? Then, make it your life’s mission to ensure and fulfill that legacy. Do this, and your life will be purposeful, fulfilling, and meaningful not only to you, but to the many people who will benefit from your legacy after you’re gone. Does legacy thinking seem morbid to you? It isn’t. It can actually be very uplifting. Try it and see.