Do you want to bring your Marketing career to a next level? This is what employers are looking out for.

By: M Manassen 25-03-2019

Categories:Recruitment,

blog_image:article_movers_15535451265c9937a67987b.jpg:end_blog_image

Over the last 10 years, marketing has evolved into an area of expertise that is essential for every organization. Nowadays there are so many different areas of expertise, that it sometimes is hard to figure out what organizations are looking for. We, therefore, want to take some time and share the top marketing skills that companies in the Fashion, Retail, and Lifestyle industry are looking for.

Broaden your skills or specialize?

One of the most important questions to ask yourself, especially if you are at the start of your marketing career, is whether you want to specialize in one area of expertise, or if you want to broaden your knowledge.

As a specialist, you can strengthen your career by deepening your knowledge in a certain segment. There is a big variety of specializations within marketing, that are all still of big value in 2019. You can think of online specializations such as SEO, Email/funnels, Advertising, Social Media and offline specializations like Branding, PR & Events, Retail Marketing, Trade and Communication. The bigger an organization is, the more specialistic the roles will be.

The answer to the question if you should broaden your knowledge or specialize in one field depends strongly on your personality and ambitions. If you aspire to one day become a CMO or Marketing Director, it is important to broaden your knowledge, to keep educating yourself on new innovations and to learn how to manage and lead creative teams.

Organizations expect that a strong Marketing Director will know how every marketing channel functions, how to optimize results and how they can contribute to company growth. It is also of great importance to stay on top of market developments like; who are THE influencers in Fashion, Cosmetics and Lifestyle? What channels are popular amongst the target audience of a brand and what message will speak to them. It is key to stay sharp on new developments every day.

If you feel that you are at your best if you can manage one thing really well, you will do best in a specialist role. By developing strength in one field, you will be of great value for an organization that needs a top performance on each channel.

Online or offline marketing

When you choose to become an expert in one certain field, it is still important to figure out what specialty is a good match for you, you can start by figuring out if your skills are best for an online or offline marketing job. From a Marketing Director, it is expected that you will have great knowledge of both worlds, in order to take high-level decisions. But many others will thrive by gathering a greater knowledge in one of the two fields.

Offline marketing

Despite the fact that there is a big shift towards online focused marketing activities, offline marketing is still very important for fashion, retail and cosmetic brands. Think of Fashion Shows, Trade Shows or In-Store promotions that need to be organized and created.

In an offline marketing job, different competencies are of importance to be successful. In general, your job relies strongly on relationships with partners, suppliers, and merchants, so excellent communication skills will be important. In addition, it is important to have strong time management abilities and project management skills.

Online Marketing

These days there is a big demand for online marketing specialists and there is a big variety of skills that are required to be successful. You can feel more connected to the creative side, by working on content creation, copywriting, campaign management or Social Media. Or you can find yourself in a more analytical role that is focused on website performance and optimization, E-commerce, Marketplace Management Search Engine Marketing or SEO.

Whatever your strengths are, online marketing is a specialism that is constantly evolving and renewing. It is highly important to stay educated, keep learning and stay up to date on innovations. You can really make a difference if you possess the ability to seek out opportunities within new platforms or online communities. Because without realizing your way of working might be outdated and your target audience will have moved on.

Every organization recognizes the importance of a strong online presence. When you are the best in your expertise, the odds of cherry picking a new job will be pretty good.

Innovator or hands-on execution?

Besides the fact that you can choose a specialization or not, there is a very big difference in how marketing jobs are shaped within different organizations. When you work for a wholesale organization of a brand, for instance, your priorities will be organized around executing high-level strategies, for the region where you are responsible. You will focus on further refining a strategy to make it suitable for a local audience.

It is very important that you possess a broad marketing knowledge, to determine what channels work best in your region and how to best reach a target audience. In addition, strong project management skills will be very useful as well as being stress resistant, because you will be juggling multiple balls at the same time.

In a certain role, you won’t need to concern yourself with branding since this will usually be done at a head office. In the long run, you can further develop yourself by working on leadership skills, so you will eventually be able to lead a team of marketers.

Creativity, innovation, and branding

If you aspire to build a brand, the best place to work in the heart of a fashion, retail or lifestyle brand, the head office. Here you focus on brand image, messaging and storytelling. The job of Brand Manager can be compared to that of a Marketing Manager and is all about the expression of a brand. To be successful as a Brand Manager, you can work on familiarizing yourself with the identity and culture of a brand/organization. What is the mission and/or vision and how can we bring that message to our audience?

The upside of working on the brand marketing side is that there isn’t any direct pressure to show immediate results, by causing a direct sales increase for example. Of course, there have to be some measurable results, as branding contributes to a positive brand image. Companies will measure your success by Social Engagement, store visits or search volume for your brand in search engines. And of course in time you will be able to see if more traffic resulted in a sales increase.

Beware, Marketing Job titles don’t tell you everything

When you are job hunting, it is important to not just browse job titles, but always make some effort to really understand what a company is looking for. If you want to be absolutely sure that a new marketing challenge will be a nice fit for your skills, you can work together with a recruitment consultant. Our consultant Mascha Manassen knows exactly what certain organizations are looking out for and can determine if a job would be a match for you. Are you interested to learn if we can help you find a new marketing job? Reach out to Mascha via mascha@moversshakers.nl.

Check onze laatste Marketing Vacatures hier