You're drowning in marketing tactics (and it's killing your career) 🌊

Feb 14, 2025

Most marketers spend their careers collecting tactics. ❌

But here’s what nobody tells you: Top marketers ignore all that.

They play a completely different game.

They hunt for ideas. ✅

Let me show you what I mean.

Tactics have an expiration date 📅

The moment a tactic works → everyone copies it → it stops working.

That’s why:

The half-life of marketing tactics is getting shorter and shorter.

But ideas? They’re timeless.

The career ladder in marketing looks like this:

Most marketers NEVER make it past tactical innovation because they’re too busy:

It’s not about your level, years of experience, or whether you’re in a leadership role. It’s about always looking for ideas (instead of tactics).

The secret to finding breakthrough marketing ideas is simple...

Stop asking HOW and start asking WHY:

💌 Instead of asking tactical questions like: “How should we do our email marketing?” → Ask idea questions like: “Why would someone actually want to hear from us?”
👤 Instead of: “How do we make customers talk about us on social?” → Ask: “Why do people share things with friends?”
🧑‍💻 Instead of: “How do we get more signups?” → Ask: “Why would someone take a chance on something new?”

I noticed this extremely simple pattern while interviewing marketers from companies like MongoDB, Duolingo, and Figma.

The most successful marketers didn’t start with HOW to do marketing.

They started with WHY ↓

Each “why” led to an idea that spawned dozens of successful tactics.

Don’t worry - you’re on the right track. You’re reading this newsletter because you hunt for ideas, not just tactics.

That’s what the top 1% of marketers do.

Look at previous ideas we’ve explored together:

The gap between $80k and $250k is not about working harder. It’s about focusing on marketing ideas. And you’re on the right path.

See you next week ✌️

Tom

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