Image source: pixabay.com
Marketing is a word most uttered by people in the world of business but most often their perception doesn’t go beyond designing a product, launching it, selling and getting feedback from the consumers. Not surprisingly, the terms people most frequently associate with the marketing roles are sales, branding, product promotion, market research, advertising and public relations. And job openings related to such functions are most frequently seen in newspapers, job sites and social media.
Conventional marketing jobs are expected to grow nine percent through 2024 which includes marketing, advertising and promotion function at the managerial level, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2016-17 Occupational Outlook Handbook.
However, there are a variety of other marketing careers that many people may not have heard about but offers immense possibility for growth and advancement.
Here are some of those you may have not heard of-
Marketing Communications
Marketing communications is a multi-disciplinary activity that combines the core marketing functions in an organization combined with public relations, advertising and brand promotion activities.
Marketing Communications (Marcom) professionals require a range of skills considering the interdisciplinary nature of the job. The Marcom professional needs to create marketing plans, be involved in or co-ordinate the creation of logos, promotional content in websites, social media, organize trade shows, corporate and consumer events, managing the marketing budget, evolve the style and presentation of emails and email campaigns, create press releases and hold press meets.
The job of Marcom professionals is to reduce the time required from generating a sales lead to final sales of the product. Shortening the sales cycle means to assist the sales and channel partner in their efforts to identify, engage and delivery a customer. The effectiveness of Marcom depends on how effectively the communication process of the firm is aligned with the goals of the firm. Understanding the customer’s buying process is critical for shortening the sales cycle.
A buyer begins with problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post purchase evaluation and feedback.
Marketing is a 100% result oriented activity right from conceiving the product, doing market research and launch of the product. There after sales and customer feedback, public relations and crisis management.
Marcom professionals can expect to earn much more than the median annual salary range of $61,290- 1,21,000 earned by other marketing professionals considering the mutlti-tasking involved in the job apart from usual travelling, interaction with client or customers, preparing marketing budgets and so on.
Digital Marketing
In simple terms digital marketing involves promoting products and services on the digital or electronic platform. It includes websites, social media,emailing, blogging, television and radio channels, mobile applications and hoardings.
Digital medium can no longer be ignored by the industry as technology becomes an inseparable part of their lives. The digital space is becoming crowded but content, cross platform marketing, mobile, data and personalization will continue to dominate the trends for 2016. Content is not restricted to words and images alone, with the rapid growth in video streaming, content marketers need to readjust the definitions of content, experts said.
Now the digital marketing professional has a challenging role as much as his counterpart in the traditional media. Trends keep changing quicker in electronic space and hence one needs to be on the toes to keep up with the competition. Early adopters of digital medium are more likely to see better results compared to late starters, analysts said.
Mobile internet traffic is increasing at a fast pace that Google has said this year that mobile overtook desktop traffic in 10 countries. An algorithm update was released by Google and willing to accept two versions of the site, but showing more affinity to mobile.
Content in websites and blogs still remain the King. Blogging and content will remain indispensable for brand positioning. In short, words will not be the only touch points for brands.
Hot jobs in digital marketing: Some of the most common job titles in digital marketing are – digital marketing manager, marketing manager, digital marketing specialist, marketing co-ordinator, SEO specialist, web developer, account executive, social media manager, recruiter, digital marketing analyst, marketing specialist, content marketing manager, user experience manager, account manager, marketing director, content strategist, SEO manager, executive director, paid search specialist, social media specialist.
The average annual salary ranges from $51000 for social media marketing to $102,000 for SEO related jobs.
Among the jobs listed above, the most in-demand job titles are digital marketing manager and marketing manager. Among the skills in this area that companies look for are – social media marketing, SEO, Pay Per Click (PPC), content marketing, Google analytics and digital marketing.
Data analytics has also evolved as a subset of digital marketing efforts with some reports predicting 60% increase in marketing analytics spending. The prediction is that for some industries the growth would be 73% and reach almost 100% for large cap B2C companies.
Data analytics is set to become complex with interpretation of data becoming a critical aspect for business success. It is not enough to have awareness of data but how to analyse and use them, analysts said. In 2016, companies should focus on creating a refined almost personalized digital journey that is consumable on any device, at any touch point , and can be attributed back to the marketing efforts of the brand.
Social Media Marketing
Social media landscape is now emerging as a effective platform for the industry especially Business to Consumer (B2C). Ayaz Nanji wrote in Marketingprofs.com that auto industry has witnessed the most active engagement by social media users.
Quoting from TrackMaven report, he said that CPG, entertainment, food, hospitality, insurance, restaurant, retail and telco/cable verticals were the other sectors seeing rapid growth in social media engagement of audience.
This data goes to prove that social media has come of age a part of digital marketing but also having a very separate and unique identity. A social media manager need not be a technical person but having a keen interest in understanding the nuances of social media landscape and its possibilities. An understanding of design, content creation, hashtagging, video and image postings, popular and trending topics will go a long way in utilizing the marketing, software and design team to achieve the identified objectives.
The results in digital marketing can only come through paid promotion and this has been proved over 2015. Therefore, the social media manager needs to select the appropriate platform and the right budget for each of them. FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin, Google plus all have their inherent strengths and weaknesses when it comes to brand building and promotion.
Social media marketer needs to know the nuances of using appropriate images and videos that are not copyrighted to gain edge over competitors. A recent survey of US based advertising and marketing executives, revealed that a majority felt public relations, communications department should handle the social media postings in organisations. The survey revealed 51% of the respondents were for communications department handling the job while 28% felt marketing team should do the job. About 5% felt it should be handled by the CEO while 9% said it should be held by customer service. However, the rapid changes in technology, complexity and diversity of markets have all made it possible for marketing communication as a separate function to evolve within organisations.
It is a relatively new development and hence may take time for the professionals in marketing, communication and other departments to adjust. Marketing Communication can be developed as a standalone department or in older companies they can draw on the resources of advertising, public relations, marketing and content management teams , handpick the most appropriate to create a new team that works on an integrated mission right from product conceptualization, branding, logo, trademarks, business communication strategies and so on that constitute marketing communication efforts of any organization.
SEO Marketing
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a term associated with increasing traffic to web sites. It involves programming skills, use of key words, tags, titles, descriptions of page, loading time and placement of features in a page.
The importance of SEO jobs in a company can be gauged by the average double digit growth in salaries for this category since 2012, according to a report from Conductor. The report said that starting salary for SEO professionals have increased by 17% since 2012, with marketing managers/SEO managers seeing the biggest hike of 26% in pay.
Among SEO related roles, directors of marketing have the highest average salary of $104,235 while SEO co-ordinators/associates have the lowest pay of $52,613.
There are lot of myths regarding SEO even among experts as Google continuously evolves its algorithm to meet the needs of the web visitors seeking information. It is with respect to importance given to keywords, meta tags, inbound links, page rank, among others things. Google’s algorithm has evolved to detect such trickery adopted by SEO experts. The message is simple- put good quality content, with relevant information, original images or using stock images. So the success lies not in tricking Google but putting that much effort on creating quality, original content.
Content Marketing Manager
Until the internet and mobile became popular, content marketing was perhaps unheard of. One could think of advertorials- a cross between advertisements and editorial that was paid for but looked more editorial than advertisement.
Content marketing can be done through websites, blogging, articles in newspapers and magazines. It need not necessarily be about the product, brand or company but it can be about the new technology, issues related to the industry, new research advances in the area of operation- for example, health, nutrition, sports, food or any other industry.
The content marketer should not be seen indulging in hard sell but gently engaging the consumer or client into learning more about the product and its advantages. WordPress and Tumblr are ideal for blogging so is Google’s blogger platform. The company can also utilize talent in-house to write blogs in other websites related to the industry which has to be managed by the content marketing manager.
Email marketing, SMS promotion can also be included in content marketing and the clever use of timing, headlines and words will ensure that the effort doesn’t end up a spam or have a lower click through rate (CTR).
The content marketing team’s efforts are divided into two- one creating a plan that obviously should have the details to make money for the company and secondly to convince the management to undertake that exercise by making available the funds. They have to lay the facts on the table and it has to be supported by real numbers which comes through painstaking research. They have to put the buying process (or customer acquisition) process in perspective and share the vision of what would happen if he campaign is executed. Apart from text and images, infographics, video can be used effectively by content managers to bring new business and in brand building.
The content manager should have an ability to write and edit articles apart from producing projects to expand the digital footprints, awareness, subscribers and leads. It is a creative job that requires the ability to collaborate with internal content experts and clients to leverage industry knowledge.
Most probably they are drawn from journalism/communication background with good analytical and management skills. They need to manage the editorial calendar and must be good in analytics of Google, FaceBook, Linkedin among others.
Conclusion
As is visible from the new job opportunities in marketing, they have a few things in common- it is challenging, multi-disciplinary, its quite new and innovative, it involves the use of technology, communication techniques and creating relevant, good quality content. Several new jobs or functions are being created thanks to the confluence of data, analytics, social media growth, video streaming, blogging, mobile internet and apps.
Naturally, enough the potential growth in salary earning and career progression would be much better compared to conventional marketing jobs in future as the industry tries out means to increase return on investment and make marketing communications a good tool for furthering business.
The post 5 Marketing Careers You Didn’t Know appeared first on eduCBA.