When just starting out in marketing, nobody knows “their stuff.” There’s a world of learning ahead of you, but how can you do your job right, build your skills and demonstrate your value?

Some of the biggest names in the industry advise us to build a picture of what you’re working towards and why, then be clear about what you bring to the table. Regardless of which point you’re at in your career, articulating your worth and understanding the connection between what you know and how that can benefit your brand is key.

This is why Joe Harper, Global Content & Media Lead at Diageo, reminds new starters about the advantage of youth. Newcomers to the industry bring immediate value to brands thanks to their “youth and natural consumption of digital content.” Showing your value here can mean simply explaining how you interact with the platforms and apps where your brand is looking to make an impact.

The reason why knowledge of the media you work in is so important is that it gives you credibility and contributes to creating great-quality marketing. According to P&G Vice President for Global Media, Gerry D’Angelo, you’ll always need to put yourself in the consumers’ shoes. But being able to show you’re at ease in the exact channels where your brand is looking to make an impact is even more important. After all, a campaign can fail completely because of overlooking an algorithm update or a small technical issue.

So, let’s say you’ve built your knowledge, you’re demonstrating your skills, and you’re confident in your own value. Marketing yourself is step 1 towards success, but it requires balance to get it just right. In other words, don’t go too far in the wrong direction and “believe your own hype.” 

Wally Brill, Senior AI Conversation Designer at Google, advises that you should be “brutally honest” with yourself and with everyone around you. When everything goes well, it’s easy to get ahead of yourself and maybe think that your ideas are the best ones. But good marketers learn from their teams, stay open to being challenged and to stretching themselves, and keep a level head. 

Want to make it in marketing? Stay humble, know what you need to learn, and keep chipping away at it to make your mark in the industry.

This advice comes from “How to Make It In Marketing Vol. 1” - a collection of tips from 45 industry leaders in advertising and marketing, compiled from interviews on the Shiny New Object Podcast. Tom Ollerton is the host of the podcast and the founder of Automated Creative. If you wish to download the book in full, click here.