What Does a Marketer Do?

Has a role as a Marketer caught your attention? Are you wondering if your passions and interests lie within the broad field of marketing? Or maybe you’re simply wondering what a Marketer actually does. 

Well, we’ve got you covered! In this article we’ve talked to Jannat, the Senior Marketing Manager at Insider, to look at the role of a Marketer, steps to becoming a Marketer, and more. 

Let’s dive in!

Meet Jannat

What is a Marketer?

Steps to Becoming a Marketer

Future Outlook

Best Thing & Worst Thing

Advice for Aspiring Marketers

Meet Jannat

Jannat is the Senior Marketing Manager at a technology company called Insider. 

As a Marketer, her role involves heaps of different tasks and skills to build a brand for the company. 

“I work in business-to-business marketing which is a lot of event planning, public relations, digital marketing… it’s basically doing a lot of different things and wearing a lot of different hats to build a brand for a company,” said Jannat. 

Studies and Experience 

Jannat studied a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Marketing with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Media and Communications at Macquarie University. 

During her final year of uni, she decided to seek out some internships. “I called the companies I wanted to work at, and then one of the places I interned at offered me a full-time job, the day after my final exam!” said Jannat. 

What made you want to work in this industry?

Something that really inspired her to work in marketing was that it was an environment and industry that allowed her to always learn! Working as a Marketer meant she could experiment, learn and explore at every stage in her career. 

What is a Marketer?

Marketing covers a broad range of skills and tasks so there’s no universal job description but basically, a Marketer is someone who works to build a brand for companies and businesses. They’re involved in spreading the word about the company’s products or services. 

Roles and Responsibilities 

Jannat’s day as a Marketer typically consists of a lot of different roles and responsibilities that require her to be familiar with the business as a whole with experience in just about anything.  

“Marketers essentially have to work across all the functions of a business — from understanding products to working with sales, working with existing clients to create case studies, and it’s all about making sure the company is well represented in every aspect of the buyer’s journey,” said Jannat. 

As a Marketer, you’ll find yourself wearing multiple hats and using heaps of different skill areas such as graphic design, writing, public relations, sales, digital marketing, and more! 

Which industries can this career be found in?

Marketers are actually involved in just about every industry you can think of! Most companies and industries engage in marketing to some degree but there are some industries in particular, where marketing is becoming increasingly important. 

Some of these industries are: 

• Technology/software 
• Education
• Retail
• Financial and insurance services

Characteristics and Qualities 

According to JobOutlook, some of the top skills required to enter a role as a Marketer include:

• Sales and marketing
• Customer and personal service
• Administration and management
• Mathematics
• Communications and media
• Education and training

Needless to say, strong sales and marketing skills such as marketing strategy, product demonstration and sales techniques are essential to succeed in your career as a Marketer!

At its core, working as a Marketer is about the human connection. This means that understanding your customer, empathising with them, responding to their needs and providing quality service and solutions is a major skill within marketing. 

Don’t stress if you don’t think you possess all these skills! They’re all skills that you’ll refine and learn along the way through study and experience. 

Steps to Becoming a Marketer

What should you study? 

If you’re thinking of becoming a marketer, a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field is usually required. Some options include a degree in commerce, marketing, business management, or communications.

Jannat, for example, studied a double degree in Commerce (majoring in Marketing) and Arts (majoring in Media and Communications). 

Here are some Bachelor’s degrees you could study to become a marketer: 

• Bachelor of Marketing at Monash University
• Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Advanced Studies (Media Communications) at USYD
• Bachelor of Commerce at USYD
• Bachelor of Marketing and Media at Macquarie University
• Bachelor of Business at QUT
• Bachelor of Commerce at Melbourne University
• Bachelor of Business at UTS

However, a career in marketing doesn’t always need a Bachelor’s degree to qualify for work opportunities — you’ve got another tertiary qualification option. You can also develop your skills and gain experience through a Vocational Education and Training (VET) qualification such as a Certificate IV in Marketing and Communications. 

How long does it take to become a Marketer?

Assuming you’re starting with a full-time undergraduate degree in a marketing-related field, it usually won’t take too long to become a Marketer and find an entry-level role in particular.

However, it can usually take a few years of experience to progress in your career as a Marketer. According to JobOutlook, people aged 25-34 make up around 40% of the marketing and advertising industry. 

Industry Knowledge

Jannat told us she uses a range of different softwares and programs as a Marketer. This includes pretty basic but still important programs such as Excel, as well as more marketing-specific programs such as HubSpot. 

Marketing often requires Jannat to wear multiple hats and develop a range of different skills! This means she sometimes needs to use graphic design softwares such as Adobe and Canva to help her express her ideas and refine her vision.

“We become designers sometimes as well because it’s very hard to create a vision if it’s only in your head,” she explained. 

What will this career look like in the future?

How in-demand is this career?

A career in marketing is pretty in-demand right now and is expected to grow further in the next few years! 

JobOutlook found that the marketing and advertising industry grew very strongly over a span of 5 years with 35,300 more people working in the industry in 2019 than in 2014. A career as a Marketer is expected to grow and become even more in-demand in the future.  

Are there opportunities to grow or specialise? 

We put this question to Jannat who told us that there’s definitely heaps of opportunities for career growth and specialisation within a role as a Marketer! 

As you start gaining some expertise and developing your skills, you’ll have more chances to progress and grow. You can branch out from an entry-level role and move towards higher-skill jobs such as a marketing manager or chief marketing officer. 

Once you establish a strong foundation, you can also start specialising and find roles that suit your interests. For example, you can choose to specialise in a design-focussed role, a copywriting role, and more. 

“At the start of your career, I would suggest trying everything. Do a project in every single field and then slowly by doing those projects, you start to eliminate the ones that aren’t for you and the ones that you do like, and then things start to fall into place,” said Jannat. 

Salary

According to JobOutlook, Marketers have a ‘very high’ skill level and future growth is very strong over the next 5 years. 

Influential Trends

Influential trends in marketing can often feel like they come and go quite quickly! 

Like a lot of industries, technology is very influential in marketing careers. The rapid and always-on environment of new technologies and media shapes show Marketers create and implement strategies, engage audiences, and create and communicate content.  

The Future of this Industry

Thinking about the future of the marketing industry, Jannat said, “We’ll be using data a lot more to create better customer experiences, but it’ll also be important for us to remember that marketing is about human connection… People value authenticity above everything else.”

Best Thing & Worst Thing

What do you enjoy most about this job?

“I love being able to impact a lot of people and help them find the solutions they need, to make their businesses better, or make their jobs and lives easier,” said Jannat.

“I love the idea of helping people by understanding them and solving their problems in a real way,” she added. 

What do you feel is the worst part of this job?

“I think Marketing can be overlooked as a business function sometimes, so it’s a bit of an uphill battle to prove the value of marketing. Good marketing is a slow burn, sometimes it doesn’t have a dollar figure attached to it in terms of immediate profit,” said Jannat.

She said, “I think Marketers just need to keep fighting the good fight because at the end of the day, if you buy a product, you think of the brand first and you wouldn’t be thinking about that if all this work hadn’t gone in from Marketers to build that brand!”

Advice for Aspiring Marketers

What do you wish you had known before you started working in this career?

Jannat’s biggest advice would be “to stop stressing so much! If you believe in your abilities and believe that you can be good at what you do, then the only person getting in your way is yourself… just remember that everyone’s trying to figure it out!”

She also added that when seeking out work as a Marketer, you need to find a role that you genuinely love and you’re actually interested in. 

“One piece of advice is that if you don’t love it, find something that genuinely excites you. And there’s a lot of things within marketing that you can love — so if you’re a writer, you can go into content, if you’re more of a data person you can go into digital, if you’re more of a creative person you can go into creative design. There’s just so many options,” she said. 

Why should people consider taking on this career?

Jannat recommends a career in marketing for those who love learning and exploring new things. 

“If you want no 2 days to be the same, consider marketing! You can do anything with it, it’s up to you,” she said. 

Job Flexibility 

When it comes to things like taking a holiday, working flexible days and/or hours, or working from home, working as a Marketer is usually dependent on the company, so ask in your interview! Jannat said, “It really depends on the company but it’s usually 9-5 Monday to Friday.” 

She also added that there’s usually some flexibility about the types of tasks, roles and responsibilities you can choose to do as a Marketer.

“I’ve found in my career that when I was in bigger companies, I felt kind of boxed-in but when I work in a small or medium-sized company, I got to try everything that I want to learn… because there’s more agility in bringing an idea to life,” said Jannat.

What is the workplace culture like?

Jannat told us that the workplace culture almost always depends on your company and team.  

“Some [companies] are good, some aren’t. I’m lucky because the company I’m at, the workplace culture is amazing. Always check in with yourself — if you don’t enjoy working somewhere, ask yourself why, and how you can deal with that situation because no one should dislike going to work, for any reason,” concluded Jannat. 

Maitreyi Kulkarni is a Content Writer at Art of Smart Education and is currently studying a Bachelor of Media and Communications (Public Relations and Social Media) at Macquarie University. She loves writing just about anything from articles to poetry, and has also had one of her articles published with the ABC. When she’s not writing up a storm, she can be found reading, bingeing sitcoms, or playing the guitar.