Marketing Communications Career Guide: How to Break Into Marcom

Iconic Displays is a leading provider of portable trade show displays and rental exhibits for companies of all sizes. We provide concierge level service, top quality design and print services, and price matching. So partner with Iconic Displays for your next trade show and leave the worrying to us.

If you’re considering a career in Marketing Communications (“Marcom”) this career guide is for you.  Marcom is a growing profession defined by high salaries, dynamic challenges, and determined recruits. It’s fast-paced and stimulating, guaranteed to keep you on your toes – and enjoying every minute (or almost).

As such, it’s no surprise that marketing is a highly sought career. And while some might think that its popularity creates a high barrier to entry, that’s not exactly true. In many ways, marcom is one of the easiest careers to break into: you can build experience from almost any job and there’s no degree required.

The catch: marcom professionals are seriously dedicated. They work hard, often for long hours. They are whip smart, competitive and driven. So the question is, do you have what it takes?

This 7-step guide will show you how to break into marcom, how to build your career, and how to achieve success in this highly competitive industry.

Table of Contents

Use the anchor links below to quickly jump to a particular section:

• Step 1: Understand the Marcom Universe
• Step 2: Identify Your Niche
• Step 3: Get a Marketing Education
• Step 4: Market Yourself
• Step 5: Network. Socially!
• Step 6: Build Your Portfolio
• Step 7: Plan Your Marcom Career

Step 1: Understand the Marcom Universe

Marcom is a diverse mix of online and offline sales communications

“Marcom” is shorthand for marketing communications, but what is marketing communications? Marketing has changed so much over the last decades and years, the term marcom has become muddied and quite ambiguous. Wikipedia defines marketing communications as,

“… messages and related media used to communicate with a market. Marketing communications is the “promotion” part of the “marketing mix” or the “four Ps”: price, place, promotion, and product. It can also refer to the strategy used by a company or individual to reach their target market through various types of communication.”

If you’re still confused, you’re in good company: the marketing lexicon is often rife with jargon, even when describing itself. So put simply, marcom is storytelling through blogging, email, ads, flyers and other media. Marcom is the lens through which the world sees and experiences a brand. And when you enter the marcom field, you become a brand’s voice: the voice of their company, of their products and services, and of their clients and customers.

Marcom Titles & Responsibilities

Marcom is a broad field, and marketing communications managers have a variety of roles, titles and responsibilities within a company. In most cases, marcom managers brainstorm strategy and concepts, and work to develop them with other creatives, including designers, copywriters, social media strategists, journalists, bloggers, videographers, and photographers.

Traditional marcom responsibilities extend to:

• Advertising
• Artwork
• Branding
• Brand guidelines
• Direct marketing
• Public relations
• Sales & promotions
• Graphic design
• Sales materials, including flyers, brochures, POS materials, and more
• Annual reporting
• Brand journalism
• Copywriting
• Slogans and taglines

Over the last decade, marcom has migrated to the online sphere. For many small companies, digital marketing is the only marketing. For mid-sized and large companies, an integrated marketing plan involves digital media and traditional, offline marketing. Digital marketing includes:

• Website copy
• Email marketing
• Content marketing, including blogging
• Social media
• Infographics
• Video content
• Photography
• Online advertising (e.g. Google AdWords)

Salary Expectations & Job Outlook

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that the median salary for marketing managers was $119,480 per year in 2012, and the top 10 percent of earners reported a very respectable $187,200 annual salary.

Even more heartening than marketing salaries is the field’s overall growth: between 2012 and 2022, marketing manager positions are expected to grow 13 percent. And according to the BLS, “Because marketing managers and their departments are important to an organization’s revenue, marketing managers are less likely to be let go than other types of managers. Marketing managers will continue to be in demand as organizations seek to market their products to specific customers and localities.”

Additional Resources:

Wikipedia on Marketing Communications
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers
Marketing Communications Toolkit
A Marketer’s Guide to Building Effective Marcom Strategies in Bleak Times

Step 2: Identify Your Niche

Marketing is divided into two overarching channels: B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer). In a nutshell, B2B marketers learn to sell one company’s products to another company (e.g. a computer chip company marketing its chips to a computer maker); B2C marketers, on the other hand, market products or services to the end consumer (e.g. a backpack manufacturer marketing to school-aged children).

As you delve deeper into the field of marcom – read books, discover blogs, and work, work, work – you’ll realize that marketing is much more layered than B2B or B2C: there are many interests, personalities, strengths and niches represented. If you want to be an in-demand marketing communications manager (and you do), you’ll have to be well rounded – able to do a bit of this and a bit of that, whenever the need arises.

Invariably though, you’ll find that your strengths lie in certain areas. These will become your niches. The benefit of exceling in a certain niche is that you will be sought: if you are a gifted web creative, companies seeking to revamp their websites will recruit you. If you are an exceptional direct marketer, you will be wooed by companies interested in traditional mail campaigns.

Don’t feel pressured to define your niche in your first year (or five years) of marcom. Try your hand at everything. Sometimes, your interests evolve into niches; other times, your natural talents will define your specialties. Mike Goff, Principal of Goff Marketing Group, advises, “My advice, when asked by those entering or new to our profession, is to encourage young professionals to find a company or opportunity where they can experience a wide swath of communications responsibilities. The ability to one day work on a news release and the next to tackle a web assignment, not only exposes you to different tactics, but also helps one understand the importance of strategic message integration and linkage across communications tools.”

The annual Marcom Awards offer excellent insight into the industry: not only do they highlight the year’s best marketing campaigns, but the awards break down marketing communications into an incredible 241 categories (!). Here’s a sampling:

• Direct Marketing, including Banners/Signs, Billboards, Flyers, Magazines, Newspapers, and Trade Show Exhibits
• Photography, including Calendars, Annual Reports, Advertising, and People/Portraits
• Writing, including Ad Copy, Advertorials, Brand Journalism, Feature Articles, Newsletters, and White Papers
• Mobile & Web-Based Technology, including Microsites, Facebook Sites, Mobile Apps, and Training Modules

Additional Resources:

Marcom Awards
From Marketing Specialties to Marketing Mash-Ups
What The Modern Marketer Looks Like
131 Different Kinds of Marketing
7 Emerging Content Marketing Specialties
20 Best Marketing Books Of All Time
Inc.’s Top 10 Marketing Books of All Time

Step 3: Get a Marketing Education

Some of the most important (and expensive) career decisions you’ll ever make revolve around your education: Do you need a bachelor’s degree? Will you pursue a post-graduate degree? Will a less-expensive online or community college degree suffice?

No Degree? No Problem.

The overwhelming, majority opinion is that you don’t need a marketing degree to become a successful marketer. As Caitlin Self of Business Insider opines, “You can generally find a simple entry-level position with your marketing degree, but unless you land a killer internship during your formative college years, you won’t be more than half a step ahead of anyone else trying to get started in the field… If you want to break into the field of marketing, or even advertising, all you have to do is play to your strengths.”

So just what are the strengths that’ll get your foot in the marketing door?

• Qualifications: How can you parlay past experience into marketing know-how? Did you help create a brochure for your summer camp? Have you ever updated you’re parents’-friend’s-sister’s company’s Twitter account? That’s relevant experience.
• Think Small: You’re not going to jump directly into a high-level, specialized marketing position. Apply to entry-level jobs, which often have a sales element, to learn the ropes. While you’re there, be sure to demonstrate your gumption and skill.
• Play to Your Strengths: When applying for a new position, whether it’s your first or fifth marketing job, incorporate your strengths. If you’re a great writer, create a sales flyer to market yourself. If you’re a social media guru, tap you potential employer online. Show, don’t tell what you can do.

And it’s not just your strengths and work experience that will help you get a marketing position without a degree; it’s your skill. Successful marketers have several elements in common:

• Strong people skills
• Good communication (written and verbal)
• Teamwork
• Creativity
• IT know-how
• Commercial awareness

Build your skillset over time, and you’ll become a valuable, in-demand employee.

Now About That College Degree…

While your skills, strengths and experience will take you far, here’s one thing to consider: A recent Georgetown study found that college graduates earn 84% more on average than their high school graduate counterparts. Here are some of the most striking statistics:

• The average high school graduate will earn $1.3 million over his lifetime, while an undergraduate degree nets $2.3 million in lifetime earnings and a doctoral graduate will earn $3.3 million over her lifetime.
• Within an industry (e.g. marcom), workers with higher education usually earn higher salaries.
• Furthermore, by 2018 it is estimated that 63% of all U.S. jobs will require some level of postsecondary education

Beyond the cold statistics on earnings potential, the truth of the matter is that many employers prefer applicants with a bachelor’s or graduate degree. In fact, a study by Hart Research Associates found that 95% of employers give hiring preference to college graduates with skills that encourage and enable workplace innovation.

Bottom line: in many cases, your skills and your education (note: any degree at all, not just marketing degrees) are integral to snagging your dream position, at least at the start of your career.

Additional Resources:

How to Get a Marketing Job without a Marketing Degree
How To Break Into Marketing Without A Business Degree
How to Break Into the Communications World
The Skills That Will Get You a Graduate Job in Marketing
The Myth of Marketing Careers
Education Pays 2013: The Benefits of Higher Education
Georgetown University Study: The College Payoff
Best Undergraduate Degrees in Marketing
Best Graduate Degrees in Marketing
IT TAKES MORE THAN A MAJOR: Employer Priorities for College Learning and Student Success
The Role of Higher Education in Career Development: Employer Perceptions

Step 4: Market Yourself

Whether you’re looking to get hired or move up the corporate ladder, the best example of what you can do is what you have already done – for yourself. Creating a self-marketing plan is doubly effective because there’s no barrier to entry: you don’t need C-level signoff to start marketing, and the act of marketing yourself gives you real-life experience and a platform to hone your skills.

But here’s the snag: marketing yourself as a marketer requires serious creativity. For many other professions, the basics suffice – a photographer can blog once a month; an HR manager can send out a monthly email blast. You are a marketer competing against other marketers – thousands of gurus who also know do all the basics. So how do you make yourself stand out?

• Create a personal brand: Personal branding is absolutely essential for marketers. Whatever your career plans, you need to create a brand for your skills and services. Begin early.
• Start content marketing: Practice what you preach. Content marketing is valuable for your clients and for you, as a marketer. Start a marketing blog – but only after you commit to making it one of the best marketing blogs online. Publish a video series on your favorite aspect of marketing. Send out a monthly newsletter (not too salesy, though!) to your email list.
• Engage in outside-the-box thinking: Hubspot’s advice on proving your value within a marketing organization is spot on: Think creatively. Launch a personal marketing campaign. Be the most driven and dedicated marketer you know.
• Be creative: Always find a way to show off your creative side. If you’re applying for a new position, create a tri-fold brochure about your brand. If you’re trying to build clout within your current company, send a quarterly newsletter on earnings, successes and challenges for the next quarter.

Additional Resources:

10 Reasons Why Personal Branding is a Requirement for Marketers
Cold, Hard Content Marketing Stats
The Definitive Guide To Building Your Personal Brand
5 Keys to Building Your Personal Brand
8 Ways for Marketers to Prove Their Value Within Their Own Organization
How To Sell Yourself

Step 5: Network. Socially!

Marketing is all about connections – connections with fellow marketers, with companies, with clients, and with consumers. The more people you know professionally, the better you’ll do your job. Your long-term success as a marketer hinges on your ability to establish and nurture these connections.

So get networking. Go to cocktail hours with other marketing professionals. Attend conferences in your industry – and outside it. (After all, most of your potential clients are attending their own industry conferences, not marketing conferences.) Join industry-focused groups and associations, either for marketers or for your niche industries.

And of course, get social with your networking. Read blogs – and comment. Hop onto online communities and forums, and be power contributor. Get on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn – any online community that you enjoy and that will help you advance your career.

Everyday, take your strengths as a marketer and turn them into networking opportunities. And conduct yourself professionally, at all times.

Additional Resources:

More Marketers Use Social Networking to Reach Customers
New Research Shows Which Social Networks Ideal for Marketers
Marketers Increasingly Use Social Networking Sites

Step 6: Create a Dynamite Portfolio

Forget résumés: a digital portfolio is the new marketer’s greatest tool.

Your digital portfolio is more than a place to list your job experience: it’s a chance to showcase your skills and accomplishments. You can design and display your portfolio any way you choose – you decide how to market yourself.

And that’s the beauty of an online portfolio: you can paint your experience in any light necessary. If you’re just beginning your marcom career, you can use previous experience – that camp brochure or friend-of-a-friend’s social media campaign – to showcase your abilities. For example, you could create a skills-based portfolio with short case studies (summaries of what you did) to describe each accomplishment.

If you have experience in small business but no specific job title to accompany your marketing prowess, your digital portfolio again comes to the rescue. If you helped your company blog or write, boom! you just became a content marketing manager; if you managed their social presence, that’s pure marcom; if you ever wrote and sent sales emails, envision “Email Marketer” splayed across your portfolio.

As your experience grows, your portfolio will grow, too. Add social proof with company logos and testimonials. Create killer case studies. Show clients and companies that you get results.

Additional Resources:

6 Ways to Optimize Your Marketing Portfolio
Creating A Successful Online Portfolio
6 Steps To Creating A Knockout Online Portfolio

Step 7: Plan Your Future in Marcom

As you build your career in marcom, make a point to regularly review your goals and future plans. Most importantly, will you take the company route or will you go freelance?

The path you take will, in part, define your actions and goals over the next years and decades. For example, if you’d prefer to stay within a company, you may choose to dedicate much of your free time to studying the company’s bottom line (and how to improve it); generating reports and writing internal newsletters; and other tasks that will demonstrate your desire to excel. On the other hand, if you plan to go freelance, your off-hours will be occupied by personal branding and self-marketing.

Whatever you do, remember this: you man the helm of your career ship. As long as you are always working hard, thinking creatively, constantly learning, and striving to be a better marketer, nothing is set in stone. If you want to switch niches, you can. If you want to switch from freelance back to employee, it’s doable. If you want to pursue a graduate degree, no problem. Marcom is a dynamic and engaging career, with vast potential and plenty of flexibility.

Additional Resources:

9 Things You Should Know About Freelancing Full-Time
Before You Go Freelance, Read This
Why Everybody’s Going Freelance
The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Successful Freelance Marketer