🧪 The educator who became a marketer + his top career advice

Hello hello 👋🏽,

Welcome to the 6th edition of Marketers Help Marketers.

And a huge thank you to folks who reached out last week with feedback on the newsletter. 🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽

Super duper appreciate you and the feedback, please keep it coming.

It helps me make this newsletter a better read for you.

Let's start this edition with a small anecdote of how I met today's guest.

For the new subs, I host a career podcast called Ctrl + Alt + Marketing (link in the banner) with marketing leaders.

Today, you get to read, all the things I learned from my latest guest - Robbert van der Pluijm (Head of Marketing, Permutive).

Now back to the anecdote, Robbert first approached me about doing an episode, late last year.

This thoughtful first message basically set the stage and tone for the rest of the conversations.

Btw, if you are ever reaching out to someone to do a feature/podcast episode for you, THIS is how you do it.

Short, non-pushy, and with just enough context.

Jumping in today's newsletter.

Robbert van der Pluijm's start in marketing was a bit unconventional.

Starting his career as an educator in the Netherlands, Robbert taught history and social studies at a vocational school, helping students experience "aha" moments.

A move to London led to a major career reset.

Unable to directly continue in education, he found himself on the London startup scene, joining Bibblio as employee #8, and he’s never looked back ever since.

Transitioning from education to marketing, Robbert leveraged his storytelling and persuasion skills (go transferable skills!!!), quickly proving that teaching young minds and convincing ICPs isn't so different after all.

The most impactful career advice Robbert shared is what he calls "walking the halls."

Before implementing any marketing idea:

• Talk to stakeholders (especially sales and customer success) first.

• Get an executive sponsor.

• Listen to input and develop your plan.

• Return to stakeholders to share what you're about to do and why.

• Execute and report back with results.

As someone guilty of dropping the ball on this, this piece of advice served as a good reminder.

This one is going on my desktop as a screensaver.

As marketing teams stay lean, Robbert has learned to prioritize ruthlessly - only the big stuff matters.

He admits this can be painful because -

This is a good reminder for all of us as we get pulled into a million ad hoc things that prioritization and saying no is so so important.

Robbert has spent impressively long tenures at each company he's been at.

While acknowledging that luck plays a role in being able to stay at companies for extended periods, Robbert noted that longer tenures allow you to see the true impact of your work -

When I asked him about finding fulfillment in marketing roles, Robbert pointed out that marketing is uniquely positioned as "the glue between all the go-to-market organizations."

"It's really fulfilling to work in marketing because you need no excuse to talk to anyone in the business to get their help. You really need to understand what's going on in the business... There's no danger of being siloed."

While this is not exactly a career lesson, Robbert had some interesting things to share about events; here's a short snippet.

From his early days at Bibblio, Robbert had to run events with virtually no budget.

His approach:

• Partner with customers to host events at their offices.

• Invite your customers' customers as speakers or attendees.

• Work with multiple partners to split costs.

• Focus on building community and creating great content.

• Explain to potential speakers how participation would benefit their brand.

"You'd be surprised how excited some companies are about facilitating conversations and driving the industry forward," he shared.

One of my favorite parts of the conversation was getting an insider view of how marketing functions in the adtech.

The adtech industry is complex, with numerous players connecting consumers with brands. Robbert described it as "lovely and complex" with "lots of moving parts."

With recent privacy trends (think Apple's App Tracking Transparency), the industry has been forced to reinvent itself.

This creates unique marketing challenges and opportunities.

Channels that actually work

PR and thought leadership:

Building relationships with journalists and trade media is critical.

Permutive measures share of voice against competitors, particularly on topics they care about.

Events:

In-person events remain crucial for bringing the community together.

Robbert shared, "People in the space read up and there's a lot of product roundtables and summits... it's really about facilitating conversations and cutting through the noise."

Paid Media:

LinkedIn targeting works well but can be expensive. Retargeting campaigns on Meta, LinkedIn, and Reddit help tell "the second part of the story" to those who've shown interest but not converted.

Customer Reviews:

Investing in platforms like G2 drives significant traffic and leads.

Lean, mean marketing teams

At Permutive, the marketing team makes up just 7-8% of the business.

The marketing team is structured with several "one-person teams" covering:

• Content and communications

• Product marketing

• Integrated campaigns (including events)

• Marketing operations

• And what Robbert jokingly calls his role as "Head of Cool Sh*t" (managing customer lifecycle marketing, partner marketing, and website/SEO projects)

This lean structure forces them to focus only on high-impact activities.

A philosophy that extends to the entire company as they pursue sustainable growth rather than "growth at any expense."

In conclusion

What struck me most about my conversation with Robbert was his balanced perspective on career growth.

His approach is ambitious, strategic, and practical.

Whether you're considering a career shift like his move from education to marketing, trying to maximize impact with limited resources, or simply looking to build visibility within your organization, I hope his insights spark some ideas.

Want more of Robbert's story and deeper insights?

Tbh, I don't have a calendar (yet), so I need your thoughts on what you'd like to read next week.

I have a couple of ideas -

1/ What, whys, hows of building leverage in your marketing career

2/ Doing a deep dive into the most popular episode of the podcast to date - Rohit Srivastava's wisdom on all things career from season 1.

Which one would you like me to cover?

Reply back with 1/2, and I will do the one that has the highest votes :D

I hope you enjoyed this edition!

As always, I love hearing about your thoughts on this edition.

So feel free to drop me a line here or dm me on LinkedIn.

Your marketer friend,

Mita