You cannot deny that marketing is everywhere. Whether it’s sponsored adverts on your social media feed, on the side of your local bus stop or in the breaks of your favourite TV shows or sports games, you really can’t get away from it.
For many, these adverts are consumed without any notice, but personally, I can’t say the same. Whilst I can’t deny I’d love less advertising on my social media feeds, I also enjoy seeing what other companies are putting out there. Looking at their designs and messaging, judging whether you like it or not, trying to understand the brand, product and services they’re selling. And when you see a clever piece of marketing and tag your ‘Marketing friends’ or colleagues, you know you love marketing.
Before I carry on, let me introduce myself. I’m Jas, a Marketing and Content Executive at Colossal Motion. Before joining CM, I’ve worked as part of in-house marketing teams for companies in the education, Medical, science and technology sectors. I am by all means no expert in Marketing, however I was given the challenge to write about marketing from my perspective, so here it is…
What’s so good about marketing anyway?
Marketing is different for everyone, and the variety within it is one of its best parts. As a ‘generalist’ marketer my job differs from day-to-day, where one day I might be creating logos and building websites, to the next where I may be devising email campaigns and social media strategy.
While others in marketing may prefer to specialise in one area such as CRM, social or digital, there are those who work in agencies or in-house who do not. You could be working with a number of clients in numerous sectors, or working for a single brand in-house for a singular sector. Essentially, marketing is what you want to make of it.
So, what are my favourite things in marketing?
The Marketing Team
Whilst your colleagues may have similar job titles, you can all hold completely different skills. Within a marketing team there can be copywriters, data analysts, creatives, social media executives, the list goes on.
Not only do projects and campaigns get to benefit from the assortment of mindsets coming together, but so does your personal growth. Learning from colleagues who have different skills and experience levels to you is great, and being able to apply that into your own role is one of the most valuable things you can take from any marketing role.
Design
When it comes to design I’m in my element. Dealing with the balance of understanding the brand you are working with and telling their story or key message, whilst also creating content that is current and relevant to your demographic, means you get to be experimental with your work. The constant need to keep up with current trends and try to ‘think outside the box’ means I am forever developing my creative and technical design skills.
Events
Event organisation can be complex. From the initial planning sessions and sales strategy to leading stand design and logistics, developing promotional material and managing attendees on the day, there is a lot to do!
Whilst many of the tasks within an event might not seem that exciting (calling the shipping company everyday because your shipment is stuck in customs or trying to speak to someone about IT issues just before a webinar is about to go live isn’t that “fun”), the combination of all these things and seeing the results (hopefully) at the end, make it one of the most rewarding aspects of marketing.
Strategy
Marketing is all about promoting and selling a product or service, and to do any of this you need a marketing strategy. The best thing about creating the strategy is the elements that go into it. Working with sales and sector specialists to find out their goals, researching current market trends and competitors, experimenting with different platforms you could use to implement your campaigns and finally putting this plan into action and watching it unfold.
In-house Vs. Agency
From my experience, both are pretty great. Being in-house means you get to take a deep dive into a single company. You learn every essence of their existence, what they offer and can connect with the people at the heart of that company. What’s more, you get the opportunity to become a specialist marketer within that field.
But for me, working within a marketing agency has the upper hand. Whilst you may not live and breathe a single brand, product or service, you are, instead, exposed to a whole range of exciting brands. Each client is selling something different, working within different sectors and is appealing to different demographics. Sometimes this makes the job harder, but it’s definitely worth it! And even though you may not be surrounded by these people all day, everyday, you still build very strong relationship with your clients.
The highlight of working in an agency for me is taking a clients idea or goal and turning it into a finished product. This can sometimes be as simple as creating an impressive social media graphic that relays the immediate message they are trying to send, or it could be putting together an entire marketing campaign. At CM I get the opportunity to work directly with the client throughout the complete Marketing process. I listen to the client, learn about the industry from them and get their thoughts and opinions throughout the creation process. This helps me build richer content, and in the end, content and campaigns that we are both pleased with and proud of.
It can’t all be that good, can it?
No, not for me anyway. Within marketing there are always task that don’t play to your immediate strengths (for me it’s copywriting!), or decisions you make that don’t go as planned. For example, sometimes a campaign doesn’t gain as much traction as you’d hoped, but without trying to sound to cliche, these are all learning curves!
If I was never challenged to write any content then I would never grow (if you’d told me even one year ago that I would be writing a post like this for a company website I would have laughed, or maybe even cried at the thought!) The same can be said for poor campaign results. Yes, it’s always better to hit your campaign goals, but if you don’t then you have a great opportunity to learn from what didn’t work and take that knowledge with you into your next campaign and beyond.
