Marketing as a career choice

Strategizing and Identifying patterns

Marketing is a relatively young and growing industry. It offers a diverse range of career opportunities to grow, professionally as well as personally. Marketing acts as a link between the material requirements of the society and the economic patterns of the response. It is used in each company no matter what industry it is a part of. So, the scope for growth and potential for career opportunities in this industry is unlimited. If you like to work with people, strategize, identify patterns and look forward to experiences with broad exposure and new tasks, marketing is the field for you!

What is Marketing?

Marketing, at its most basic, consists of all the activities that a company takes up to promote the buying or selling of the product or service they distribute. It includes a wide and diverse array of activities like advertising, selling and promotions. Due to the wide scope of marketing, the term often generates a lot of confusion, in what it specifically means and what responsibilities come with the role. We can easily define marketing as a set of tactics and strategies that an organization implements to convince consumers to purchase the goods or service the company produces.

The specific job responsibilities further depend on what one is marketing, through which platforms they are doing so and who are they targeting. But encouraging audiences, by implementing various strategies, to become an active part of the company through their purchasing power is what marketing is all about. Some of the tasks that come under marketing are doing marketing research, implementing various strategies and analyzing the results.

Why is Marketing important?

We can see that the definition of marketing often overlaps with advertising or even sales. The role of marketing is not that different too. In each stage of the business, marketing plays a really important role from beginning to the end. Let us now have a look at how marketing benefits a business.

Marketing and its importance

• At the very beginning, the purpose of marketing is to do market research for the business, determine the target audience, analyze their behavior, conduct surveys, develop buyer personas, which are profiles for the target audiences of the business, and locate the touchpoints which can be defined as the places or point of contact where a customer first comes in touch with your business.

This helps any business to determine what types of people they are targeting and how you can reach them the best way.

• Marketing then helps you disseminate the messages about the product/service to your target audiences.
• It helps you engage your customers by keeping them informed and keeping the conversation going about your business.
• It uses PR strategies to improve and sustain long term customer relations and build a strong community.
• It helps to boost sales of an organization by promoting the product or service and thinking of ways to trigger the purchase decision of an individual.
• Lastly, marketing creates revenue options for the organization by keeping them relevant in the customer’s eye and analyzing results for the strategies implemented to see what works and what does not.

Types of Marketing

The marketing industry is evolving at a rapid rate, with new job opportunities emerging regularly. There are various types of marketing, some of which are:

• Traditional Marketing: Using technologies that existed before the advent of the internet for marketing is traditional marketing. The mediums used can be print, billboards, television or radio ads.
• Digital Marketing: This is the exact opposite of traditional marketing. Using electronic mediums such as the internet, emails, social media, etc., to initiate all tasks related to marketing is known as digital marketing.
• Inbound Marketing: Inbound marketing consists of creating a positive experience for the people to attract them to your business. It doesn’t focus on interrupting customers rather on attracting them. It helps in drawing customers via search engine optimization, social media marketing, content marketing and branding.
• Outbound Marketing: This is marketing through interrupting or intrusive promotions. It consists of TV ads, print ads, email blasts by pushing the message to all customers regardless of whether they need it or not.
• Content Marketing: This consists of creating quality content for the audiences to rope them in. It also includes publishing and distributing content. Blogs and visual content are a major example of content marketing.

To know more about types of marketing, click here

Marketing as a Career

Analyzing data and trends through graphics

Marketing, with its diverse range of jobs and opportunities, has a role for a person of almost any skill.

• If you are great at writing, you could go for content marketing.
• If you are enthusiastic about the latest trends and social media, you could opt for social media marketing.
• If graphics and visuals are what appeals to you, web marketing might be your niche.
• If you like strategizing, you can do SEO Marketing and paid ads.
• If you have more of an analytic mind, analysis of the data and results of the campaign might be more of your type.
• Managing relations and accounts can help you in managing accounts of the organization.

Still want to know more about why you should consider marketing as a career option, then read here.

Skills required

Making careers in marketing requires having creative as well as for the analytic mind. It requires market knowledge, interest in visual arts and an understanding of customer behavior. Moreover, most of all, it requires a passion for the field and a zeal to learn.

A bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communication or an MBA degree is generally the preferred way to go in the industry. A degree program in marketing, business, economy, communications, PR and management can also lead to a career in marketing. Some of the skills that can help you get a kickstart in your careers in marketing are -

• Creativity
• Team Player
• Strong Communication Skills
• Interest in research and data analysis
• Problem Solving
• Curiosity
• Passion and openness to change

Marketing skills are an asset both for individuals and organization. It has a significant impact on the working of an organization. The industry is rising with a lot of competition, but an individual equipped with the right knowledge and skills can always find their way.