If you’re a people person with strong communication skills, creative skills in photography or graphic design, or just a strong sense of what makes people tick, a career in marketing may be right up your alley. Like most careers, though, finding success in the world of marketing will require you to have a degree and relevant experience. Thus, starting your career might actually involve a good deal of time in a classroom.
Get an Education To launch their careers, marketing professionals tend to first earn a bachelor’s degree in journalism or advertising, suggests the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, though some colleges offer bachelor’s and master’s degrees in marketing as well. During your education, you’ll study the tenets of marketing, including how to conduct market research, how consumers behave and what prompts them to buy products, and how visual elements such as video, photography and graphics help to market products. In addition, you may learn the basics of sales techniques. Choose a Specialty Having a specialty within the marketing field is also advisable, suggests Investopedia, since the field of marketing is so broad. If you choose to focus on digital marketing — an increasingly relevant specialty in the world of digital communication — you might study computer languages such as HTML or CSS, or you might hone your skills in social media. If you’re interested in the visual element, you might pursue a minor in graphic design or photography. You might also specialize in creating memes, videos or other graphic images for websites and brand social media sites. Digital marketing firms also look for people who are skilled in writing website content and analyzing and aggregating data. Marketing professionals who are “people people” might be a good fit for the account management side, helping to attract and guide clients, while strategic thinkers might focus on crafting overall marketing strategies for clients. Seek Experience After college, finding an internship with a marketing firm, Digital Content Company or with the marketing department of a large company can help you gain the experience you’ll need to land a job. If you need guidance on where to look, get help from your college’s career services department. When you look for entry-level jobs after graduation, you might find the jobs out there are not directly in marketing, but in sales. In many companies, the marketing professionals are those who worked their way up from successful careers in sales, suggests the CareerCast website. Thus, don’t overlook gaining experience in sales or telemarketing, for example. Career Advancement According to BLS, the job prospects for Marketing majors are about as strong as other careers. From 2012 to 2022, BLS expects marketing manager jobs to grow by about 13 percent — the average for all jobs. That means job growth will be steady, but it also means there will be competition. To gain those entry-level jobs that can then lead to more advanced marketing jobs, take extra steps that highlight your skills. That can include volunteering with a non-profit organization’s marketing campaign, building your own personal brand on a website that shows your experience and work samples, or offering to do extra duties related to marketing while in your entry-level job.
0 Comments
Direct Marketing is a type of advertising that allows businesses to be able to speak directly to the consumer and receive a fairly quick response. Unlike formal channels of advertising such as television, newspapers or radio, direct marketing utilizes fliers, product catalogs, sales letters and the Internet to reach customers. Direct Marketing techniques for advertising are usually marked by driving a particular “call to action,” which is a core principle of successful advertising. This part of direct marketing focuses a great deal on actionable and measurable outcomes that produce positive responses from consumers.
National Geographic Channel On August 10, Janrain rolled out its Capture software platform, which was created to cull information from social networking websites. The National Geographic Channel decided to use the software to acquire data about visitors to its website. When consumers sign up for a company’s website or use Twitter, MySpace or Facebook sign-in data, the data is shared with the client. Before using the software, the National Geographic Channel was not in the practice of gathering data on its website’s visitors. The channel didn’t have any consumer registration, only message board and blog comments that were anonymously posted. The Capture software allowed the company to implement Direct Marketing to collect consumer data and proceed further to solicit feedback from its viewers. Burger King Hoping to sell more burgers, fast-food chain Burger King recently introduced a mobile Web site as a Direct Marketing vehicle designated for driving consumer traffic to its restaurants. The site comes equipped with a Burger King restaurant finder, which uses maps and zip code, and nutritional data on the restaurant’s offerings. Burger King emphasizes the importance of extending traditional and digital marketing so that it can connect with the growing number of customers who use mobile communication as a source of information. Burger King’s internal research outcomes show that customers welcome this option. Verizon and Motorola Verizon and Motorola teamed up to launch a sweepstakes in connection with the next Super Bowl to increase customer response to the event. Both companies are sponsors of the National Football League and called on a sports marketing agency to handle the task. When the “Ultimate Game Day Access” sweepstakes was introduced, a program was created to benefit the consumer and utilize both companies’ assets under one roof. Consumers are able to participate in the sweepstakes on the Motorola website through a landing page. They are then required to provide an e-mail address and view a presentation about Verizon’s FiOS to enter the contest. Tickets to a December NFL game are offered as the prize. |
|