Gone are those times when education was considered a privilege. Today, many reputable companies, including but not limited to those involved in Auditing, High Tech, and other fields, admit that excellent professionals may not have a formal degree.
Nowadays, diplomas are worth less than hands-on skills. And those can be attained through a professional development course.
When it comes to Marketing as a field of knowledge, the situation is even more complex. On the one hand, knowing the evolution of marketing and advertising is important because current techniques borrowed a lot from the previous ones. However, given such rapid technology development, university curriculums cannot catch up.
Moreover, if we analyze the market, it is evident that many people ended up being perfect specialists in Marketing, even though their formal education is related to absolutely different fields.
Thus, the question is whether marketers need a degree in Marketing to be successful? Or is it possible to become a professional without 4–6 years of formal education with a concentration in Marketing, Public Relations, or Communications?
Let’s have a closer look.
Experience Makes Value
The thing that matters the most in Marketing is experience. If you choose this major, have a look at your professors’ credentials and resumes.
If you see that they worked in reputable companies and have excellent records, such education makes sense. At the same time, if your tutors lack real experience, they will simply pass on theoretical knowledge to you. Such learning may be a true waste of your time.
Of course, if you have already fallen into some college trap, there are many helpful resources. Know that you can always get professional assistance from https://essaypro.com/essay-help.html. Let the professionals take care of your academics while you concentrate on becoming a real pro in the field.
Marketing Cannot Be Learned
Do you consider Marketing to be a real academic subject? It is not a classic one that can be studied in the classroom.
Successful marketers are those who can understand their customers’ needs and meet those in the campaigns. This profession requires creativity and soft skills that can hardly be learned in the classroom.
In fact, both personal and professional skills that refer to marketing can be enhanced at college, university, or through some training. However, companies looking for killer marketers will give their preference to a person who is naturally more inclined to be a great marketer rather than a nerd who studied all theory at university.
Marketing Is Industry-Specific
Being good at understanding what people want is only partially a key to a successful marketing career. Marketing is very industry-specific.
Thus, it is often more reasonable to study your desired industry in greater depth before starting your career as a marketer.
For example, if you have studied Civil Engineering or Construction but suddenly felt great interest in Marketing, then better tailor your marketing efforts to the field of Civil Engineering and Construction.
Your knowledge of construction materials, technologies, and other aspects would allow for better product placement, targeting, and advertising.
Marketing Constantly Changes
When you get a degree, you expect that your knowledge will have value for years to come. It is different in the case of Marketing. You can get some basic knowledge at college that would hardly have any practical value for your employer.
All that really matters is your ability to analyze and adapt to changes in the field. In other words, you need to be a quick learner who is willing to keep abreast of all recent developments in Marketing.
For this, you do not have to be a specialist with a Marketing diploma. You can study fundamentals while attending an intensive Marketing course and get all knowledge through practical experience.
If you really want to have an excellent marketing career, your experience as a marketing associate or assistant will help you more than a university diploma.
Digital Marketing Isn’t New
There are only a few universities now where Digital Marketing and all its tools are studied properly. Unfortunately, the majority of educational institutions deliver this course superficially.
However, as many marketing experts say, digital marketing is something that drives and fuels marketing. For example, digital media has already taken over print in terms of numbers of active readers.
Given this fact, universities are not capable of providing a well-rounded education that would meet employers’ expectations. Students need to study extra or work part-time to gain some experience that, eventually, will be more substantial than the years of their education.
Content Writing Is a Must
When you look at the curriculum offered for Marketing programs at colleges and universities, they all fail to include much necessary for engaging content and writing.
However, it is now clear that content marketing and the ability to write engaging texts are among key job duties for all career starters.
Traditional marketing could do without appealing texts because of the focus was on images. Today, visuals are usually enhanced by appealing texts. People are less likely to call the company to find out something. They either google information or expect quick answers through social media channels and websites.
Networking and Other Interactions Constitute SMM
Modern marketing is about showing the human face of any business. All brands are now expected to be present in social media and actively interact with customers. This communication is an important part of the marketing strategy. At universities, however, such a fact is not recognized.
People who are doing SMM are also marketers. They may not have a degree, but they are experts in understanding how Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn work, what ads the brand should place, and what audience they should target.
Marketers Work With Data Analytics
Whether you want it or not, there is a lot of analytics in marketing. You need to learn how to use technologies and tools to be correct and to-the-point. For these purposes, computer skills or a degree in IT would help you much better than a degree in Marketing.
Every company’s interaction with customers through social media or other digital channels is recorded and analyzed by special programs. Marketers should be able to decipher these figures and recommend changes that can improve outcomes. Failure to do that means that huge marketing budgets could be wasted.
Wrapping Up
In this article, mostly practical aspects are considered. However, degrees in Marketing serve people who want to devote their lives to research and theory.
These learners promote the development of the industry, studying the trends, publishing articles, and explaining real situations behind figures. As it is for any other field of knowledge, research stimulates progress.
However, if your goal is to build a career in marketing working for a company and growing together with it, you need practical skills. They can be gained only through continuous practice.
