Everyone knows that marketing is a necessary component of a successful business, large or small. Most people know that to be successful a business has to get what they do and how they do it (their message) to as many people as possible.
But, there is much more to marketing than just broadcast messages to people. Like the iceberg, there is much more beneath the surface in the discipline of marketing than the average person realizes. In this post, I’ll uncover some of the things I’ve learned along the way.
I think what we see in the marketing messages, tactics, and strategy we see today combine a blend of art and science, as well as business sense to get a message to the world.
Art Plays a Huge Part In Marketing
Nearly everything you see in marketing uses theories and principles taught in the arts, like design, layout, and color theory. These things combine into compelling ads that you see in print, on billboards, and in digital ads that you see on the internet.
Further, in the advent of video being a primary element in marketing and storytelling, the art of videography is becoming more and more important.
Creatives, like graphic designers, videographers, and even audio engineers all employ a lot of artistic skill to produce their material.
What I want to say is that it takes a huge amount of skill, eye, and creativity to create a compelling video or music that elicits an emotional response.
Further, it takes a large amount of skill in writing to write copy (words) that are compelling and convert into paying customers or orders.
Science Plays an Equally Huge Part As Well
What do you do with all the creative elements you have created? Well, there is a lot of science that comes into play as well.
Even though you have a great ad that’s well designed, how do you know if it will convert into sales? Well, that’s where the science of optimization comes in. For example, a marketer might create two different display ads (graphic) that has the same copy, same graphics, but a different call to action (CTA) whether a different color button or text. They test these two elements to see which one works the best with their audience.
Data science also plays into marketing in analyzing traffic to your website, demographic research, and social media reach. For example, you will want to know how visitors to your site are interacting with your site and with your social media activity.
Further, there is a lot of psychology involved in marketing. Marketing is in essence an exercise in persuasion so you have to be able to understand your audience and what makes them tick and how to get them to take action.
Technology is a key component
To be a great marketing professional, you need to understand technology and tools. For example, how does your website work? Do you understand how your website gets from your server to a visitor’s browser? How do you set up your links to track activity and results of campaigns? That requires knowledge of Google Analytics UTM tags that tell you where your clicks are coming from in the digital marketing space?
How do you effectively use your email marketing service provider? You have to understand how to use that technology well.
Marketing professionals need to be able to engineer all manner of things on the internet to succeed.
Final Thoughts
I hope that this post has shed some light on what it really takes to be a marketing professional. For business owners and leaders of organizations, they might see a better picture of what it takes to be a successful marketing professional. It’s not all just fun and games and cute cat pictures.
