Fractional CMO shares marketing motto that guide their work

Most people have a life motto. But do you have a motto for your work?

In this episode of the CMO Chat, Tanja and Tan share their favorite marketing mottos they always resort to when making big decisions.

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Tan

All right. This is CMO Chat. I'm Tan.

Tanja

And I'm Tanja.

Tan

Okay, Tanja. Then I would like to ask you, do you have a favorite one line motto when it comes to marketing?

Tanja

Something that I live and work by.

Tan

Yeah. That's something that you always try to, whenever you last you come back to.

Tanja

Yes, I do have. I have two. So one that I always come back to is Done is better than perfect. Because I tend to overthink.

Tan

Very useful

Tanja

Because I tend to overcomplicate things, And make them more complicated than they should be. But I've learned to always come back to the sentence like and say that, okay, we need to get this done. We need to get it done within a certain time frame. It won't be perfect, but it will be done. Because very often, you will not have the perfect outcome at your first try, not even at the second, the third or the 10th try.

But the only way to get better and the only way to test yourself forward is to just ship it. As they also say in the software industry. Just ship it and then make it better from there.

Tan

Yeah. Ship it first and then iterate.

Tan

Yes.

My one of my favorite one line mottos is… it's a line by David Ogilvy and it goes; Tell the truth, but make it fascinating. And I really like that because it's two parts. And most people forget the first part, which is tell the truth. They go straight to make it fascinating. So I'm going to to tell you my story. I'm going to make it fascinating. And I forget the truth.

But some people just tell the truth without adding the fascination. Whereas if you can do both parts equally. So I'm going to tell you something truthful, but I'm going to make it sound fascinating.

Tanja

Yeah.

Tan

So that's what I always try to do.

Tanja

Yeah, I love that. And the truth part is very important.

Tan

Yeah, so many people skip it. They go straight to; How can I make this sound fascinating? Tell the truth, but make it fascinating.

And did you say you have another one?

Tanja

Yes, I do. Which is; meet people where they're at. And I think especially in marketing, when you communicate whatever you're doing, you tend to forget that your customers are looking from the outside perspective into your company. So you have to really understand where are they on their bias journey? Where are they in their life, in their business, and so on.

Because only then you will be able to craft a right communication, the right messaging to meet those people. So meet people where they're at, and that might not necessarily be in the same place where you're at.

Tan

I like that. Yeah. Go to them. Make the move. Great. We could talk about this all day, but I'm going to end it here. So, thank you, Tanja.