Question

Topic: Career/Training

What 2 Learn 4 Digtl Marketing/research/branding

Posted by biggermiao on 6/4/2014 at 9:45 AM ET 125 Points
I plan to transition to a marketing position from a customer research/communications/relations role.

The aim is 1) digital marketing, 2)market research, and 3) brand development. This would focus on promoting the product, the brand's image, and researching market/consumer needs to inform product development.

I'm building a list of skills to learn, and practice practically(either in my current position, friend's business, other).

Would be grateful for a list of content to learn, and suggestions on how to learn. the list can contain specific brands of technology, methodologies or course names.

Content I have so far: SEO, blogging, social media, web design, market intelligence methods/technology(any specific brand?), viral marketing,

Planned Learning method: specialized academy online/offline, reading & following real published content as case studies, mock or real application of the above.

this community helped me make the decision to transition, thanks a lot for the excellent help so far!
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  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 6/4/2014 at 6:42 PM Accepted
    A list of content to learn? Here are a few tips to a few icebergs:

    Learn how to write a kick ass headline and how to craft compelling, benefit-rich content.

    Develop an understanding of people's needs, pain points, and problems.

    Learn how to listen and when to talk and know the difference between the two.

    Know when to shut the hell up.

    Learn how to present an idea or an offer and learn how to defend it against objections and refusals.
    If you don't learn (or aren't prepared to learn) how to counter objections in sales, many of the other skills may be moot.

    Forget about branding for the time being and focus on selling and on your sales process and scripting. Focus on meeting people's needs and in solving people's problems.

    Learn how to accept rejection and how to shake it off in order to move on to the next prospect.

    Know now, going into this—FROM THE BEGINNING—that nothing's going to happen overnight. NOTHING! You'll toil. you'll think of quitting. You'll fail and and you'll screw things up monumentally.
    You'll have a series of tiny victories rather than having one, divine inspiration-type success event. And many (or most) of these small victories will be interspersed with months and year of your wondering what on Earth you are doing and in-between weeks, months and years of crippling self doubt in which you'll wonder what on Earth your thought you were thinking to being with.

    Learn how to push through REGARDLESS of the naysayers and bullshit merchants.

    In time you'll develop a sixth or seventh sense—a sort of marketing radar if you will—that will enable you to see through the BS from 5 miles away.

    Good luck. Stick at it. It's worth it.
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 6/4/2014 at 8:26 PM Accepted
    If you don't have the background already, pick up a good basic marketing manual and study that. You have some good skills, and there likely are some other discrete skills you could focus on, but without the ,marketing basic background, it may not be that useful to implement.

    The overview of what would be needed foe a business is a great way to see what skills are needed. You said you friends' businesses you can help? If so, do a SWOT analysis, a PESTEL analysis, and a review of the 4Ps. To do these, you will need to find out what skills would be needed to help their business. Then you can dive in and learn that skill and implement to help their business.
  • Posted by biggermiao on 6/7/2014 at 1:43 AM Author
    Thanks for the great insight,

    Gary, I agree being able to promote and close on a 1-1 basis through sales will greatly inform broader marketing strategies. Time in the trenches open up our customer insight. Regarding kick-ass copy, I will definitely do this more in my current position. I'm kinda the guy now who convinces the customer in tough situations or who develops the content for how we communicate in a certain situation. I've done it a few times for sales promotinal materials, and once for a slogan, and will do more. truly love writing and communicating, thanks!

    Peter,

    Defnitely getting the theory down in marketing was important to help create interests. I've understood the 4ps, though it has increased to 7？ Have examine swot, but not PESTEL. I'll be getting a more up to date book, to smooth out theory again, great suggestion. May even look at the courses on this site. I'll probably be helping my friend's ecommerce b2c site, try to squeeze some initiatives in my current company, IBM, and then do some side social media related stuff for products I like voluntarily for writing and implementation practice.

    cheers, thanks again, and glad to be part of this community


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