5 Marketing Specializations that Stand Out
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Guerrilla Marketing
- Direct Marketing
- Market Research
As the business world grows, marketing is growing right along with it. More and more students are pursuing degrees in marketing, and launching high-powered and highly paid careers upon graduation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The growth of the marketing sector has revolutionized the way we do business, and a surprisingly large number of specializations have emerged within marketing to cater to a growing global audience. Here are five great marketing specializations.
1. Content Marketing
Blogs, articles, video tutorials – all these are examples of content marketing. Building a specialization in content marketing involves developing strong writing skills, working knowledge of the brand you’re marketing, and an understanding that content marketing isn’t exclusively about selling a product. Expert content marketers seek to provide the consumer with relevant and useful information that goes beyond just the product they are working to sell. Many large companies and corporations have several content marketers working for them, or even entire teams of them. For marketing students who love to write, this is an excellent specialization.
2. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing works to drive traffic from social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and all the rest to the company or brand’s website to increase sales and profitability. Social media marketing and content marketing often go hand in hand, and some marketers choose to pursue both specializations. Social media marketing requires solid writing skills, a careful analysis of the consumer base of the company or brand in question, and a flair for enticing and exciting the audience without stepping on too many toes. Social media marketing has become a common specialization in marketing degrees, and a number of online courses offer expertise in it as well.
3. Guerrilla Marketing
From flash mobs to colorful public displays, guerrilla marketing relies on the element of surprise to get potential customers curious about the product being marketed. Guerrilla marketing tactics are often highly visual and engaging, and serve to excite the senses and curiosity of the onlookers. While guerrilla marketing is not frequently seen as an academic specialization, many online educational resources exist to help marketing professionals and students become adept at its practice.
4. Direct Marketing
Direct marketing is a mixture of different practices that include directly approaching potential customers at events, offering physical examples of literature and product samples, and television or video commercials. Anything that constitutes a direct approach to the consumer falls under this category – and doing direct marketing in a way that attracts success is as much an art as a science. In addition to studying direct marketing practices academically, marketing students and professionals may also study psychology and sociology to help them understand how best to apply these practices.
5. Market Research
What’s working and what isn’t? The role of the market researcher is to find out – and help the rest of their marketing team determine new approaches if necessary while refining and continuing to use approaches that have been proven to work. Market research consists of studying a company’s core demographic, analyzing sales patterns as linked with marketing campaigns, and condensing marketing metrics into readable data. Marketing students interested in this specialization will often take classes in statistics, mathematics, and data science to round out their expertise.
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Each of these marketing specializations represents a different array of skills, and each represents a different path for each personality and skill set through the fascinating world of marketing.