CXL Minidegree Review: The Underrated Skills Every Growth Marketer Needs

This is my fifth week learning from the CXL Growth Marketing minidegree program. In this review, I am going to share some of the most underrated skills every growth marketer should have equipped him- or herself with.

Such skills are underrated because marketing has long been a discipline that is misunderstood by many people, partially and completely. Many think marketing is advertising. Some think marketing is a simple act of putting a funny cat photo online. I wish marketing could be that simple and fun too (cat photos are always welcome)!

Marketing is a broad discipline and that is why having a holistic approach and seeing the bigger picture can take results up a notch.

Marketing Strategy

The Marketing Strategy module is taught by Lindsey Christensen, CMO of thoughbot, and is actually placed in the further end of the program, which I find logical. You cannot build a strategy without in-depth understanding of tools and channels available.

Strategizing does not only limit to senior and management, but also applies to marketing generalists or specialists. Same as ‘selling’, we may all be strategizing daily without realizing. Naturally, as human beings, there are always personal and emotional factors that influence us, but from spending the least time on commuting to work to preparing a hearty breakfast for family while handling other housework, we generally are looking into ways to perform our desire smartly.

Strategizing may be someone’s natural talent but it is definitely trainable through practice. I like how Lindsey makes frameworks humane and approachable. Doing a SWOT analysis is actually examining the circumstance of the company through narrative. Here, of course she does not mean we should make things up. Storytelling is a human tradition. Stories help humans comprehend or even just remember complex issues. Instead of listing every piece of information blindly, we should always take the bigger picture into account.

PR

PR and marketing get easily mixed up as there is overlapping between these two disciplines. CXL Institute includes a short module on PR in this minidegree program to shed light onto the importance of PR. This course is taught by Ray Young, president of Razor Sharp Public Relations.

I see this course as a reminder for marketers to evaluate their approach. Of course before taking any actions, it is always important to have a marketing strategy. There is nothing wrong if all types of communication is coming from the company itself (own media), but having a good media portfolio (earned media) can bring more depth and breadth to the company and its products or services.

With the increasing digital presence of companies and interactions with consumers, marketers may somehow have already handled PR unintentionally. Take social media as an example, marketers may need to react to a ‘crisis’ if there is an outlash of negative comments from customers.

Despite some overlapping functions, marketers cannot replace PR as the craft of writing and handling media requires practices. Therefore, having a professional PR on the team is still very important. Understanding the fundamentals of PR helps create a bigger picture of communications, so marketers can be enterprising, and use the digital channels smartly.

Excel For Marketers

Excel For Marketers is taught by Fred Pike, the Managing Director of Northwoords Software, who has been using electronic spreadsheets for a long time. Excel is important to marketers simply due to the fact that data can be exported into the format of spreadsheet from all online analytic tools, which Pike has also stated in the intro video.

Once again, like the instructor of Google Analytics Chris Mercer, Pike instructs in a very clear and engaging manner that he makes data analytic tool fun. I personally find Excel fun, but I have also heard many friends and acquaintances dodge away from Excel as numbers are ‘scary’.

Teaching an ‘apparently scary’ subject is not an easy job as instructors need to remove students’ negative perception and assumption first, especially such fear may have rooted in students’ minds for years. That is why I admire the abilities of these instructors. Both Mercer and Pike show how we can use these number tools instantly after the lesson to create insights. Such actionable steps are utterly important because it is these tiny victorious moments that motivate learners to move forward.

It is very nice of him to teach the usage of both Excel and Sheet equally long, as both tools do function slightly differently. Agreeing with Pike, I also find Excel provides the smoothest experience for organizing and playing with data, yet, with the increase in remote working and cloud services available, many organizations have adopted using Google Sheets instead.

Thoughts on CXL Pedagogical Approach

I believe that one is a true master of the subject matter when one is able to explain it in a simple manner and without jargoon. The art of teaching is never easy indeed.

Remember the days when we tried to explain something to colleagues from other teams? It can be very natural of us to execute certain actions but enabling another person doing the same through understanding the mechanism requires time, patience and skills! All courses instructors in this minidegree program have nailed this aspect down. Maybe this comes from their extensive experiences in explaining marketing to clients?

All courses content is layered with deep consideration so the flow of learning experience is smooth. So much deep information has been explained within a short time frame, yet such information has turned into knowledge as learners are not overwhelmed.

Thinking further, the ability to teach is actually very important for leadership. Without good explaining skills, it would be difficult for teams to carry out the vision and mission introduced by the management and senior level.

With proper instruction, reaching a learning or professional outcome is no longer mission impossible.

You can find my previous reviews here:

(Week 1) CXL Growth Marketing Minidegree Review 2021: How a Marketer Can Grow

(Week 2) CXL Minidegree Review: The Future of Digital Marketing

(Week 3) CXL Minidegree Revew: Demysting Growth Hacking

(Week 4) CXL Minidegree Review: The Fundamental Questions for Every Marketer