5 Soft Skills That Will Help You Switch to a Marketing Career

Change is scary, isn’t it? Especially when it’s a change in your career path. But if you’re reading this, you obviously don’t want to keep doing whatever it is you call your occupation your whole life. You want to get a fresh start with a job in marketing.

Your mind is probably preoccupied with all the technical stuff you need to wrap your head around. You probably spend your free time learning to use Google Ads and Facebook Business Manager and thinking about the difference between the CTR and a CTA.

But hard skills aren’t the only thing your future employer will look for in your resume. In fact, since your hard skills are likely to be limited at the beginning, the recruiter will pay more attention to your soft skills instead.

That’s because that list tells them what kind of person you are and what your potential is.

Here are 5 soft skills that are invaluable for any job in marketing. Which ones can you already put on your resume?

Harnessing the Power of Constructive Criticism

No one is infallible, no matter the experience. But, it’s safe to say, if you’re new to the job, you’re bound to make mistakes more often than you’d expect to.

This is where constructive criticism – or feedback – comes into play. If you make a mistake and someone points that out, learn from it. Don’t run away and hide from it or think your career is over. Don’t dismiss it, either – that’s even worse.

Instead, ask the person how to avoid it in the future or improve your output next time. Then, put that advice to work.

Scratching your head thinking where you could’ve acquired this soft skill? Here are a few questions that can help you figure it out:

• Have you received any feedback from your teachers or professors? How did it help you get better?
• Have you ever had to turn to essay help at EssayHub or elsewhere to improve your paper? Did you learn from those edits?
• Has anyone at your current or former workplace criticize your work or ideas? How did you take it?

Doing Research & Making Sense of Data

You probably expected creativity to be mentioned here, right? Well, the not-so-glamorous truth is that you’ll spend more time on research and analytics than on brainstorming catchy slogans.

That’s because marketing is extremely data-driven these days. Data tells you everything you need to know about:

• your target audience and their preferences;
• your competitors;
• your campaigns’ success (or failure).

You just have to know how to:

• find data and evaluate its reliability;
• take raw facts and figures and interpret them to draw conclusions;
• apply all that research to analytics to your work.

Sounds hard? It might be for some, but it’s not impossible. Think about it: if you went to college, you’d have plenty of experience in research and analytics.

You weren’t a stellar student? Still, you probably had to surf through writing services reviews, like at https://nocramming.com/, to find the best cost-benefit ratio. That’s research and analytics, too!

Learning Tirelessly & On the Fly

Having learned to learn is the best soft skill any beginner can put on their resume for an entry-level position, whether it’s in marketing or not. That’s no mystery why – you’re going to be learning the ropes on the go in this kind of position.

In marketing, however, it’s not enough to just wrap your head around things well enough. You need to do it as they come your way. A job in this field means working in a fast-paced environment, so your learning must match it and be on the fly, too.

Another thing is, marketing as an industry is constantly evolving. New tools become available, new policies and guidelines are put in place. What used to work a year ago may not be an option today. To stay in the know, you need to be a lifelong learner (and a curious person, too).

Emotional Intelligence & Interpersonal Skills

These two competencies are the obligatory prerequisites for making teamwork, well, work. And there’s a 99% chance you’re going to work in a marketing team. Even if you’re not, you’re still going to work in a company – i.e., with other people.

If you don’t know how to be a team player, that’s a recipe for disaster – both for your career and for the team’s overall success. The thing is, the failure to collaborate with others may lead to unclear task division, missed deadlines, lower performance, and so much more.

But these two – emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills – are important for one more reason, too. Marketing is all about communication, not with your colleagues but with your audience.

To nail it and achieve your goal – persuading them to do this or that – you need to be able to empathize with them. Imagine yourself in their shoes and find what would get a reaction out of them.

Thinking Outside the Box

Even though creativity wasn’t at the top of the list here, it’s still an important skill in your toolbox (if you’re serious about building a career in marketing, of course).

What’s more, creative thinking isn’t reserved solely for designers and writers. Any job in the field requires harnessing the power of your potential creativity.

Let’s say, you’re aiming to become a marketing analyst. Sometimes, you’ll need to think outside the box to see the link between one set of data and another one. Or, it’ll come in handy when you ponder how to apply your conclusions to actual marketing campaigns.

In short, thinking outside the box is crucial for:

• brainstorming campaign and ads ideas;
• creating any type of content for any platform, from social media posts to ad banners and videos;
• planning promo events that will be one-of-a-kind.