Help me be less of a marketing noob

January 22, 2013 7:28 PM

What resources should I be reading to learn more about marketing?

I'm less than 6 months at a new job (my first "real" job out of college too) and I've some how become my company's marketing person, except I don't really know anything about marketing. The extent of my knowledge includes just 1 class I took in college at the business school called "Marketing Strategy" and it seems like what I learned there doesn't cover anything remotely near what I really should know. Even though marketing is nowhere near my job description or job title, I still want to do this well!!

For what it's worth, I'll be needing to market a smallish company to a pretty specific population.

What should I know in order to do this most effectively?? If books are recommended, it'd be great if I can get it in Kindle form or at least find it easily in Hong Kong!

posted by astapasta24 to Work & Money (7 answers total)

Who are you marketing to? Consumers or business buyers (or both)?
posted by downing street memo at 7:30 PM on January 22, 2013

Response by poster: Consumers
posted by astapasta24 at 7:32 PM on January 22, 2013

Learn about the Marketing Mix.

Hubspot's Inbound Marketing Guide (aka online marketing) is pretty useful.

Sort of a huge topic, and there are a lot of marketing tools, and marketing is all about focusing limited resources on appropriate tactics to get the most results. The best person to ask for help is the CEO, I would say.
posted by KokuRyu at 7:56 PM on January 22, 2013

If your target population is specific, can you identify ways to market to the people who influence or control their decisions? For example, if you were offering an education product, you would need to figure out how to reach a) the students; b) their parents and c) their guidance/career counselors. All three of those target audiences would require different approaches because they are interested in different benefits. The approaches and messages have to be complementary, however, because the exposure will overlap. In a similar vein, you need to figure out whether to lead with your specific product or the outcome it will achieve. Sticking with the educational example above, marketing the specifics about the coursework (say, a vocational certificate) is different than marketing the result (fabulous lifestyle thanks to terrific skill).
posted by carmicha at 9:09 PM on January 22, 2013

Start reading Marketing Sherpa. Subscribe to the consumer marketing case studies emails. You won't learn All About Marketing but you'll get some ideas you can apply. As a noob you would find their Summit conference to be really valuable - for the sessions, the energy you pick up, and the chance to talk with others about what they're doing. I don't suppose they'll send you to Boston for a conference but you might search for something local. I just searched on "marketing association hong kong" and came up with several possibilities.
posted by evilmomlady at 5:13 AM on January 23, 2013

I know you're not in nonprofit marketing, but this is a really great blog and might be worth a look anyway. She shares great stuff.
posted by trillian at 7:31 AM on January 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

I was in the same boat. I have a journalism degree, and suddenly found myself in a marketing position at a non-profit.

I spent the first year or so just reading anything I could about marketing/media in between my work tasks. I'm now five years into it and I've worked on ads, emails, speeches, surveys, focus groups, a cable access television show, radio interviews, spec writing for a documentary TV series - and lots more that I'm failing to mention right now.

If your company is anything like mine, they were more than happy to let me learn while doing. They wanted my writing ability and personality first and foremost.

Good luck!
posted by tacodave at 3:01 PM on January 23, 2013