
This month, I’m tackling the practice of Building A Second Brain, in collaboration with Tiago Forte and Praxis. This is the debut of this module and I’m thrilled to be a part of it!
This first week of module 2, I dug into the role of marketing to see what it was made of and why it’s crucial to a company’s success.
If you’re interested in an inside look at a digital marketer’s experience, read on to learn from Julie Bonn Blank. You can find her at www.juliebonnblank.com for more information.
Q1: What does marketing entail in terms of day to day activities?
“Day to day duties depend on the business. It might include monitoring social media, prepping memes and posts, answering emails, designing a brochure, designing or changing a website, calls with people or other agencies/businesses…”
Among the extensive list was also strategic planning, writing articles and blog posts, and PR planning.
Q2: Why is this particular role important to the overall health and success of the business?
“I believe marketing is essential to the growth and ongoing health of any business. There is a difference between marketing and sales. Both are important. Sales are more of a face-to-face relationship whereas marketing is more behind the scenes, affecting a company’s reputation, trust level and public relations (the way the public views the company, brand, product or service). I have seen PR issues that have broken a company’s ability to generate revenue and PR successes that have skyrocketed sales and resulted in massive growth. The perception of a brand, company, service or person is just as essential as the ability to go out and make direct sales and sometimes more important-as a reputation and impression of a business can drastically increase or decrease revenue.”
Sales and marketing work closely with one another, it seems. They both strive to know the customer and put the company’s best face forward.
“Marketing is important to the overall health and wellness especially in the area of reputation but in addition, you cannot grow a business without it. Even very small/mom-pop business still needs a website, communication material, and a social online presence at the very minimum.
Having a PR crisis plan in place and monitoring conversation can be very important to the health of a company.”
Q3: What are the hardest parts of marketing?
“I am not sure why this occurs, but when there are budget cuts, companies like to look at cutting the marketing budget. When in fact, this should be a number that they maintain or increase. I believe it is because sometimes marketing (since it is behind the scenes) does not always show an immediate and direct impact on the revenue of a company. So, people sometimes believe it is optional when in fact, it is the glue that holds everything together.”
I love the definition of marketing as the glue. It has a hand in most departments.
“Another difficulty is when companies do not want to get involved in social media. I hear a lot of ‘I’m not on Twitter, Facebook (etc) and have no desire to be on there.’ And I have to say ‘well that’s great, and your prerogative, but guess what– people ARE talking about you on social media. Shouldn’t you be there to answer?’ Sure enough, we do a search and chances are, their brand or company has been mentioned on social media. I pull up 4-5 times when they have been talked about and they finally say, ‘Um, ok. Maybe we should be on there. Can you teach us?’ ‘YES.’ “
Q4: What are the most rewarding parts of marketing for you?
“I love to help companies grow, expand and serve more people. I love to help them start answering people who have been talking about them anyway online for a long time.”
Discovery on all ends. From the company, to marketer, to customer.
Q5: Is there anything cool or interesting about marketing that most people don’t know?
“In marketing, we are coaches, advisors, planners and reputation managers. We do much more than support direct sales. We hold the reputation and impressions of your company in our hands.”
Q6: Are there any negative stereotypes or misconceptions people have about marketing that you think is untrue?
“Yes! That we are unnecessary when it is time for budget cuts!”
If you’re considering cutting the marketing department, hear these words! Look closer at everything they are upholding for your company.
Q7: What does it take to be successful in marketing?
“Persistence is key. And keeping up on trends and how marketing grows and evolves. If you are a traditional marketing person but are not keeping up with digital and social marketing, I would be concerned. I also get concerned about new grads because it appears that a lot of social media and modern-day marketing is not being taught in schools. I have interns that claim they have learned more in the workplace than in school. Me too!”
This, right here, is a part of why I chose Praxis over college. They are behind the times, and the workplace is becoming more and more recognized as the prime place to learn.
Q8: What kind of hard skills are necessary or useful for marketing?
“I would argue that soft skills are more important but I suppose it is essential that one understands traditional marketing, advertising, media buying, etc in this role. But then again, my hard skill learning was a long time ago so maybe they are including more soft skills now in education. I will be forever grateful for my training in psychology as this has been essential to me in marketing.”
Another example of how quickly things change from generation to generation. To be in marketing, you must be ready to evolve and adapt to the market, as
Psychology is something to consider diving deeper into for this role for a multitude of reasons, the most obvious being a closer look at why people do what they do, love what they love, and buy what they buy.
Q9: What do you wish you had known before starting in this role?
“I wish I had known how digital media and social media marketing would become so very essential to the presence of a business.”
Who knows what will be the next leg of the marketing world? What’s next? You have to wonder, and keep wondering. If you stop looking forward, you could get left behind in this ever-changing position.
Watch this space for an even deeper look at what makes marketing essential, and what’s crucial to succeed within
Visit Julie at www.juliebonnblank.com to see what she’s up to, besides graciously helping out a young aspiring business woman.