GB Ep 3: The Truth Behind Whether Modern Marketers Should Know How to Code

Welcome to another edition of Growth Bites. Today we’re talking about if coding is really necessary or not for the modern marketer. Is it a must-have skill? I’ll also dive right into what it takes to be a great modern marketer.

Show Notes:

Part I

  • Don’t worry if you don’t have coding skills. I previously worked at an online technology start-up that taught people how to code and do web design, but I actually didn’t have any of those skills. [1:25]
  • I wanted to help grow a company that was trying to help change the world, while learning how to do coding and web design at the same time. [1:42]
  • To date, I only have basic CMS and HTML skills. So my short answer to whether or not modern marketers need coding is “No.” [2:02]
  • Many marketers I know like Neil Patel, Noah Kagan, Sean Ellis don’t know how to code. [2:14]
  • You need to understand the objectives of a product and a good user experience. [2:31]
  • Go on sites like Product Hunt to understand the nuances and how things are changing. [2:49]
  • A great marketer is understanding the new trends going on and what your competitors are doing. [3:00]
  • Knowing how to code and make small changes to your website can save some time, but can also break things and is taking a big risk. [3:10]
  • Hire specialized talent like designers or developers to do the work for you and go into depth. [3:45]

Part 2

  • How do you become a good modern marketer? You need to go out and get your feet wet. [4:29]
  • I started my career in search engine optimization before all the crazy Panda updates came out. [4:37]
  • I went on to study other disciplines in marketing like paid advertising, conversion and content marketing among others. [4:57]
  • Start-ups need well-rounded people with a variety of marketing knowledge. The ideal growth hacker understands multiple disciplines and decent at all of them with a speciality in at least one. [5:24]
  • It’s up to you as the growth hacker to make things work from management to metrics. [5:30]
  • Growth hacking requires hungry learners who can act as Jack of All Trades. [6:30]
  • To get started as a modern marketer, focus on one specialty work. [7:11]
  • Continue to read and absorb everything about growth hackers like GrowthHackers.com, Inbound.org, Redditt marketing, Quibb, OKDork,  Andrew Chen. [7:19]
  • If you’re a marketer; test, test, test and be able to figure out if people are b.s’ing you. [8:15]

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