Five top tips on getting into marketing!
Market research has shown that there is a shortage in skilled workers in this area although the volume off applicants for every vacancy is high. What this tells us is that the qualifications are not enough in this sector; employers are looking for skilled and experienced applicants for their roles.
YEUK had a look at five areas you can focus on as you are gaining your qualifications to stand out from the crowd!
The official definition of marketing as a profession is “The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably” According to the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Firstly there a couple of pathways into a marketing career, you may consider a degree in marketing itself or another linked subject such as English Literature, or you can look at the growing number of apprenticeships in the sector. Some of the apprenticeships specialise in things like social media and some are broader.
It is always advisable to talk to some employers and find out which routes they would recommend, the key thing is that you will need to market yourself and can transfer skills to the key roles within marketing.
Focusing on understanding these 5 tips could help set you on your way…
- How good are your communication skills? These come into play every day, understanding the customer, good communication with your colleagues, representing yourself and the company well. Know your terminology and how to convey your point; if the consumer doesn’t like you they will not like your product.
- How good are your core subjects? English and Maths play important roles while building projects and presentations. Whether it is written or spoken, good English is always important crossing T’s and dotting I’s correctly will always support your point, fail here and you will have limited foundations. Same with Maths, analytics, costs, profit, losses will be things you will need to understand and communicate out to others.
- Work Experience – Your big challenge when you come straight out of education will be lack of experience, so you need to consider how you can build up the necessary experience whilst in education – If you are at university think about joining the students union and taking on a marketing role, or you may want to volunteer for a charity and let them know that marketing is your ambition so that they assign you to tasks most relevant. During the holidays apply to marketing firms for some work experience; think about the local paper, radio and businesses that employ marketing staff to give you a broad range of experience.
- Contacts – Like with most sectors who you know can really help you get onto the career ladder. Lots of marketing people can be found on LinkedIn, they are also usually the people behind company Twitter accounts, Facebook Pages and Pinterest boards. So connect with companies through social media, see how it is being done, ask questions, join some marketing LinkedIn groups and get involved in the conversations to develop your networking skills and address book.
- Your brand – Before you even begin to look for employment clean your own marketing brand up! Any employer is going to research applicants but for marketing jobs this will be even more important. The image you have put out into the world via your social media profile will be judged. Do you present yourself well, professional and knowledgeable? If you don’t take care of your own brand how will you take care of anyone else’s?
