5 Habits That Will Skyrocket Your Digital Marketing Skills

[Image description: Two busy-bee workers who live inside a giant pie chart are whipping up forecast trend graphs to predict their coming months of marketing.]

These 5 habits are a combo of tried and true marketing methods plus new practices that will mix up your routine and challenge you to think in new ways about marketing and social media.

Table of contents

1. Stop marketing, start listening

2. Credit others and you'll get shared

3. Do the right kind of research

4. Start collaborating with the most creative people

5. Get in a creative flow

1. Stop marketing, start listening

One of the most powerful ways to market yourself is to stop marketing yourself and start taking an interest in others.

Take a break from creating content and spend some time absorbing and engaging with content other people create. Take a break from jamming in as many hashtags as possible and take some time to refine and explore those hashtags and what other people are posting on them (the follow those people, it’s good for the algorithm). Take a break from blasting messages on Facebook and listen to what other people are sharing.

Take all of this information in, and develop it into the next, up-leveled iteration of your marketing. Create more specific and engaging content. Create more deep relationships and collaborations. Share more of what people are asking for, than what you want them to ask for. Once you’ve done a good listening period then go back to posting. It’s like taking a little retreat.

2. Credit others and you’ll get shared

This is a particularly actionable tip when you’re on social media. Tag others, quote others, give them credit where you can and they may share your posts. For example I've learned a huge amount about marketing from Jonathan Fields, Seth Godin, Marie Forleo, Simon Sinek, and recently from Kelsey Formost. Each one of these creators is amazing and spends their time giving away so much material that I want to properly credit them for the skills they've taught me.

On Instagram the biggest leaps in number of followers happen because of exposure, which is what happens when someone with a larger following shares your content. This is an aspect of collaboration and networking. Start following people you look up to. Repost their material, tag them, get on their roadmap. While you’re doing that, keep putting out good content, and you’ll have something worth sharing! Who do you look up to? Who do you want to share your material?

3. Do the right kind of research

I’m going to be totally honest with you. And I haven’t told anybody this before. There are certain times when I intentionally avoid doing competitive research. Why would I do that? Because comparing can be a counterproductive activity when taken too far, and I am 100% a person who takes things to the extreme. If you compare yourself into a hole you’ll end up feeling completely unoriginal and like you’ll never become successful because so many others are doing what you’re doing. But nobody is doing what YOU are doing. The more you realize that the more you’ll see how very unique you are. And from that sight will come clear messaging for your customers to understand how unique you are.

Over-researching can kill your inspiration and thus your business. So learn when to stop researching and start creating. Now that I’ve shared that I want to encourage you to so lots of research on your field, your colleagues, and your audience. Find out what they’re doing and how you can position yourself uniquely. Now tell me, what makes you unique? Don’t think too hard, just go for what’s on top of mind!

4. Start collaborating with the most creative people

The most creative people in the world are waiting for you to collaborate with them. Why? Because you are one of the worlds most creative people as well. Creativity is the ultimate marketing skill and the ultimate business skill. Don’t be fooled by all the nitty gritty details. Don’t get discouraged by pompous folks skilled in jargon. Uncreative people will always try to sell you on flat marketing tools that won’t actually raise your entire business to the next level. The real level up is in creativity, and in collaboration with other creatives. It is only here that you can discover new unfilled markets, discover unique messaging, discover how to reach people thought unreachable. So go find others who inspire you.

Where do you find the world’s most creative people? If I can find them during a smoke-filled pandemic, anyone can find them. They’re all around you. The way to find creative people is to start talking about your passions. Reach out to new people. Ask friends to make introductions. Join online courses and become part of new communities. Replace your small talk with what lights you up. Tell everyone about what you want to be doing with your life deep down. Your enthusiasm will draw them in. Harmony Eichsteadt and I run an intimate community of folks who love meeting new people and collaborating. Check out our community. Then go make some friends!

5. Get in a creative flow

Start by taking the time to understand how you best work. For me that involves creating systems for creativity and then within those systems turning out a lot of material.

For example, I was having trouble figuring out what to post on Instagram. So I did some research on accounts that I really enjoy, and then I decided to make an Instagram generator for myself. I created parameters for types of posts that I would want to make as well as types of content, and then I went bananas. I planned out six months of daily posts.

Once I came up with a structure, it was easy to produce material, and in fact I can’t seem to stop coming up with new material. So figure out what you need to get in flow and become super creative. Do you geek out on structure the way that I do?