You may have recently left university or are considering an entirely new career change and have thought about choosing a role in marketing. Marketing is one of the most popular careers for newly qualified graduates because it paves the way for endless opportunities and offers an exciting and stable career path.
The industry is centered on making huge impacts on how businesses are publicized to the general public. Ultimately, the main job of the marketer is to ensure that customers can identify with the brand and encourage them to invest in a product or service.
Therefore, marketing positions are extremely valuable for businesses, as their skills have the power to manipulate the consumer’s purchasing habits while turning over substantial company profits.
If you have an interest in a career in marketing, here are just some of the reasons why it’s an avenue you should consider:
Long-Term Opportunities
Marketing has a reputation for ensuring long-term job opportunities in any given company. As mentioned, businesses are in desperate need of promotion, so it’s unlikely you’ll ever be out of work once you’ve got your foot in the door. There are plenty of opportunities out there to apply for, providing you have the correct qualifications and level of experience suited to the position.
There are two different marketing sectors to be aware of, which will impact your daily responsibilities. Firstly, dealing with the marketing of a single business and secondly, on behalf of an agency. Being employed by an agency gives you the chance to take on marketing duties on behalf of a range of clients, which will broaden your horizons and develop interests in a variety of areas.
If you have got the talent and the willpower to succeed in marketing, there’s no reason why either of these career paths shouldn’t be open to you.
Allows You to Be Creative
If you have always considered yourself a creative individual, then marketing may be just the type of career that will suit your skillset. You will need to have an instinct of coming up with different resolutions for your clients, which have perhaps never been seen before or have taken inspiration from other successful competitors.
Marketing messages continuously need to be adapted to suit different target audiences and situations, so you’ll need to have a colorful imagination to revamp content when necessary.
Thinking outside of the box is a crucial skill that you’ll be expected to develop over time in marketing. Having the freedom to put your stamp on client campaigns is certainly a gratifying feeling that will give you confidence in your own ideas.
Many marketing courses now include creative thinking techniques as part of their course content to instill this skill in your mindset from the get-go. Emerson College Online, for example, is an institution that delivers an MA marketing qualification with the focus of connecting the art and science of marketing through digital storytelling and analytics.
You’ll learn the best digital practices and how to successfully conduct marketing campaigns through brand storytelling.
Remote Working
If you have the desire to work away from the office environment, marketing is a career option to consider. Plenty of marketing jobs offer flexible working patterns, as most of the work can be accessed online and remotely, meaning face-to-face contact isn’t always essential.
Do be aware that remote working may not happen immediately. Once you have gained the necessary skills and experience required to work independently, it may be an employee benefit you could mention to your employer later down the line.
There are also options to become a freelance marketer or contractor, which gives you a choice to work for different companies on a self-employed basis, providing you have the correct knowledge and experience.
While this may not be the be-all and end-all of your chosen career path, it’s undoubtedly an advantage of the industry, as remote working allows for a better work-life balance and job satisfaction. This may be even more valuable to you if you have personal commitments that won’t fit around a typical 9-5 job.
Gives You the Chance to Connect with People
To be successful in marketing, you need to be a ‘people’s person’. You’ll be connecting with a wide range of individuals daily – both in-person and online.
You’ll always be expected to find new ways to keep your audience engaged and understand what the target audience needs and expects from the brand.
A good marketer can take on different points of view to achieve the very best results. Quite simply, marketing is all about communicating with others effectively and being open to different ideas, so if this sounds like something you may enjoy, marketing could be the career for you.
Good Salaries
Marketing is a fantastic career path for those who are driven and wish to work their way up the ranks. By climbing your way up the career ladder, there is the potential to earn a higher income.
The expansion of the marketing industry in the last few years has meant salaries have risen drastically to secure the best professionals in the field. Although wages can vary from country to country and from city to city, the highest-paid marketers can potentially earn six-figure salaries.
High Demand
Businesses of all sizes are moving away from traditional advertising and are instead taking a digital approach. As a result, companies are always on the lookout to fill digital marketing positions. Still, due to high demand and few available graduates, it’s unlikely you’ll struggle to find companies hiring.
Between the years of 2011-2016 alone, job postings in the marketing sector rose by 50%, and since then, the demand has grown significantly and is set to escalate further due to the constant advancements in the digital world.
Innovative Industry
If you’re keen on keeping up with the latest trends, marketing may play on your interests. Marketing relies heavily on keeping up with the hottest technology releases, which can sometimes be used to solve the simplest of problems.
Some of the key trends that marketers are now using include chatbots, AR, and automation in advertising, all of which add a whole new dimension to the world of marketing.
Improve Your Skills
Many people choose to get into marketing because it can improve their skillset in a variety of sectors.
As marketing is a generalized career option, it can make a great starting point to gain professional experience and branch out into other industries in the future. Due to the vast selection of marketing roles to choose from, each job can play to an individual’s strengths. For example, you have may more of an interest in the technical side, be skilled in mathematical data analysis, or believe you’re more talented in the creative sector.
If you’re ready to make a career in digital marketing, here are just a few of the sectors that you may like to find out more about:
Email Marketing
Email marketing involves sending emails to customers to trigger a response. The purpose of the email is to inform the recipient of the brand as well as the products or services on offer, before encouraging them to take a specific action. Some of the skills an email marketer should acquire include:
- Seeking the most suitable audience
- Awareness of data metrics, including open and bounce rates
- A/B testing
- Categorizing recipients
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
An SEO specialist helps detect the best approaches to generate traffic to the company website and has a clear understanding of how search engines work. The individual should possess technical, analytical, and creative skills to carry out this role effectively. Some of the critical responsibilities of an SEO specialist include content creation, social media, and optimizing search engines.
PPC Analyst
A PPC analyst takes charge of the Pay Per Click performance of a client’s advertising campaign. When a consumer clicks on an advert, the client makes a payment to the marketing company. Essentially, it’s a way for businesses to buy their consumers and generate leads, rather than producing them naturally, like SEO.
To be successful in this area of marketing, you should be keen to keep up with industry trends and be aware of what consumers deem a relevant advertisement. There are several skills you will need to become a successful PPC marketer:
- Understanding of statistics
- Experience with AdWords
- Knowledge of website landing pages
Social Media Manager
Social media has taken the world by storm over the past decade, and if you’re a whizz on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, this may be an area of marketing that appeals to you. You’ll need to have a clear understanding of brand awareness and have sufficient knowledge on how to generate leads and sales on the platforms you’re managing. You’ll be actively trying to engage social media followers to carry out a specific action while keeping up to date with the latest social media trends, so the company doesn’t fall behind competitors. In overview, the primary skills needed for this job role include:
- Understanding brand awareness
- How to generate leads
- Keeping up to date with social media trends
If you’re interested in choosing a career in marketing, we hope this guide has provided you with a useful overview of the benefits of a career in marketing and which areas of the industry may appeal to you most.
