Ask people on the street what is meant by the phrase ‘marketing’ and it’s likely that you’ll get 100 different answers. Most people know the basic core meaning and can give some suitable synonyms such as promotion or sales, but there are many other facets to marketing in 2015. Here are five jobs that the best marketers also perform as part of their role…
Learn to be Jack of all trades
Once upon a time marketing agencies tended to restrict their roles to crystallising a brand and its customers, creating or arranging advertising and its routes, maybe getting in touch with local or national media, and arranging strategies.
Yes, a marketing agency should have one speciality and a bloated, heavy agency might struggle to contain itself, performing many good jobs but not one excellent one.
But, nowadays, there is a great variation in the way that message is delivered. A marketer now should have a strong knowledge of analytics and SEO, and social media and digital PR as a bare minimum, but as supplementary skills a marketer might also know a little of coding, and journalism, and photography, and the power of apps.
A constant learner and motivator
Good marketers will never stop learning about people by talking to them, meeting them and knowing about people’s behaviours. They’ve learned how other successful marketers organise and carry themselves, and try to impress these skills on other parts of their own organisation to make it more successful.
They should be approachable and open to ideas, and part of a warm, welcoming company culture. They might not have initially created that vibe, but they’re certainly respectful of it. If they can’t inspire their own colleagues then how will they know how to inspire others? Part of the success for companies such as BGL Group is shaped on successful marketing of the brand as one that can be trusted by the consumer and a great place to work. For more information on how they do it click here.
Know how people work
Multiple terms sum up this aspect of marketing. Some would say guru, or philosopher, or psychologist, or coach. In any event one should be an expert in the creation of the persona, and learn to live and breathe as the people you’re appealing to, getting inside the mind of the consumer or client and adjusting and analysing a product or an angle to appeal to the right demographic.
Entrepreneur asked 12 marketing experts for the habits that made them a better marketer, and their replies focused on personal skills of people, such as observation, curiosity and a desire to make people happy.
Know about money
Historically too many businesses have set themselves up and almost regarded marketing as an optional, peripheral spend. And it is true to say that if a budget is spent unwisely it will simply drain money, money which could be spent on productivity or technology.
The tide is turning; according to the results of an Economist Intelligence Unit study published in this blog 69% of marketers believe their departments will be perceived as a revenue driver for their organisations. So not only does a marketer need to know how to spend money effectively, but also prove that they can do it with figures. Analysis of increased engagement, conversions and loyalty will be the nuts and bolts of this proof.
Predict the future
In a perfect world the marketer would always live slightly in front of the consumer, by a week, a month or even a year. There isn’t a marketer on the planet who wouldn’t want to know what will be hot this winter, what media and lifestyle trends will have arisen to take us on the journey to that point, and where the next Zoella or Tinder will spring from.
One should also know about the technology platforms serving these influences. The young people of today might enjoy communication through VR augmented reality on an iPhone 9 on the turn of the decade, or some other, more left-field contender may have moved into the arena. What will Facebook and Twitter be doing? What are they planning now?
In the aforementioned blog 99% of marketers planned to invest in new technologies in the next year. The other 1% will get left behind.