Just starting out in marketing? You might think that you have plenty to learn, and feel slightly like a rabbit in headlights. There is so much to gauge, while also getting to grips with the everyday hustle that is marketing. It’s easy to let your career development fall by the wayside when you’re busy juggling a plethora of creative tasks.
To give you that ambitious boost you need, we spoke to a number of marketers who are all at different stages of their career. They have all kindly provided some helpful advice to keep you motivated on the path to success.
“Be an all-rounder.
“It’s important to have a focus for your marketing career and strive for what you want, but be open to learning new skills along the way. For instance, if you’re looking for a career in PR, don’t shy away from tasks in other subject areas, such as digital marketing, SEO or content.
“Learning new skills in different fields is not only good for your CV, but also opens you up to progression and opportunities in a company. There are so many different dimensions to a career in marketing, too. So, comparing different work roles will help you decide what job role is best suited to your abilities and passions, from the experience you have undertaken.” – Steve Pritchard, Digital Marketing Consultant for Cuuver.com
“Show initiative.
“Take on tasks that need doing, but aren’t yet assigned to a team member. This will not only help out the team you’re working in, but also show your ability to work independently and take initiative.
Of course, you need to complete the work you are set – but anyone can do that; just because you can get away with doing the minimum, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work beyond your workload.” – Katie Derrick, Senior Content Writer, Africa Travel
“Here are a couple of elements to consider during the job search process:
1. Plan your professional journey: Where would like to be today and in a couple of years:
- Focus your search on what you are good at and passionate about.
- Are you bored with SEO and would like to shift to a more fast passed PPC environment?
- Do you feel weary of technical account management roles and would like to get ahead onto managerial marketing roles?
- Do you prefer to go in-house or agency side?
2. Competition: The job market is a saturated arena. However, marketers with advanced skills are still hard to find.
3. Turn lack of experience into an advantage: While reviewing role specifications, you’re bound to find job qualifications you are missing or may not even have a basic knowledge in.
Look at it as an opportunity to broaden your marketing horizons and study these topics. Auto-deduct candidates are usually highly appreciated by interviewers.
4. What is your current market position: Try to honestly asses your level of experience, both in the specific area you specialise in (PPC SEO, social etc.) and your overall marketing level of knowledge.
This should help you focus on more suitable current roles, increase your job application success rate and help you understand what is required from you to make a career shift or get ahead in the industry.
5. Your Resume: Get your resume edited by a professional CV writer. Preferably make a couple of versions, if you are aiming for a few different marketing niches.” – Ron Maoz, Digital Marketing Manager, Clever Accounts Limited
“Believe in your product/service! To market something well, you need to have a genuine interest in what you are selling. If you don’t believe in your brand, your industry or your product/service, then why would anyone else? The people behind the most successful marketing campaigns are those who live and breathe what they are selling.” – Molly Spiers, Marketing Manager, CoinCorner
“Aim to work for an agency rather than client side. When you work in an agency you are often exposed to many clients in different industries facing their own set of unique problems. That’s where the experience is built at a fast pace. Don’t be afraid to put up your hand and work on the campaigns that seem more difficult, that’s how you are going to build that creative marketing muscle that can propel your career.” – Natalie Athansiadis, Founder & Head of Growth, Ormi Media
- Does this tool have all the features I need?
- Does it integrate with my other marketing tools?
- Is there an app or browser extension that will allow me to use it at any time, anywhere?
- What are the limitations of my plan?
“Stay focused on the customer. It’s easy to get caught up in the technology and associated data available to marketers now and as a result forget we are dealing with people. But ultimately, great marketing campaigns are created through filling a real need. Emotional drivers matter. Maybe now more than ever.” – Elyssa Nager, VP Marketing, PlaybookHQ
“When starting out in marketing, it can be easy to put pressure on yourself to reach a certain point in your career by a certain age. My advice for young marketers is to be flexible and to focus on finding a marketing role you enjoy, rather than wasting energy trying to achieve a rigid ideal of where you would like to be by age 30. Take your time to explore and gain experiences in different marketing jobs and industries as this will be far more valuable in helping you to develop as a marketer.” – Joanne Goldy, Marketing Specialist, CoinCorner
“The first step to take in order to gain more industry experience is to assess your current skills level.
“What do you know already and what do you want to know?
“From this, create a development plan and strategy to move forward. For example, you may choose to enrol on a course, undertake a professional qualification or approach your employer and ask to work shadow others within key marketing roles.
“There are also more informal routes of development within the marketing industry which include reading marketing blogs, industry publications, use social media (LinkedIn and Twitter) and explore the use of podcasts and ebooks. These are particularly useful if you commute to work.
“More importantly, you need to commit to your development, plan time and regularly review your progress.” – Alison Watson, Undergraduate Programme Team Leader at Arden University
“The best piece of advice I would give is be brave and be ready to fail. Not all your ideas will work but try your best to understand why they didn’t work as that is how you build up experience and ultimately better ideas.
Secondly make sure you sense check ideas with people that you know that you may be trying to target. They often have great insight on how to improve the idea or an upcoming platform that you could use and be an early adopter.” – Louis Venter, CEO of MediaVision
Have these marketing experts inspired you to be better? Maybe you are looking for your next challenge? Click the button below to search for marketing jobs now:
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