These are the gifts marketers actually want
Marketers probably won’t complain about any gift you give them this holiday season. We’re so used to moving mountains with needles, achieving great results with limited resources, that we often don’t worry too much about the nature of the material at hand.
But every marketer knows a thoughtful gift when they see one, a gift that makes them feel loved and appreciated — and oh the joy it brings.
In this guide, we’ve picked six simple but thoughtful gift recommendations ranging from books with honest insights to parcels for relaxation. If you take away anything from this guide, I hope it's the idea that when it comes to gifting a marketer, practical gifts that help us work smarter, grow professionally, or relax from the busyness of our jobs are always appreciated. These gifts will be especially helpful as we head into 2024.
6 thoughtful gift ideas for your favorite marketer
1. Subscription to a learning platform
If your marketer friend has shown interest in doing more learning next year, a digital subscription to a learning platform is a quality gift to help them achieve their goal. Publications like Adweek help marketers stay updated with industry trends and changes, while platforms like CXL and Digital Marketing Institute offer courses relevant to different marketing verticals.
You can make this gift more personalized by getting them an industry-specific subscription. For instance, MIT Technology Review is a great publication for marketers who work in the AI industry, while Modern Retail is a good choice for those who work in e-commerce.
2. Noise-cancelling headphones
Working from home is hard. Working from home when you're barraged by distracting noise within your environment is even harder. If your favorite marketer works from home or finds it hard to do their best work when surrounded by noise, an ANC headphone might make an excellent gift. Headphones with active noise-canceling can help the recipient focus through all kinds of disturbing sounds, free of fatigue and disorientation.
Not sure which to get? We’ve heard good things about the Soundcore Space One and the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones.
Photo by Claudio Schwarz
3. Books with honest insights
Bookish marketers will enjoy Inside the Marketers' Room, our debut book at Smarketers Hub that helps early to mid-stage marketing professionals make better decisions about their careers.
As you know, there’s no better way to grow in your career than to learn from those who’ve walked a similar path. So, the recipient will especially love Inside the Marketers’ Room because it contains unique, practical insights from over 50 leading marketers worldwide, from companies like Google, Notion, and Semrush—helping them learn about growth from diverse perspectives.
“The insights from this book will change your life. The team at Smarketers Hub did a great job putting this together — I wish I had this when I started my career in marketing.”
— Milton Tutu, Chief Marketing Officer at Selar
You can also get them The Growth Handbook by Binjo Adeniran, This is Marketing by Seth Godin, Product Marketing Resources for Beginners by Hamdalah Hanafi, or Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown.
Inside the Marketers’ Room Book
4. Portable power bank
Marketers, especially those on the production end of the job, are constantly on their phones. If they aren’t snagging a screenshot for a potential content idea, they’re busy drafting a copy in the Google Doc mobile app. But of course, this practice means that their phones are vulnerable to low batteries. Gifting a marketer a power bank not only solves the problem but shows them that you understand the nature of their work and care about helping them manage the challenges that accompany it.
Photo by SCREEN POST
5. Subscription to a productivity tool
Nothing signals marketing like looking for the most efficient systems to get things done. Productivity tools can help make this happen. There are tons of good choices available, but Notion is our absolute favorite. It has a simple interface, makes it easy to manage projects, and offers several features for building out a valuable digital workspace.
The downside? It comes with a bit of a learning curve. But, used repeatedly for a few weeks, it can help the recipient build out good systems for managing workflows, small and large teams, their personal finance, and so much more. Notion also provides free templates for different use cases that make it easy to get started. So, ask the recipient if they already have a Notion account and if they don’t, find out if they’re interested in exploring the tool before gifting them the premium version.
Photo by Walling
6. Gifts for relaxation
Rest is something everyone can appreciate, and your marketer friend or teammate will love a day at the spa, gift cards to restaurants, a month free of doing the laundry, art classes, dance classes, or a meditation app subscription.
There are several other rest-centered gifts you could explore, but we recommend offering something suitable by finding out what the recipient considers as rest. Your marketer friend might prefer a day alone in a quiet environment. They might find spending time with friends a relaxing day. You might even learn that activities like baking shower them with comfort.
Photo by madison lavern
