Lessons from MKT1’s Emily Kramer – InstantFollowerz

“Obsessed with quality” is who I am desire When I was 12 I had… but alas, I ended up with a bunch of Forever 21 t-shirts.

As it turns out, quality really does matter. Our master today — Emily Kramermarketer, investor and advisor for B2B startups in the growth phase (i MKT1 newsletter creator) — told me that her “obsession with quality” is why she’s been so successful in the newsletter space. (With 48 thousand subscribers and growing.)

Want to learn more? Read on to find out how the creator of the MKT1 newsletter “never misses” and her advice for all marketers who are “first-time” marketing leaders in their companies.

Why the creator of the MKT1 newsletter “never misses”.

1. Be prepared to tell leaders what to stop, start, and continue.

Kramer has been the “first” marketer four times at companies ranging from 10 to 300 employees, so my first question was easy: If you’re the first marketer at a company, where the hell are you supposed to start?

Kramer told me whether you’re a one-person team or running a 200-person marketing department, the answer is the same: prioritize, prioritize, prioritize.

“First, you have to figure out where you can win. Where can you stand out? Where will you have the biggest advantage over the competition? What channels make the most sense for your business?”

This translates to: Stop scrolling through TikTok for “inspiration” or convince yourself that an awesome giveaway newsletter will save the day. Start with what’s most important.

“You have to have a framework for how you prioritize – you have to put a stake in the ground about what you think is important and why. If you don’t, you’ll just be inundated with requests.”

One of Kramer’s moves when he joins a new company is to create a “start, stop, continue” plan. That way, executives can quickly see, “Oh, we already tried that,” or “We’re stopping this, and here’s why.”

By the way, your founder power just be too obsessed with the idea of ​​publishing ebooks on Amazon as “the next best marketing move”.

(I’m not speaking from experience or anything.)

2. To sell marketing to executives, match it with the product team.

“The biggest challenge in my career was selling marketing. Early in my career, I didn’t understand the delta between what I understood about marketing and what the founders or other teams knew about marketingsays Kramer.

I feel it: As someone who comes from a family of salespeople, I spend most of my Thanksgiving dinners trying to explain that brand awareness is still a valuable outcome.

Luckily, Kramer stumbled upon a metaphor that seems to work: She likes to tell founders and executives that marketing teams are like product teams… swimming sale.

A few key similarities: Both product and marketing are multidisciplinary; both have a portfolio of ideas and a map of the big things they plan to do; and both require a balance of optimizing certain features/campaigns — while launching new ones — to help the business grow.

Kramer also encourages marketers to make sure they know exactly what their founders are doing think about it it’s marketing.

“During the interview process, just ask the founder, ‘Hey, when you think about what marketers do, what’s the most important thing?’ Because what if they answer and say ‘fairs’ and you hate fairs?”

Her point is simple but sound: make sure your marketing vision aligns with your founder’s, or prepare for a long road of rejection and much less creative freedom.

3. Don’t create a newsletter if you have nothing interesting to say.

Kramer’s MKT1 newsletter success depends on one question: “Would I send this piece of content to everyone I know in the space?”

Kramer’s obsession with quality is evident in her newsletter cadence: While many marketers like to send newsletters on a weekly or even daily basis, Kramer prefers to send hers about twice a month. She only wants to send a newsletter if she says something new.

“People tell me ‘I never miss a beat’ with my newsletter – I don’t know if that’s true,” she adds with a wry smile. “I definitely miss it. But that obsession with quality is there.”

And she has some words of wisdom for anyone looking to create their own:If you don’t have a story to tell in a unique, compelling way – better than everyone else’s – you shouldn’t be doing itt. You can’t just say, ‘I want to start a newsletter’ and then put content in it. That’s not how it works.”