May the Fourth Be with You - The Rise of the Jedi Marketer

On Star Wars day, let’s look at the traits required to become a Jedi marketer. The Force is strong with this one!

Happy Star Wars day!

Yoda was deceptively small, yet he was the most powerful Jedi Master. While doing a rerun of Star Wars, I could draw many similarities between Stoicism and Yoda’s teachings, which are very effective to navigate through any subject or area of life.

And since it’s May the fourth, Star Wars day, we are visiting Dagobah to learn the ways of the Force from Yoda. Here are six essential skills to become a Jedi marketer.

In a galaxy far, far away...

Note: In this article, we will not look at hard or soft skills required for your job. Instead, let’s understand the implicit skills that would enable you to become a better marketer altogether.

1. The Value of Patience

In marketing, there are no shortcuts. Many marketers make the classic mistake of implementing a process or activity and expecting immediate results. You can’t rank for a specific keyword in a day or build a dedicated community of users overnight. You need to plan out the whole thing thoroughly and take one step at a time.

Luke impatiently decides to leave Dagobah to save Han and Leia in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. While persuading Luke to stay back and complete his training, Yoda says, “If you end your training now, if you choose the quick and easy path as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil.”

While you may think that acting impatiently or on a whim could bring you results, the universe doesn’t work that way. Many dubious tacticians will provide quick fix shortcuts that promise instant results, but we know such solutions don’t last long.

The digital marketing industry is particularly notorious for utilizing unethical tactics like black hat SEO, link buying, spamming, plagiarism, unethical web scraping, and so on.

Such tactics look tempting as they deliver the desired outcomes in a short span. But remember what Yoda said in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones,

Also Read: What are the Must-Have Skills of a MarTech Manager?
 

2. Be Adaptable

You can’t stop the change, any more than you can stop the suns from setting.

Shmi Skywalker, the mother of Anakin, said this before Anakin moves away from Tatooine to train and become a Jedi.

Marketing is a dynamic field where you’re always on your toes. Updates and algorithm changes are constantly introduced, and you can’t always stick to your way of doing things and expect better results.

Being highly adaptable will make it easy to get accustomed to change, but how do you make yourself adaptable? We cover that in the next point.

Also Read: Five Must Have Skills to Work in MarTech/Adtech

3. Train Like a Jedi

In Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back while training in the ways of the Force by Yoda, Luke sees his X-wing Starfighter sinking in a wetland and is pessimistic about getting it out, but Yoda pushes him. Luke grows agitated and says, “Master, moving stones around is one thing, but this is totally different!” — to this Yoda replies, “No! No different! Only different in your mind! You must unlearn what you have learned.”

To become a Jedi marketer, you must keep an open mind, read voraciously, unlearn the obsolete skills and gain new knowledge and MarTech skills that would make you more valuable. For this to happen, become a relentless learner. Always be in the pursuit of taking new courses, reading domain specific books and trying out new things. Make A/B testing your ally.

4. Develop a Fierce Bias Towards Action

Yoda persuades Luke to get the X-wing out of the swamp. Luke reluctantly agrees and says he’ll give it a try. At this moment, Yoda says something that will stick with us for the eons to come - “Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.”

A Jedi marketer develops a bias towards action. It’s not enough to gather immense knowledge; they find ways to implement what they have learned in their work.

Let go of that obsession to be perfect all the time and act faster. Did you just stumble upon a tactic that would amplify the reach of your blog? Implement it! The quicker you win or fail, the sooner you will understand what works and what doesn’t.

Also Read: Critical Skills of a Customer Experience Specialist in 2018 : From the Experts

5. Share Your Knowledge

When gone am I, the last of the Jedi will you be. The Force runs strong in your family. Pass on what you have learned.

These are the last parting words of Yoda to Luke in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

Prof. Richard Feynman was a Nobel Prize winning Physicist who developed a simple method known as the Feynman Technique lets you analyze whether you have really understood a concept. It consists of the following steps:

Step 1: Decide on a concept

Step 2: Explain it to a toddler (or to a friend or colleague, or write it down)

Step 3: Review your explanation, find out what you’re missing out and go back to the source material

Step 4: Simplify the concept

Once you have mastered the art of Jedi marketing, do not keep it to yourself. Share your gift with others.

You could conduct a seminar, start a blog, create video courses, or record podcasts to share your knowledge. The opportunities are practically endless.

Use the Force

So, what does it take to become a Jedi marketer? It starts by mastering the three pillars of the Jedi strength — Force, Knowledge, and Self-discipline.

Although the Force is an abstract/metaphysical concept in the Star Wars universe, for marketers it is the cognizance of the fundamental principles of Marketing. Knowledge and self-discipline will allow you to master the necessary MarTech skills that would, in turn, enable you to act on the beliefs to reach your goals.

May the force be with you!

What are the other skills, in your opinion, to become a Jedi marketer? Tell us on Twitter or LinkedIn or Facebook!