In 2018, as customers grow ever more sophisticated, marketers can no longer rely on the old methods of getting customers to engage. Practices that may have garnered desirable metrics in the past just aren't cutting it these days—and the same is true about your marketing career.
Marketers are tasked with creating campaigns that are creative, relevant, and results-oriented. And although the audiences of those campaigns are usually potential customers, there are times when your audience is actually a future employer.
Here are six things to keep in mind to make sure your most important marketing campaign gets the results you want.
1. How do others see you?
When presenting yourself to a recruiter or boss, think about what really impresses: Is it the knowledge that Twitter has doubled its character count—or how you plan to use that change to improve your campaigns?
Better yet, if you can make a name for yourself as someone who saw the way things were going before they happened, you'll get the freedom to run with your creative ideas—and you'll be noticed by your peers.
2. Learn to look into the future
Tech is changing all the time. But the changes are incremental, not immediate. Think of artificial intelligence (AI): Until recently, chatbots and self-driving cars were in the realms of science fiction. Now, they are a reality—and improving all the time. But they didn't appear from nowhere: They're at least in part an extension of previous AI efforts, which gave us predictive text and assisted parallel parking.
It's hard to see into the future, even when the signs of that future are all around. But, by keeping up with other marketing and tech experts online, listening to podcasts, and attending (or creating) specialist meetup groups, you'll be better at guessing what may happen next. At the very least, you'll be able to impress in meetings and interviews when you demonstrate the ability to see what could happen next and how it could affect your potential employer's strategy and bottom line.
It will pay off to stay informed by making it part of your routine—like going shopping or to the gym. Find out how to get the information you need at the time that suits you to ensure that you best engage with it, whether that's listening to a podcast on the train to work or reading before bed.
3. Let your activities speak for you
In an age when everyone uses the same buzzwords online to get noticed, it'll take more than describing yourself as "passionate" to be seen or heard. Look at your online profile and ask yourself whether, based on your activities, someone else would see you as passionate about your field.
And if someone inspires you, don't just follow them on Twitter and LinkedIn: Link to or comment on their work. Let potential employers see what you're seeking out, and show them that you're forward-thinking and engaged.
4. Always say 'thank you'
If you have a strong online profile, you're likely to be messaged by recruiters a few times a year. Even if you're not interested in the roles they're pitching, or they say "contact me if you're interested" and you're not, always write back to thank them for thinking of you.
Responding with a few lines is a simple way of letting them know you have people skills to back up your technical knowledge. And let them know, even if indirectly, what it would take for you to move. You never know where engaging in a conversation might lead.
5. Know your market value
This can be a tricky one in marketing, as you can no longer tell from a job title exactly what someone does or how much she's paid. "Data analyst" and "data scientist" can mean the same thing in one company—and two different things in another. Depending on the business, a "marketing specialist" could be a managerial role or a junior position. And marketing wages vary widely by industry.
The only way to really know your value is to speak with recruiters, preferably before you take your next career step. Apart from speaking to consultants who specialize in marketing, websites such as Glassdoor can be helpful in gauging salaries. And if you use LinkedIn Premium when applying for jobs, you can see how your experience and education compare with those of other applicants.
6. Be a jack of all trades
These days, you can't get on as a marketer without having a broad knowledge base. There will always be a place for "gut feel" in the industry, but there's so much more you need to know now, in our digital age, when success (and failure) can be measured more accurately than ever before.
Marketers now typically engage in daily tasks that would have been done by specialists not long ago. They may also be responsible for more, and more complicated, budgeting decisions. The same person will analyze audience metrics, develop a campaign incorporating A/B testing and a range of media, and then analyze the data and present the information to stakeholders in an infographic.
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How can you make sure you have the right skills for advancing your career? RMIT University's online Master of Marketing degree is designed for current and aspiring managers looking to increase their knowledge with an all-of-business approach to marketing. It's also the perfect tool for entrepreneurs who need to be present across every aspect of business marketing when starting up a new venture, giving them the confidence to promote their business.
