For a recent graduate, trying to get his/her footing in Marketing seems daunting, especially as the overall employment landscape has been impacted by the pandemic. It is natural to feel confused about how to navigate these obstacles. How does one get the right start and develop the right competencies? What then, is the way forward?
Back to the basics
Owing to technological growth and the boom in marketing-led ventures, there are more Marketing jobs available now than ever before, and having a strong foundation will help you land the perfect entry-level role. Learning the fundamentals of Marketing early will help you understand the brand, consumer and the overall market a lot better and also how these three interact with each other. As the world evolves, so does the field of marketing. Different and newer aspects of marketing fundamentals have emerged such as search, social media marketing and content marketing and more. These topics evolve and change so fast that they have not yet been covered extensively in traditional educational formats. Marketing fundamentals must be examined from the requirements of recruiters and expectations of organisations.
A new trend in the fundamentals of Marketing that helps companies build their brand identity and drive customer sales is the importance of paid media. For instance, more brands have started using Facebook and Google ads to promote themselves and their products, because of the potential extensive reach offered. It is also important for brands to understand what works for them in the long run, which is why marketing professionals pay a lot of attention to Google Analytics, Instagram Insights and more, when trying to build a successful brand strategy.
The best time to start learning the fundamentals in any field, especially Marketing, is at the start of one’s career. Although learning on the job is a part and parcel of any role, learning these basics beforehand is key to gaining a competitive advantage over your peers and accelerating your career growth.
Learning from seasoned practitioners is one thing, but ensuring that you have the ability to execute these learnings in a professional environment is the basis of a good marketing course. The average marketing hopeful will learn about marketing tools, how to create reports and theories about optimisation, whereas those with excellent practical knowledge of the fundamentals tend to excel in real-life situations.
An excellent way of learning is through relevant internships that can teach you the basics and give you an insight into what it is like to work with other marketing professionals. The Internet is a great tool for basic information, but it can only go so far. It may teach you what the meaning of SEO is, but it won’t teach you how to understand and apply that information while building a marketing strategy. Online sources can tell you what works for different brands and what doesn’t, but they won’t really teach you how to analyse this information and select what aspect would work for you. In short, work hard and build a strong foundation so that you can stand out in your career later.
The writer is Founder and CEO of Kraftshala, an ed-tech organisation that builds marketing training programmes
