8 Tips For CMOs to Help Young Marketers Become Successful In Their Roles

What Your Organization Should Do to Provide Young Marketers With a Positive Experience and Become Successful In Their Roles

When a millennial decides to join the marketing profession, the majority are under the impression that their days will consist of small write-ups, commercials, and catchy sayings to various target audiences, but the marketing world is much more complex. As young marketers begin their professional journey, It’s important for CMOs to help mold and guide them along the way to help them become better marketers and business professionals.

Unlike many other professions, marketing can be very vague, as there are many different directions one can pull in. Finding your true passion can take wearing multiple hats to understand the true complexities of a marketing organization. Building a strong marketing foundation before determining which direction you want your career to go may take time. To be successful, it’s important for young marketers to make a strong and really good impression whenever their opportunity arises.

Along this journey, they will need assistance and guidance from experienced marketers to help them make the right decisions, become a better marketer, and have long, successful careers. This blog walks you through the perspective of a young marketer and how you can positively impact their career.

What traits to look for in young talent

The world of marketing is fast-paced! Data-driven decisions can happen in a split second. Newly proposed quarterly budget changes can happen anytime, and producing positive ROI is imperative. The MQLs you need to generate for your sales team and now a pandemic!

It can take some time for inexperienced marketers to adapt and develop a business-savvy mindset, but at its core, marketing as a whole is attached to the foundation of business, so finding young, like-minded talent is important for company growth.

Traits to look for include: 

• • An open mind – Open-mindedness is a desired trait that marketing leaders value because it means they can accept new ideas. An open mindset will help you function better in your career and may increase your team’s productivity by 50%.
  • Curiosity – This trait can be learned and is key to spotting new trends and identifying opportunities. Curiosity is a trait that is associated with creativity and innovation.
  • Collaboration – Marketers who are collaborative with a genuine desire to help are key to strong & authentic relationships among industry peers.
  • Communication – Clear and thoughtful communication is crucial for achieving team goals. Whether your team is remote or in person, great communication ensures alignment across all levels of the organization.
  • Willingness to adapt to change – In the business world, change is inevitable. Your company may be acquired, you may have a new superior. The willingness to adapt to your new environment is necessary for all marketers, including new marketers.

These traits are important not only for their career development in marketing but also for business success and growth.

Developing Successful Marketers

Due to the massive amounts of change in marketing, it’s important to stay organized to reduce clutter and friction amongst your team. Visibility is key, so keep your team in the loop.  Having your data in one place will help promote forward thinking and give your team a clear mindset of where they stand against their goals.

The section below highlights advice on how to be a successful marketer from experienced CMOs in the industry.

How can marketers be successful in their careers? Scott Todaro, CMO of Plannuh, A Planful company, gave this bit of advice for young aspiring CMOs.

Scott Todaro

“As you develop in your career, become a true marketer, and avoid specializing in one channel, discipline, or function. Too often marketers only learn how to use a marketing automation tool or have expertise in event planning and they get pigeonholed into doing that one job. Try different marketing positions in demand generation, product marketing, PR, and partner marketing. Learn all the core marketing principles for a full understanding of how marketing operates. Understand your customers at an intimate level so you know what their needs are and write messaging that resonates with them. Learn your product or service to the point where you are seen as an expert.”

Scott continues, “Always keep the goals of the company top of mind when you make decisions, so you become a business driver. Try using different marketing strategies to achieve your goals. Get experimental with your marketing campaigns. And never stop learning because the only constant in marketing is change.”

As you transition into your role, it’s important that you begin to learn the business. Below is an excerpt from Kaycee Kalpin, CMO of Premier Inc., on her advice for aspiring CMOs:

Kaycee Kaplin

“I think a lot of us are trained to understand and know marketing, right? We read everyday, we have eBooks, top ten lists and know all the buzz terms there are to know as marketers. The magic is applying that to the business and your customers and the message you have to bring to market. What has been successful for me is spending the time to sit on customer calls, to understand the business, to understand the financials, to understand the pains that we are solving in order to better simplify the complex.”

8 Ways to Positively Impact a Young Marketer

For young marketers, having the right environment is crucial for their success. Not only is marketing leadership important for creating an environment that challenges new employees to improve, it means that being a part of a team that preaches fundamentals like teamwork and accountability will help promote growth and give young marketers a foundation of how to be a great marketing leader.

Here are eight things marketing leaders should emphasize and communicate to young marketing employees to succeed in their roles.

Communication

The ability to effectively communicate with others is a great skill that successful marketers hone and possess. Good communicators are great active listeners. Connect with your team and keep them in the know. It’s important for the entire team to know that if they are struggling, their team members will be there to lend a hand.

Take Initiative

Finding marketers who take initiative can come to a dime a dozen. If you have team members who struggle with this, it’s important to let them know that going the extra mile will pay off in the long run. One way to ensure a long-lasting marketing career is by having a can-do spirit and taking initiative when needed. 

Share your Thoughts

With marketing having various departments, elements and moving parts, having a strategic mindset will help shape decision-making of the C-suite. Tell your team that their decisions matter and show them how they can impact the business directly through their actions. This will promote proactive and forward thinking. Make sure they are always thinking of the big picture. As a marketing executive, you should relish having different perspectives within your team.

Play Your Part

It’s important for young marketers to know exactly what is expected of them without micromanaging. Use goal alignment and weekly meetings to walk through objective expectations, which can improve the team dynamic. Whether it’s day-to-day tactical work or big picture & thought leadership, your team is depending on each individual to play their part.

Become a Problem Solver

There will be moments when your marketing team will be faced with challenges. Critical thinking is a very key component to overcoming these problems. Take the necessary time with your team to create a solution through groupthink and brainstorming sessions. Scenario Planning can help get ahead of problems your team may encounter. To avoid these problems, download our Operational Marketing Plans eBook.

Understanding Deadlines

Your marketing team should understand that when a deadline is given, it’s meant to be met. This may sound obvious, but deadlines were not made to be revised. Shareholders are depending on these deadlines to move forward with business decisions. For a team to be successful, members of your team will be counting on you to do your part.

Get out of your Comfort Zone

Getting out of your comfort zone can be difficult, but it’s important for marketers to grow in their role. For marketers looking to move forward in their careers, pushing the envelope and doing what feels uncomfortable will only help you grow. Take a chance.

 

Conduct Market Research

Most young marketers will start their journey in a role that requires market research or social media scrubbing. This is critical for beginning to understand your target audience and your company’s media presence. Be sure to emphasize how important this is for a competitive analysis which will eventually dictate the tone and messaging you decide to use.

 

Advancing Your Career as a Marketer

Those who are young marketers that are new to the business world should focus on these tips to improve their skills and grow into their roles.

Ultimately, having a team and environment will help marketers improve their positions, grow the skills needed to contribute to their team, and become successful in their organizational roles.