What do Marketers Do?

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What do Marketers Do?

I bet you that you have heard the term m many times. You probably even know some marketers. But if someone asks you, “What do marketers do?” Can you give the correct answer? I would be surprised. Why? Because marketing is an extremely broad field. The marketing job is so diverse and encompasses so many different things that honestly, you need to read about it to fully understand.

Skills and expertise in an expansive area are what is needed and what fits the job descriptions. Marketing involves placing the bright lights and showcasing the company you are working for to inform customers or clients why they should trust your company and engage in your services.

So again, what is it that marketers specifically do? There truly are hundreds of job descriptions. Marketers in different industries pretty much do different tasks. The bottom line though is for marketing to shine a light on their company. OK, then let us take a closer look at these forms of marketing to see first if you see yourself as a marketer and second what are some of the different types of marketers.

The marketing job description

Marketers figure out all the ways and means about getting the word out about their organization’s products or services. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), those in a marketing career monitor market trends, create advertising campaigns, develop pricing strategies and targeting strategies based on demographic data and work with the company to develop more awareness of what they offer.1

When it comes to defining the marketing job description, Nicholas Corso global marketing director at Bioventrix, says there is no one answer. “As a marketer at a medical device startup he says that he cannot focus on any specific type of marketing skill or channel but rather must be familiar and experienced in everything,” Corso says.

Whether it’s a medical device, public relations, digital marketing, e-commerce, search engine optimization, or a hospital—marketers work across many different channels and skill areas, according to Corso. Given the advancement of technology, the skills that marketers must have has increased tremendously.

That is why you will find such diverse job descriptions. Some of which are extremely industry-specific. Instead of a broad catchall job description, you’re more likely to find individual job descriptions for several specialized roles. Most of the positions that you look at will fall into one of two buckets—digital marketing and traditional marketing.

What do digital marketers do?

WOW! How about everything online. This is a huge category for sure. Digital marketers market to social media platforms such as Facebook, and LinkedIn. They also market to blogs, news outlets, and more. Digital marketers are also brand management professionals. Developing and maintaining brand management is key here. Think about everything that goes on online these days. There are different types of digital marketing. Please note, however, that these types of digital marketing jobs overlap. This is just a snapshot of some of the many marketing focuses out there.

Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing

PPC marketing! This is a metric driving thought-provoking specialty that involves paid sponsored content in search engines. You know, the ads that you see at the top and bottom of the searches on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Google of course is on the top. PPC is based on an auction. The marketer not only needs to know the keyword to build the ad around, but they also need to understand how much that ad will cost to show up.

The marketer needs to keep updated on search, and keyword trends and constantly create new ads that will show up in search. If the PPC marketer isn't up to date and on top of everything PPC, they will spend hundreds or thousands of dollars of their company's money monthly. These marketers need to keep up with the ever-changing works of this industry.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

SEO is both scientifically and intuitively based. It also involves working with search engines. SEO is utilized to drive free organic traffic to websites. Their job is to get your website on page 1 of Google in the top 3-5 positions. Where PPC marketing is a short-term strategy, SEO is very much a long-term. Changes you make today may not have an impact for months.”

SEO can be the most cost-effective form of marketing available. It is also the most stressful in my opinion. An SEO marketer is at the mercy of Google, Bing, and the other search engine algorithm changes. That said, they need to be current at every given moment.

Content marketing

Content marketing's main purpose is to bring value to customers and establish connections between the brand and the customers.”

Content marketing is a subset of SEO. It is the content that drives the keyword searches.

A content marketer's job is to engage with their company's customers or organization's members. They first need to have a thorough understanding of the community they serve. Their likes, dislikes, habits, etc. They then conduct keyword research. What words are trending on Google and other search engines as it pertains to their business verticle. They then write content that incorporates those trending words so when people search for those words their content will come up in their search and people will click to read it. They not only write new content to drive traffic to their company's website, they need to keep old content up to date.

Video marketing

Video marketing is just that. It tells a video story of the business or organization. Videos can be introductory, educations, commercial, or anything else you can think of. The good thing about video marketing is people like to watch videos so it drives traffic. Not only that but the video marketers can see not only who watched a video, but what did they do with the videos. Did they pause them? Did they rewind them? Did they watch the video more than once, and more?

Common digital marketing job titles

These job titles are all commonly associated with digital marketing:

Social media manager
SEO specialist
Digital brand manager
Paid-media specialist
Content marketing specialist

What do traditional markers do?

Traditional marketing also includes digital marketing. However, it is not the only thing traditional marketers do. Traditional marketing covers everything. Developing campaigns for radio, television, newspapers, magazines, billboards, telemarketing, face-to-face efforts and more. For many companies—a non-digital approach connects better with their customer base. These individuals conduct market research, establish financial forecasts, strategies, and more.

Experiential marketing

Experiential marketing, also called "engagement marketing," is a marketing strategy that invites an audience to interact with a business in a real-world situation.

It can also allow you to collect important data about your consumers which enables you to improve your marketing strategy. This kind of marketing encourages your consumers to participate in the evolution of your brand

Local marketing

Local marketing is just that. It is advertising and brand building on Billboards, at bus stops, or any other local outreach venue. Unless your business is strictly online, chances are you are engaging in some form of local marketing.

The day is never boring when you have a wide range of marketing skills. There are a million things that you can do, and a million things that you should do daily.

With so many projects every day should be exciting.

Market research

Market research is key. No marketer worth their salt doesn't do rely on market research. Research is conducted in many ways, including business case studies, search engine research, focus group research, and more. Market research information is used to help determine product positioning, price, key messages, and other important strategic decisions—many of which span both traditional and digital marketing.

Common traditional marketing job titles

Here is a list, although not an inclusive one of common traditional marketing job titles:

Marketing generalist
Community marketing coordinator
Brand manager
Promotions director
Business development strategist