CXL Minidegree Review: The Fundamental Questions for Every Marketer
Tags: Self Improvement, Google Analytics, Strategy, Marketing, Growth Hacking

Good karma for marketer, by Andy Crestodina

Time has passed so quickly. This is the fourth week of my CXL Growth Marketing minidegree program. In this review, I am going to share my observation on the most important questions one should ask as a marketer.

Even though there is continuous technological advancement that enables marketers to utilize tools to make data-driven decisions, the more lessons I have taken at the CXL Institute, interestingly, the more similarities I have discovered across different branches of marketing channels and tools from different instructors.

The landscape may look a bit more complex, yet, marketing at its core is still the same.

The Fundamental Questions

Before getting to the fundamental yet essential questions of marketing, I would like to praise Chris Mercer, an instructor for the courses of Google Analytics for Beginners, Intermediate Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for Beginners.

Mercer’s courses are full of good tips and knowledge and also surprised me in a good way. Mercer is lively and clear and has the ability to make a walkthrough course fun. Prior to taking the course, somehow I thought a course on analytical tools could be boring. I do not know from where I had such perception but I am very glad that Mercer has proved me wrong. And most importantly, he turns a (apparently) complicated table on Google Analytics into something easily comprehensible.

According to Mercer, numerical presentation is not that scary nor overwhelming when we know what we are looking for. What we need to know is to ask the right questions.

Mercer aligns the sections on Google Analytics with the following questions:

Audience — Who are our audience?

Acquisition — Where do they come from?

Behavior — What do they do (on our website/with us)?

Conversion — How is the result?

These questions sound simple but are actually utterly important. With a clear intention, marketers know which metrics to look for and from where, just like what the many have proposed — one metric that matters (OMTM).

Or we can put it another way like what instructor Andy Crestodina from the course of Content Strategy and SEO for Lead Generation says, Google Analytics should answer our questions. Basically, these instructors remind us to be intentional and not to perform tasks blindly.

These are the fundamental questions marketers would ask no matter what they do, and can be applied onto other tools and contexts as well. No matter how detailed and in-depth the topic is, many CXL instructors actually tie their actions back to the whole picture of marketing — why does this make sense.

When I reflect upon my own professional journey, my strategic thinking comes with time. It is natural for beginners to be so fixated on particular details in the start, especially when every tool can be new and alien. Yet, strategic thinking is a skill that can actually be trained, by asking the right questions repeatedly.

I personally have learned a lot while doing marketing plans. The art side of marketing is always fun to me, like ideation and brainstorming, because in these phases, I can be exploratory, as if there are no limits. After thinking big, it is time to stand on the ground for the next step. It is these fundamental questions that help me map out the best material for a successful campaign that drive 10x traffic or 100% improvement on social media. Everything can be bells and whistles or even fluff if the foundation is not laid properly from the very beginning.

Once a plan was done, it acted as my north star. No matter how detailed my current task was, because I had thought things through beforehand, I understood the reason before my action.

In the content strategy course, Crestodina lists out the important steps once we get answers from Google Analytics. The following steps are extracting data and insights, then it is time for actions. It may sound like a no-brainer advice but actually when we are so absorbed with certain tasks, we sometimes do forget the bigger picture. If we lose sights of our plans, all tools are not used smartly to their full potential. Tactics becomes a hazy game of luck (OK, we do need luck in life). Crestodina actually illustrates what luck looks like on Google Analytics. I chuckled when I saw this graph from the video.

The go-lucky scenario on Google Analytics by Andy Crestodina

Last but not least, in order to proceed with these questions, marketers should have a somewhat good understanding of the users. That is why, many instructors emphasize the importance of doing proper user research and such research does have value in it too.

Hopefully, employers will come to understand the value of conducting research. It may take some time in the beginning, but the insights can actually save time and resources in the future.

Project Management and Structure

What I like about Mercer’s course is his systematic approach. Besides dissecting the platform systematically, he also encourages us to set things up properly, in an organized manner, be it UTM campaign tracking code or the name of an event goal. This is not imposter syndrome! It is about work efficiency. Having an organized set up does not only measure the correct data but also create a smoother flow of analysis in the long run.

I believe, when one can set campaign and UTM neatly, this implies the person’s ability to see the big picture in mind, knowing the phase of the process and the purpose of his/her own actions. Also, in a team setting, having a synchronized setting can avoid silly mistakes and misunderstanding.

Final Thoughts

As mentioned in my previous reviews, despite my familiarity with many tools, I am actually amazed by the fact that I can still be amazed by these instructors. The depth for learning is never-ending. Their insights and best practice make me reflect on my habits — have I fully utilized these tools yet? If not, what else can I do?

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