Is Diverse Thought Key to Better Marketing?

Ben
Welcome back to another episode of Content Amplified. Today I'm joined by Christine. Christine, welcome to the show.

Christine Page
Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

Ben
Christine, I'm excited about this and your background is extremely relevant to the subject today. Maybe before we dive into the subject, let's get to know you a little bit. What do you love about content and marketing? What's your background and career? Let's get to know you for a minute.

Christine Page
So like many marketers out there, I'm sure I kind of came into marketing sideways. I got my start in the social sciences and actually dabbled a little in film. Then I worked my way into copywriting through a love of writing.

I found that my education in the social sciences lent itself to marketing pretty easily. I expanded from there, got more involved with agency life, and now work internally for a company. It's been a great, fun journey.

Diversity of Thought in Marketing

Ben
I love it. Today I'm excited about the subject. We're really going to talk about how to bring in a diversity of thought and backgrounds and how that benefits your marketing. It's so funny, I was joking with Christine beforehand about the word 'interdisciplinary.' I was like, I'm going to butcher that word. And of course, I did. But really, how do you bring this diversity of thought and background into marketing and make it a benefit?

What are your initial thoughts on that? How does this way of thinking and really taking this into account when you're trying to do marketing make it better and benefit your marketing?

Christine Page
Yeah, that's a great question. I think, at least from my experience, being a successful marketer is about being a good listener and a good absorber of information. By taking more of an interdisciplinary approach to marketing, it just lets you have more insightful conversations with people internally and externally.

It helps you, especially if you're in the agency world, to know where your audience is and the words they are using. This approach lets you have a more insider look into speaking with them, connecting with them, and engaging with them.

The Importance of Understanding Your Audience

Ben
I love that. Every person has so many different layers of who they are, what they think about, and what's important. Sometimes, when we build these personas of people, they're very one-dimensional. For example, this is John. John has this job, John worries about this job. But we forget that John has passions and hobbies. If you're going to find John through online advertising, he's probably going to be on a guitar website, and the way to connect with John is through music or something like that.

So, if I have a lot of background, can I build a more holistic picture of someone? When you're looking at it, how do you take these advantages, like these unique insights and personalities, and logistically harness that into better marketing?

Christine Page
A lot of it is just learning how your audience speaks and adapting that yourself. It's about putting yourself in their shoes. Whenever I'm coming up with blogs or content initiatives, I'm really thinking about that holistic picture of the audience and asking, "Would this resonate with them?" or "Do we need to look at this from a different angle?"

For me, it's usually about putting myself in their shoes.

Hiring for Diverse Perspectives

Ben
I love that. A lot of times, when we talk about this, it's also around hiring into marketing. Some of the best people that ever came into the marketing department where I've worked had philosophy backgrounds, or all sorts of different majors. How have you found it beneficial to utilize the team and the diversity of interests and thoughts on the team to really improve your marketing capabilities?

Christine Page
I think having that variety of perspectives on a marketing team is so important. Not only does it give you more inspiration, but you can also have more big-picture conversations with your team. Instead of focusing solely on the KPIs and textbook marketing strategies that we all know, you can get different perspectives from different spaces.

This variety gives you new and creative ideas that you can try. Maybe they work, maybe they don't, but that's where testing comes in. Getting a variety of opinions and ideas can really inspire some creative marketing strategies.

Applying Social Sciences to Marketing

Ben
I love it. You specifically have psychology, cognitive science, film, and all that stuff in your background. How have those benefited you in marketing? We talk about consumer psychology sometimes and things like that. How have you been able to take that degree in social science and apply it to marketing? What principles have really made a difference from your education days?

Christine Page
A lot of it for me comes down to human behavior. It's about trying to consolidate all the data we get on the marketing side—open rates, click-through rates, and all that stuff—and seeing what that actually translates to on the consumer side. What are they doing? Are they overloaded? Is there too much text here? Are we inundating them with too much?

Do we need to take a more casual approach? My education has helped me see the interaction of behavior with the marketing data and all those things that we are so used to looking at.

Analyzing Data with a Human Perspective

Ben
I love your description there. It seems like, and I don't have a psychology degree, so if I butcher this, I apologize. But psychologists do a really good job of taking data and understanding human behavior from that. Sometimes in marketing, we look at the clicks, and those things, and we don't take it that extra step to say, "Here's the behavior, experience, the feelings, the thoughts that they're going through."

Are you finding that that is directly applicable to what you're doing?

Christine Page
Absolutely. It's so easy to get lost in the numbers and say, "This is above a benchmark that we were trying to reach." We get caught up in the numbers and don't really see what's behind those numbers. Who are the people that we're communicating with? How are they responding to what we're putting in front of them?

My social sciences background has helped me look at the data a little differently. It really comes down to seeing your clients or customers as humans. They're trying to do their jobs too, and we want to engage them in a way that makes sense for them.

Continuing Education in Marketing

Ben
Yeah, I love that. Let's say someone like me, who actually has a marketing degree—I know I'm weird—wants to build a more varied background. I want to dive into social sciences or have this unique perspective. Any thoughts on continuing education? I know sometimes that's very medical, like getting your credits for healthcare, but what about ongoing learning that's not just a HubSpot or Google Analytics certification?

What are your thoughts on justifying the time and resources? What have you done that's been helpful for you to develop some of those skill sets, even though the university days are past and you're well into your career?

Christine Page
Absolutely, that's a great question. Of course, there are certifications and courses—there's no shortage of those out there—and I'm not saying we shouldn't take them. Those are always an option. But I do think there are plenty of other ways to expand your horizons and adopt more of an interdisciplinary approach to marketing.

One way I started doing it was by expanding my LinkedIn network and following people in the spaces I was working in or maybe just outside. Then I went even wider, following a whole array of people to see what they're doing in their industry and what they’re responding to. Having conversations with those people can also be very helpful in giving you that outside perspective.

Just reading, honestly. That's both fun and it expands your horizons even more. I am a firm believer that you don't have to keep reading marketing books. You don't even have to pick up a psychology book necessarily. Even reading fiction can expand your mind a little bit and get the juices going so you can channel that into some really cool stuff.

The Value of Reading Fiction

Ben
I love that. I love the plug for reading. I'm an Audible-holic. I'm a big fan of Audible because I don't have as much time to sit down and read anymore, but I love to be able to listen while I'm taking care of things or driving. I'm not sure where the statistic came from, but apparently, reading fiction helps you develop an insane amount of empathy.

It helps you put yourself in someone else's shoes, learn what they're learning, because you're kind of in their head for that book. I think as marketers, the more empathy we can have, the better off we are interacting, selling to, and working with other people. I love that. I think that makes a lot of sense.

Building Customer Relationships

Ben
From your experience, you know, okay, you have a variety of backgrounds, you're incorporating it into different things. How are you getting to know the customer and taking these varieties of backgrounds and applying them to your relationships with customers? How do you really connect and build opportunities for content, marketing, and overall presence and brand inside of the industry?

Christine Page
The biggest part has been learning where our audience lives and getting a better idea of the things that matter to them and the problems they have. I try to keep any content I produce focused on solving or addressing a problem. By being able to see the customer from all the different angles, you can see what their pain points might be.

If you go on Reddit, for example, you can almost find exact questions that people are searching for. If you can then go write a blog that answers those questions and get it in front of your audience in the place that matters to them, I think that's going to be better than just pulling keywords and writing for those keywords.

Ben
I love it, I love it. That's really cool. Well, Christine, as promised, these episodes go by fast and we're running out of time. But before we close it off, if anyone wants to connect and continue the conversation online, where can they find you and how can they connect with you?

Christine Page
The best place is probably LinkedIn. I'm pretty active on there. I don't post much myself, but I am always reading and looking around. So feel free to shoot me a message and I'd love to chat about different trajectories in marketing and where you get your inspiration and resources from.

Ben
I love it, I love it, a consumer of LinkedIn. Well, we'll link to your profile in the show notes so everyone can find it. Again, Christine, thank you so much for your time and insights today.

Christine Page
Thank you. Appreciate it.

‍

‍