Sometimes the lessons you learn in school don’t fully prepare you for the ‘real world,’ and you end up having misconceptions about the field you want to work in. Let’s clear up three marketing misconceptions that this college student had before working at her internship.

Marketing Is All About Advertising

There’s more to marketing than creating billboards or ads on Facebook. Marketing also includes inbound techniques such as search engine optimization (SEO) and content creation. This is especially important to note if you want to work for a smaller business that might not have the budget to advertise on billboards or TV.

Inbound marketing provides ways to market your brand without taking the pushy, sales pitch route. My internship at South Street & Co., has taught me that SEO is a great tool for small businesses to use; it allows businesses to rank higher in search results and reach a much larger audience!

Content creation is a great inbound marketing technique, but remember that blogs aren’t the only element included in content creation! You also have to take into account creating visual, written, or auditory content for social media. This could span from Instagram posts to Podcasts; there are many possibilities!

Oh, So You Want To Go Into Sales?

Marketing includes jobs in sales, but as a whole, it involves several different careers.

This was something that almost threw me off the path of marketing; one of my marketing professors (who had a bigger background in sales) made it seem like all there was to marketing was sales, which inevitably made me panic since I’m far from being a persuasive salesperson. From my intern experience, there are many other factors that go into marketing like creating social media content, account management, graphic design, and writing.

You Must Be Super Creative To Succeed

Don’t get me wrong, creativity is an extremely beneficial skill to have, but if you feel like you still need to work on exercising your creativity, there’s still hope for you in the marketing world! One important aspect of marketing is analyzing data in order to come up with insightful information about your target audience. Taking part in a lead management role is a great way for more numbers-oriented people to flourish in the marketing field.

Needless to say, there’s truly a job for everyone in the marketing field. That’s why it takes so many working parts to establish and sell a brand. There’s much more to marketing than what you experience on the surface. Marketing involves implementing strategies, technology, logistics, writing, editing, and so much more.

Gaining real experience in marketing is the best way that you can correct these misconceptions. Fortunately for me, I am getting the chance to expand my marketing knowledge through my internship with South Street & Co. If you’re interested in learning more about the real world of marketing or you are trying to grow your business, contact us today!