Working in marketing: your questions on traits, trends & training, answered

If you are looking for reasons to work in marketing, look no further. Marketing is a great career for those who enjoy communicating and like a challenge (which, let’s face it, is most of us). As well as this, marketing currently employs around 55,000 Australians across a wide, and sometimes surprising, range of sectors including manufacturing, retail, technical services and professional services. In this article we aim to answer some of your questions about a career in marketing and help you look at training options including finding the right online marketing course for you.

What exactly is marketing?

The term ‘marketing’ covers a range of activities that support the sales and development of goods and services. In short, the work that marketers do is two-fold:

1. A marketer keeps a close eye on trends and future requirement predictions and helps with developments that might fulfill these.
2. A marketer works to create and manage advertising strategies, develop brands and support sales objectives.

Marketing job titles are varied but might include the following:

1. A marketing consultant understands the relationships between customer motivation, market analysis and marketing strategies and may work as part of an agency or as an individual.
2. An account executive manages the marketing interests of a particularly client or group of clients.
3. An advertising specialist discusses advertising needs with a client and then plans and implements advertising campaigns.

What is the picture for marketing careers in Australia?

The requirement for marketing is almost universal and covers both products and service. Without adequate marketing a business can provide the best in either but still fail to make sales. Competition in marketing is high and employers are keen to ensure that they have the very best services they can afford. All of this means that the picture for the marketing career sector in Australia is good. Growth is predicted in the years up to 2020, particularly in New South Wales and marketing wages are above the national average. For women who are interested in marketing careers, there is good news as 60% of all marketing employees are currently female.

Which traits does a successful marketer need?

A successful marketer requires a combination of personal skills and knowledge areas. These are wide-ranging but we have listed some basics below:

Personal Skills

• Communication (with clients, consumers, managers and executives)
• Creativity (the requirement to instruct creative staff and understand how they work)
• Creative thinking (the ability to come up with and adapt ideas in innovative ways)
• Teamwork (a collaborative and supportive approach)
• Organisation (the ability to bring different marketing elements together)
• Analytics (understanding and interpreting data to check that marketing campaigns are having the desired effect)

Knowledge Areas

• Language skills (a good level of written and spoken language, including spelling and grammar)
• Media skills (an understanding of various forms of media and their creation, including social and visual media)
• Customer service skills (some experience of working with people at different organizational levels)
• Technical skills (the ability to learn new technical skills is more important that specific application knowledge)

How can I find a marketing course to suit me?

If you are interested in a career in marketing but are unsure of your ability in some of the areas above please don’t worry, most of these skills are learnable. Some of them you could gain from work experience but in general, most workers in the marketing sector have some form of formal qualification (over half have a Bachelor degree or higher). An online marketing course is a great way to either dip your toes into the world of marketing or make a move up the marketing ladder. We have a range of marketing and social media marketing courses including:

For someone who is new to the marketing world or wants to formalise their experience with an online course:

Certificate IV in Marketing and Communication (BSB42415)

12 units including marketing communication, digital solutions and market research

Example roles - market research assistant, marketing officer or public relations officer

For someone who is an experienced marketer but wants to gain competency in the field of social media marketing:

Diploma of Social Media Marketing (10118NAT)

8 units including email marketing, niche social media strategies and the marketing mix

Example roles - content strategist, social media manager or digital marketing strategist

You could also study courses such as

• Diploma of Marketing and Communication (BSB52415)
• Social Media Short Course

Take the first step into a marketing career with Upskilled 

If you decide on a career in marketing the chances are that you will never be bored. This is a dynamic, people-friendly career that has enough of a competitive edge to keep you interested and enough job security to keep the bank manager happy. Why wait, make the move and sign up for an online marketing course with Upskilled today.

Fi Darby Fi is a professional copywriter based in Devon, England. She specialises in education, careers, travel and outdoor writing and is the co-author of the popular daily outdoor blog 'Two Blondes Walking'. Fi has written three children's books and, when she isn't writing, Fi loves to gather inspiration from long walks, early morning sea swims and winter wild camps.