What 11 Years in Marketing Taught Me: 5 Tips for Beginners

Marketing is not always fun, but then, it has its sweet rewards. In my 11 years’ experience, one of those rewarding moments comes with learning something new. You will do well in this profession if you are always ready to learn.

Irrespective of your age or experience, there is always something left to learn as a marketer. Something new would be helpful in different phases of your life.

It doesn’t matter whether you are into social media marketing or whatever type of marketing it is that you do, there are several lessons to be learned. In most cases, like me, these are some lessons you probably never thought about.

If you are new to marketing or you are trying to make a switch, this article is especially for you. I will share with you five of the most important lessons I have picked during my 11 years journey. But first, what is marketing?

What is Marketing?

In simple English, marketing refers to the act of inducing profitable customer action. The process covers all aspects of strategies and tactics that organizations use to position their products and services in the marketplace. It also involves all the techniques used by companies to motivate their target audiences to make them buy products.

It is not to be confused with advertising which is a part of the large jigsaw that makes up marketing. With that said, there are different types of marketing today, they include:

Email Marketing:

This type involves sending emails to users who have previously signed up for your messages. It helps to build customer relationships and it drives after-sales.

Content Marketing:

This type involves publishing content in diverse forms to build awareness for a brand. Like e-mail marketing, it can also be a tool in building healthy business-customer relationships.

Often, it is confused as a type of digital marketing but then, it is not especially when you consider that, it can take place offline. Good examples include social media posts, infographics, blogs, and videos.

Search Engine Optimization:

It is also called SEO and is the optimizing of contents of a website such that is visible on search engines. From these search engines, you can attract some form of traffic from searches.

Search Engine Marketing:

This type is also called pay-per-click or PPC. In this unique marketing type, businesses pay so that links to their websites are placed in prominent places on search engine result pages.

Social Media Marketing:

This type involves the use of social networks like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and so on to establish relationships with customers. It can also be used to reach more people through digital testimonies and reviews.

Influencer Marketing:

It is the use of influential people on social media to promote your products or services.

5 Marketing Tips for Beginners

Now to the big part. The following are some of the lessons I have learned personally on my 11-year marketing journey.

#1. Set smart goals

The importance of goals in any field cannot be overemphasized. We all know that setting goals helps achieve success. Yet, it’s funny how many of us forget to create goals. While some outrightly fail in this regard, others especially beginners tend to take the process lightly. In the end, what they have are goals that are not realistic.

First, you should understand that these goals are not just a part of the process. They are crucial to judging the performance of your marketing. With well-defined goals, you have a definitive road map to get you where you are going. At the same time, they are a sort of metric to judge if you are making progress.

As a beginner, you should have your marketing goals well spelled. Write down the outcomes and results that you expect from your campaigns. As a side note, makes sure at every time, these goals align with the central goal of your business.

Finally, for your goals to lead to success, they should be specific, have a time frame attainable, and most importantly, measurable. Goals that fall in this category are usually long-lasting and are popular in many businesses today.

#2. Email is still efficient

When it comes to the efficiency of marketing channels, email remains the best. Do you want to generate revenue, or want your newsletter or a piece you wrote read? An email will do the trick.

Regardless of what you were told before now, the results are there to prove. In 2012, a study was conducted and its results showed that 59% of B2B marketers generated most of their revenue via e-mail marketing.

If you are looking to be more efficient with your marketing, this is one life lesson you must learn. That is, sending out emails to people and having them respond is a good idea for your marketing.

#3. Measure everything

One of the lessons I have learned so far in marketing is to measure everything. Everything that contributes to your success has to be measured not just once but continuously.

In the world today, measuring things has become so easy. That’s because we live in a world where data rules the day. Technology has become so advanced and sophisticated that data can be generated anywhere at any time. More importantly, you can have access to chunks of data from the big data revolution going on today.

Remember that, this field is a competitive one, it’s left to you to find out ways to make this data work for you. So, for starters, you must get comfortable enough with data gathering and analysis.

But that is not enough, you must also learn from the results of your analytics. Look back into your models and find the reasons why your campaigns failed. As you do this, it becomes a part of you and you will see its benefits even in your personal life.

In your business, solving problems using this scientific process would be helpful. You will notice increased efficiency as a result of data-driven decisions. In your personal life, on the other hand, data driven decisions would help you get better relationships, get you in shape, and focus on things that make you happy.

#4. Put your eggs in as many baskets as you can afford

You must have the phrase, “do not put your eggs in one basket.” In marketing, it has several applications and all hold some lessons that you must learn.

As a beginner in this field, you are limited on many ends especially with your resources Therefore, it becomes important that you put these scarce resources in activities that guarantee the most returns.

Your investments should be carefully selected so you do not lose it all. Always weigh the options before you. Be careful to pick options that leave you with somethings to fall back on. Relying on one thing all the time is a sure recipe for financial trouble and heartache.

Be sure that your tools are right for your target audience. Otherwise, there is no point in wasting money where there are no potential leads. However, there is another side to it. While selecting several options, always remember that your resources are limited.

More so, every new platform comes with its demands for time, resources, and all. You need to realize that there is a limit to how well you can function well across numerous platforms. Therefore, know your limits and stay within them.

As a rule, before picking a new tool for marketing, try asking the following questions. They will help you determine if the step is the right one.

• Will this tool help me reach my marketing goals?
• Can I reach my target audience with this tool?
• Does this platform match my content?

#5. Always make good use of images

You should have heard this before now but then, you must hear it again. Pictures are crucial in your marketing campaigns. This part is crucial for social media marketers than any other type of marketers.

According to an online research conducted by Buffer, visual contents (pictures and videos) are 40 times more likely to be shared on social media than other types of content.

That should tell you something, visual content is essential. So, add images to your messages even if they are text-based, add them.

While using pictures, ensure that you stay consistent. This strategy will improve your brand recognition and create a better visual identity` for your business. The way to do that is to stick with the same style, colors, fonts, and layouts in all your pictures.

Conclusion

You might not have thought about some of these before now. However, you can see a few lessons I learned during my 11 years of being a marketer. I hope these tips help you become better at what you do as a marketer.

The good part is, you can also use apply some of these tips outside of marketing in your personal life. With these lessons, your life as a marketer would be easier and stress-free. You would live happy and have a balanced lifestyle.

About the Author!

Timothy Miller is an entrepreneur and point of interest content creator with Ezassignmenthelp.com. He is specialized in writing blog articles, copywriting, ghostwriting, and eBooks.