Imagine the world of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: trade is growing, competition is increasing, merchants are looking for ways to increase profits, so they find out from customers what goods they are interested in. These very merchants were the first marketers, though they didn’t realize it. This profession began to be taught officially in the early 20th century when marketing departments appeared in businesses. Since then, the tasks of marketers have not changed globally.
Their main goal is to study the consumer and apply this knowledge so that the business could earn more, attract new clients and occupy a profitable position in the market. For quite a long time, classical channels were used for this: television, radio, and the press. But in 2018, the market has changed. According to the consulting corporation Gartner, companies’ investments in digital marketing have exceeded investments in all other promotion channels. So now the profession has moved almost entirely online.
Marketers are engaged in market research, developing promotional strategies and tactics, and analyzing their effectiveness. There are five modern directions of their activity:
- Attracting customers through media platforms. This is the purchase and configuration of advertising and the generation of new traffic.
- CRM – consumer relations marketing. Encompasses working with a brand’s existing customer base through communication channels and loyalty programs.
- Online products. Specialists in this area work with the brand’s digital platforms: making them comfortable and useful for users.
- Online promotion through media personalities, bloggers, and Influencers.
- E-commerce – distribution in online marketplaces. Employees in such departments build the correct positioning of products on the sites of online stores.
Skills needed by a marketer
To be successful in the tasks of a marketer, you need to have a certain set of core knowledge:
- Have a basic understanding of the global and local markets where you are going to promote products. You need to understand the major players and know how many people use popular online venues and what their preferences are.
- Know the key tools. You need to learn the basic metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of campaigns and the technical aspects of the work. Depending on the chosen position, you need to know how to use advertising offices, social networks, email services, web analytics tools, and so on.
- Know the brand and its products. You need to know the company’s history, mission, values, positioning to consumers. Also, a marketer should know how the products they work with came to be and how customers want to benefit from them.
Developed soft skills are also useful
- The ability to build communication and work as part of a team. It is important to learn how to properly communicate and compromise with colleagues from other departments to prove hypotheses and implement ideas. The marketer must also be able to manage projects to coordinate processes.
- Willingness to learn on their own and to share expertise with others. The profession, the market, and the industry are rapidly evolving, and it is necessary to constantly follow new trends and learn from the experience of others, and then transfer the knowledge to the team.
Advantages and disadvantages of working in marketing
Many people are attracted to the profession by the connection between analytics and creativity. Dry calculations and research are not enough here – you have to constantly come up with something new and interesting.
The pros of working in marketing:
- Demand. There is a high market demand for good digital marketers, and their salaries are growing. If you are qualified enough, you will easily find a high-paying job in a prestigious company.
- Mobility. You are not tied to a specific point on the map. The tasks that marketers perform do not require a personal presence in the office. Many corporations and agencies offer remote work.
- The opportunity to try new things. Marketers often change the direction of their work and perform tasks from related fields. Here is just a small part of what the marketing profession involves: email marketing, chatbots, SEO optimization, content, creative, supply chain, targeting, contextual advertising, web analytics, SMM, PR.
Minuses of the profession:
- Competition. The number of new professionals and their expertise is growing. Be prepared to fight for a good position.
- Irregular schedule. To keep up with deadlines, you will likely have to stay late at work during project preparation and launch.
- Heavy responsibility. Even small miscalculations in analytics or strategy can lead to major financial losses. Worse, they can easily make customers turn away from your brand forever.
Tips for Beginners
Start working as early as possible
The first are those who came to work after graduating from university, and the second are those who started their professional career while still a student. The first group came to this profession with the understanding that they had not been taught, that they were given only theory, which was sometimes already very old. In practice, everything was very different. And the latter had already had time to gain valuable practice. But both are sure that starting your career as early as possible, you have time to try different directions and probably by graduation already understand exactly in what area you want to develop. For that, search for cheap research papers writers and focus on the career opportunities.
Don’t be afraid
You shouldn’t think that you won’t succeed, that you won’t be taken because you don’t fit the skills and requirements. On the contrary, many companies always go towards young guys without experience, but with a great desire to develop and gain new knowledge. And do not forget that the cost of mistakes in the student years is much lower than after graduation when you can no longer afford free internships and protracted job searches.
Be proactive and self-reliant
Don’t be afraid to be proactive, offer ideas, and take responsibility for your tasks. This is the only way you can get practical skills, learn from your victories and mistakes, try different projects, and understand what you are interested in and what direction you would like to go in. As they say in our agency, a professional shows himself in the project.
Put professional growth in the first place
The waiter in the restaurant gets more than the advertising agency assistant. But what’s the point of wasting valuable time if you’re not going to develop in this field further? Yes, there may be finances here and now, but once you graduate, you will be faced with a lack of relevant experience and skills in another industry. Therefore, if there is an opportunity, between earnings and career prospects and interesting projects, give priority to the latter.
Do self-education
We are used to saying that university does not give any practical skills. But during the years of study, we learn the most valuable skill – the ability to learn. We live in a time when information is outdated almost daily. Therefore, if you do not have time to pump your knowledge and skills, you will not be competitive in the labor market. Try to focus on something what’s really matter. For example, use do my assignment service for tasks that you don’t need in your career.
Career Prospects
Starting as an intern, in 7-8 years you can easily reach the position of Brand Business Leader in the classic marketing department of a large company. It will take 5-6 years to the Digital Manager position in the digital direction, where there are now far fewer quality professionals. Be prepared for the fact that the managerial position will require knowledge of management, sales and supply chain, as well as experience in related areas.
To accelerate your career progression, you need to add as many successful cases as possible to your portfolio. This can only be done through trial and error. The earlier and cheaper a marketer makes them, the faster they grow. Those hypotheses and creatives that have worked for competitors may be irrelevant to other target audiences, brands or products. Simply copying someone else’s approaches in order to repeat their success won’t work – you’ll have to keep trying different methods.