6 Marketing Lessons you Should Learn

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I may have graduated just over two years ago, and only had two marketing roles in the time since, but I’ve certainly learned a lot. I don’t have years of experience under my belt just yet, but I truly believe that time doesn’t matter when you’re willing to throw yourself into an industry you’re passionate about, and prepared to learn from those around you who have a wealth of knowledge themselves.

We often assume that how much we know is defined by the years we’ve spent learning, but that’s often not the case. Just because you’ve had less experience than the next person doesn’t mean you don’t know as much as them; it’s just that your knowledge and skillset is different.

Digital marketing is a collaborative effort, and inevitably leads you to picking things up you didn’t even realise you were learning along the way. There is no I in team, and it rings particularly true in this industry.

In order to make a brands campaign work, everyone needs to be focused on their personal goal but also what’s going on in the wider team. At Datify we always ensure we’re aware of what everyone else is working on that month and have regular client updates. It may not necessarily be relevant to our individual tasks at the time it’s shared, but it’ll inevitably come into play at some point.

If a collaborative effort doesn’t exist, then your knowledge and skillset ultimately becomes stagnant and outdated; resulting in your work becoming outdated and client’s results declining.

I’ve put together a few of the lessons I’ve learnt along the way in my career so far, in the hope that you can learn a thing or two as well.

Always use data

If you aren’t using data to inform your marketing strategy, then what are you doing? You’re literally taking a stab in the dark and hoping for the best outcome. Inevitably leading to wasted time, effort and money. Why would you do that to yourself and your clients?

Data isn’t just something SEO specialists use to inform their work; us content folks can use it too you know. What’s the point in pitching blog titles if you don’t know how much traffic previous posts have got? Why secure a placement if you can’t see statistically how well the site is performing or engagement levels? If data isn’t at the heart of what you do right now, then it should be.

Be quick and adaptable

Marketing is fast paced. Sometimes you feel as though you don’t know whether you’re coming or going, but slow and steady doesn’t win the race in the marketing game. You have to be quick and adaptable to the ever-changing digital climate and ready to jump on a trend at a moment’s notice.

Having said that, I far too often come across brands who have jumped on a trend without considering if it’s actually relevant to their campaign. If it doesn’t add value, then don’t do it. You need to move fast to avoid missing out, but only if it enhances what you’re doing. Similarly, if it’s an overcrowded topic then you need to evaluate the return you’re going to get on the piece.

Create the story

Stories don’t just come out of nowhere; you have to create them and go looking for them. It can be incredibly frustrating when a client doesn’t tell you about an amazing new project they may be working on, new report they have coming out or event they are hosting. Something which may seem insignificant to them, can be a content marketers dream story.

It’s all about communication with clients where creating newsworthy stories is concerned and laying down the foundations for discussions as soon as they begin their campaign with you. Sometimes I think marketers forget that not everyone knows what will gain traction and what won’t, but if you try to educate clients on the content marketing process from the start it should help to avoid any hiccups further down the line.

Be the audience

The audience are who you want to influence, so unless you’re considering what action you want them to take or what you want them to take away when they view your content you aren’t doing your job properly. Audience engagement is key to your campaigns success.

Data can help to inform you when creating the content; you want your desired audience to engage with. You need to know everything you can find out about them; who are they? What do they do? What are their consumer habits? Which publications do they engage with?

The audience doesn’t want a sales pitch; they want useful, informative and engaging content. The content you create needs to strike up an emotional connection with your audience, when people feel something they develop an opinion, react and create a bond with the brand.

And client

Sometimes when you’re bogged down by deadlines you can forget that the work you’ve completed that month is going to be reported back to the client. Imagine if you were the client; how would you view the work that you’ve done?

Most of us take great pride in the work we do, but it can be worth remembering that client results are your results too. While it may not be your name that goes in the author bio, you’re the one who worked hard on building the brand and writing the article, so do you really want it ending up on a website which won’t create great results? No.

Build the brand

As a marketer you are responsible for building the brand. You only need to do a quick Google of how trust builds brands, to realise how important they are in making a business thrive. Trust creates brand loyalty and loyalty builds a business.

In simple tech terms; search engines are going to give better results to results to those brands which it deems more trustworthy and able to give the user the best experience. This means that everything you do throughout your marketing strategy, should be about creating the best experience for your audience. You need to get the right people talking about you, sharing your content and engaging with you.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” – Albert Einstein – and when it comes to marketing unless you keep moving and learning, there’ll be someone else who will.

 

source – http://bit.ly/2etgr4R