The two most important “soft skills” in marketing are empathy and curiosity.
I realized that I’d written more than 3,000 blog posts and had never written about curiosity. How un-curious of me.
Curiosity is the spark that ignites innovation in marketing. It’s the fuel that propels us beyond the mundane and into the realm of the remarkable.
When I teach a marketing class, I know that the students who hang out after class and ask questions are the star students. I’ll stay as long as I need to because this curiosity needs nourishment. That’s the future of marketing standing in front of me!
Curious marketers don’t settle for surface-level insights. They dig. They probe. They ask “why?” five times in a row. They’re not satisfied with demographic data and focus groups. They want to know what keeps their customers up at night, what makes their hearts sing, what stories they tell themselves.
But curiosity isn’t just about understanding our customers. It’s about challenging our own assumptions. The curious marketer looks at “best practices” with a skeptical eye. They’re willing to test, to experiment, to be wrong. They know that the most valuable lessons often come from failure.
This is probably my greatest concern about marketing today. It’s boring. Nobody is challenging anything. We just copy each other, and my friend, you are on a road to obsolescence.
Curious is your competitive advantage
Curiosity is the true path to differentiation. It leads to unexplored niches, unmet needs, and blue oceans of opportunity. Curious marketers don’t just follow trends; they create them.
Curiosity also keeps us humble. It reminds us that we don’t have all the answers. In a field often plagued by hubris and overconfidence, this humility is refreshing – and effective.
But here’s the rub: curiosity can’t be faked. You can’t just add “Ask us anything!” to your website and call it a day. True curiosity requires vulnerability. It means admitting what we don’t know. It means being willing to have our worldviews challenged.
Here’s an important truth: In this overwhelming world of AI change, there is no way you can have all the right answers. But you can have all the right questions. And that curiosity is going to make all the difference.
Can you learn to be curious?
Over my life, I’ve definitely learned to be more empathetic. But I wonder, can you learn to be more curious? That is the topic of a conversation I had with Jay Acunzo on the latest edition of The Marketing Companion podcast.
Jay contends that great marketing does not depend on being more brilliant. It depends on being more curious.
Can you be more curious? I was skeptical. But Jay has a compelling argument for a process that actually can increase your curiosity.
I think you’ll love this discussion! All you have to do is click here to listen!
Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 293
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