Marketing Education Without a Degree

Nothing substitutes for a marketing education or a marketing degree. It’s invaluable, especially when seeking full-time employment as a marketing manager. 

However, I became a marketing manager without a formal marketing education. Here are the steps I took to learn to be a marketing professional without a marketing degree.

My Story - from Executive Assistant to Marketing Manager

I majored in English literature at Molloy College, a small Catholic college in New York state. My goal was to be a novelist. I wanted to write classic works of literature, including science fiction and fantasy. 

Yet I had to make a living. The occasional magazine stories I sold didn’t pay for much! I worked first as an advertising copywriter, then took a job as an Executive Assistant to the president of a nursery and landscaping company on Long Island’s North Shore.

His company included both a bustling garden center that catered to the rich, famous and wealthy, as well as a landscape design firm. It was one of the few large garden center businesses to have its own marketing manager, and I worked with her extensively. When she was let go in July 1995, the president asked me to take over the role since I wrote well and had worked alongside her.

It was my first marketing gig and I knew nothing! I messed up so many things it’s amazing I lasted the next two years. But last I did, and I ended up creating some fantastic advertising that one customer actually scrawled a message on and brought in to show his appreciation for the ad. I still have a copy of that ad.

After leaving the nursery in 1997, I went on to lead marketing for a financial services company and then for a series of education testing, professional development, and publishing companies before founding my own content marketing agency. Along the way, I did return to school, and completed a master of science in direct and digital marketing at New York University, earning not only a degree “with distinction”, the university’s highest honor, but also two national direct marketing awards.

5 Ways to Learn Marketing Without a Marketing Education

Here’s how I ensured my own marketing education despite starting in the profession without a marketing degree.

1. Learn from a colleague.

One of the first things I did when working at the nursery was study what the current marketing manager was doing. I followed her original blueprint for my first year in my new role as marketing manager, using her example to maintain marketing continuity. At each job, I was able to observe either what the previous marketing manager had done by reviewing her plans or by working alongside a more seasoned marketer. You can learn a lot from your colleagues. Here at Seven Oaks Consulting, we feature an unusual model of taking on a lot of college students and recent graduates as part of our content team. It’s not that we prefer junior marketers on the team, but we love to help them grow. It’s paying the profession forward -- helping to build the stellar marketers we hope to see someday in the field. To do that, they need to learn from seasoned professionals as I was able to do so long ago.

2. Read books by the experts.

In every field or endeavor, there are known experts. In content marketing, Joe Pulizzi comes to mind, along with Ann Handley. Both are true experts in content marketing. My former NYU professor of direct marketing finances, Heidi Cohen, is also known as a content marketing and digital marketing expert. Read their books and learn marketing from people who don’t just talk about it but actually do it!

3. Keep up with the news.

Another way in which I learned the marketing profession as a junior marketing manager was to read industry news. I’d take along Direct Marketing News to read on the train during my commute or I’d read Advertising Age the Wall Street Journal. This continued my education by exposing me to current marketing trends and campaign examples.

4. Attend conferences.

I learned so much at the old Direct Marketing Days New York and the New York City Direct Marketing Club meetings. The guest speakers, the trade show booths, the small group sessions....I’d leave with copious notes and ideas about what to incorporate into my own marketing plans. Some of the contacts I made at those trade shows remain good friends. If you can, attend marketing conferences live or online as much as possible.

5. Ask a lot of questions.

Vendors want to share their knowledge with you. Ask questions of everyone! I went on press with my printing vendor to learn more about catalog production and eventually became a known expert in the field of traditional direct marketing thanks to my deep understanding of both mailing houses and printing. Marketing vendors were keen to help me understand new techniques and ideas. Don’t be afraid to ask plenty of questions.

Now...If I Had to Learn Marketing Without a Degree

How things have changed since I was a young college graduate studying marketing on my own!

The internet has opened up tremendous potential learning opportunities for marketing managers. You can watch YouTube videos, subscribe to podcasts, download tons of books thanks to Amazon Kindle and Google Play, and so much more. 

Hubspot free marketing courses enable any junior marketing manager to learn from the comfort of their own homes. Need to learn marketing software such as MailChimp or ConvertKit? The software vendors themselves provide training!

Many of the old newspapers like Direct Marketing News have gone digital. Gone are the days when the only way to learn about new techniques and marketing research was by attending a conference or seminar. But the opportunities unfolding daily on the internet have made it easier than ever for someone motivated to learn to find the information they need.

A marketing education remains, to me, a priority for anyone interested in a full-time career in marketing. I wouldn’t trade my New York University degree for anything. It was an amazing experience to learn in a workshop environment, to go to the offices of some of the best creative agencies in the world and watch as they planned campaigns, to learn marketing finances and accounting from people who were actually working in the profession. 

But if you aren’t blessed or lucky enough to be able to earn a marketing degree, you can still ensure your marketing education with these ideas. 

by Jeanne Grunert

Print Media in Content Marketing

I admit that when I chose the topic of The Use of Print Media in Content Marketing, I did so because I love printed media. When I first entered the marketing profession, print media was still the way to go. Catalogs, direct mail postcards, brochures for checkout line racks, you name it, I produced it. Heck, even ad a print advertisement I created that was published in the New York Times generated such a response that a customer wrote a note to the owner of the garden center where I worked and dropped off the ad for him to see!

But if you Google the phrase “is print dead” you’ll return over 189,000,000 results, far over and above what Joe Pulizzi returned when he searched this phrase back in 2019. In his article, Print Magazines Dead? Bite Your Tongue, Joe states emphatically that print is most certainly not dead. It’s just changing. 

I’m with Joe. Print marketing, whether it’s a custom-created magazine, a flyer, or a rack insert, offers an outstanding opportunity for many companies to promote ideas, the heart of content marketing. Don’t forget that content marketing started with print -- the John Deere magazine, The Furrow, which offered a magazine filled with ideas for mechanizing the farm. And it just happened that John Deere sold those products from tractors to combines that mechanized the farm. 

Print Media Statistics

From Marketing Profs: print-a-tangible-way-to-invigorate-your-marketing-strategy-infographic

• In a crowded marketplace, print gives you an edge.
• 92% of 18-32 year olds state that print is easier to read
• When making purchasing decisions, consumers trust print 34% more than search engines
• Postcards have a 4.25% response rate compared to .1% for email marketing
• 70% of people recall more from reading a print ad than a digital ad
• Print is better for perceived value, memory and recall of an ad, and emotional response

Up Close and Personal: An Interview with Content Marketer Joe Pulizzi

Joe Pulizzi is the Amazon bestselling author of Killing Marketing, Content Inc. and Epic Content Marketing, which was named a “Must-Read Business Book” by Fortune Magazine. His latest book is The Will to Die, his debut novel.

He has founded three companies, including the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), and has launched dozens of events, including Content Marketing World. In 2014, he received the "Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Content Council. His podcast series, This Old Marketing with CMI's Robert Rose, has generated millions of downloads from over 150 countries. He is also the author of The Random Newsletter, delivered to thousands every two weeks. His Foundation, The Orange Effect, delivers speech therapy and technology services to children in over 30 states.

My Take on Joe’s Book, Content, Inc.

If you haven’t heard of Joe, I invite you to get to know him through his outstanding book, Content, Inc., which was recently revised and reissued. I purchased my own company from Amazon and devoured it over vacation. It helped me rethink many aspects of content marketing. It’s a great book because it doesn’t just explain what content marketing is, but what a content-first business model looks like and how to create one -- and then, how to leverage it as a business model.

Joe is honest throughout the book that content marketing isn’t a fast route to sales, and he’s right. It takes time, sometimes too long for our clients’ comfort levels, to generate the kind of impact they need to make. That’s okay. Not every marketing tactic is right for every client, and I get that. 

But like Joe, I’ve seen content marketing produce outstanding results. When it works, it works exceptionally well to build brand loyalty, elicit and emotional response, and create a memorable impression on customers that no amount of hype creates.

Joe took time out of his busy schedule to respond to my questions. Thank you, Joe.

The Use of Print Media in Content Marketing

Seven Oaks Consulting (7Oaks): What is your experience using content marketing for your company or your clients?

Joe Pulizzi (JP) I've been in the content marketing industry for over 20 years. Originally, I worked at Penton Media's Custom Media Division working on print magazines for companies like HP, Autodesk, and American Red Cross. I left Penton in 2007 to start Content Marketing Institute, the leading educational organization for content marketing.

7Oaks: Do you use print media, such as niche-focused magazines or other printed materials, as part of your content marketing program?

JP: Not presently. While at CMI, we launched Chief Content Officer magazine in 2011 targeted to 30,000 senior-level marketing executives (I left CMI in 2018).

7Oaks:  How many do you send? How is it distributed and to whom?

JP: Quarterly

7Oaks: What was your ROI?

JP: It was generally break even (subsidized with partner advertising)…but expenses approximately $30,000 per issue. For ROI, we found that those highest-yielding customers of CMI were also subscribers to the magazine. 

7Oaks: Why do you think print is effective?

JP: There are many  reasons why print is effective. First, it grabs attention. Because so few brands are doing it these days, it stands out. Next, if you already have an audience, such as a customer list, you’ve got a good chunk of the work out of the way -- you have an audience who might like to hear from you and who may respond positively to your print piece. Third, and this may be a little out there, but I do think print is ready for a Renaissance. Everyone talks about it being dead, but TV didn’t die when cable and on-demand movies came out, and radio thrives even though we have more choices than ever. There’s still room for print in a media manager’s marketing mix if it fits the strategy.

7Oaks:  Do you think print media is effective for specific industries or all industries? 

JP: I believe print can be effective in any industry.

7Oaks:  Is it better for acquisition or retention marketing?

JP: I think it’s better for retention and building loyalty, but yet, it can work for acquisition marketing. It’s just harder to measure when usingi it for acquisition. 

7Oaks:  Do you think printed materials have a place in the future of content marketing? Why or why not?

JP:  Absolutely. With limited competition it's very easy for a high-quality publication to stand out. Also, people are much more willing to voluntarily give data information for a quality magazine.

Thank you, Joe. You can find his books on Amazon or check out his blog at joepulizzi.com

by Jeanne Grunert

How Brand Storytelling Increased ROI by 2,700%

Brand storytelling or content marketing engages the imagination, encourages buyer curiosity, and brings customers into your brand story like no other marketing technique I know.

Case in point: the right story increases ROI by 2,700%.

And no, that’s not a typo.

Here’s the story behind this dramatic increase in ROI and how you can grab your own share of that incredible profit potential.

A Tale of Two Brand Stories
Ancient Quartz Crystal Unearthed

Do you see this crystal?

It was unearthed during an excavation in Virginia. As dawn’s rosy fingers touched the sky, a ray of sunlight fell upon the earth, illuminating the crystal with inner fire. Legend has it that the land where the crystal was found was once a sacred hunting ground. Many flint and stone arrowheads have been found nearby, and evidence of old forests of oak and poplar, inhabited by abundant herds of deer, point to a time long gone when Indians roamed the quiet mossy woods. Perhaps Mother Earth, hearing the cries of her children, gave this healing crystal from her generous supply to restore harmony to the finder. Who knows?

My New Paperweight

Do you see this chunk of quartz crystal?

One morning as I walked my dog across the lawn, I stubbed my toe on a rock. I kicked at the point of muddy rock a bit more until I realized it was part of a bigger rock. My dog started digging and soon handed me what at first looked like a chunk of mud. But I saw a little glimmer so I rinsed it off under the garden hose. It was a beautiful hunk of almost pure quartz. I liked it so I kept it on my desk as a paperweight.

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Stories That Sell - The Power of Brand Stories

Both stories are true. I just spun them differently. Which one did you find more appealing?

The second story is, of course, the true story. I stubbed my toe on what I thought was a plain old rock sticking out of the ground while I was walking my dog one morning. I noticed a little glimmer, though, and washed off the rock. Much to my delight, I had a huge chunk of almost perfect quartz. It seems as if my house is actually built on a large quartz deposit. We continually find the most beautiful quartz under the lawn, pure, white, and rose.

But some people who love using crystals for healing might be more attracted to the story of the ancient ground expelling a quartz with healing properties. I wrote this story with a lot of flamboyance and hyperbole, which isn’t my typical style, and not something I might find appealing.

Many copywriters have used such a style to successfully sell products. The most famous example is an advertisement written by the legendary John Caples. “They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano” is a long form ad, or advertorial, used to sell an online course. And it is famous for good reason: not only is it immediately compelling, but it uses the story of an imaginary customer, one who purchased and used the course successfully, to sell the home study music course. It engages the imagination, the emotions, and weaves a net of desire in the prospect’s mind to encourage them to buy the course.

Good content marketing does the same. It uses brand storytelling to sell, and engages the emotions before engaging logic to encourage customers to take the desired action. It builds awareness, interest, desire, and action (AIDA), the proven formula for increasing sales.

The Significant Object Project

Stories sell. Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn conducted an anthropological experiment that has had significant ramifications for marketing professionals. Walker and Glenn’s experiment “demonstrated that the effect of narrative on any given object’s subjective value can be measured objectively.”

To conduct their experiment, the duo purchased $129 worth of tchotchkes, or low value objects from dollar stores. (You know what I mean. C’mon, your house is probably full of them. Mine is.) They hired creative writers to weave compelling narratives around the objects. Then, they placed each object on eBay and measured the final sales value of objects enhanced with stories.

The results: $129 worth of objects generated $3.6 million in net profits, an increase of 2,700%.

This experiment, dubbed the Significant Objects Social Experiment, illustrated what many in marketing had known all along - stories sell more products and enhance their perceived value.

Why Do Stories Increase Perceived Value?

Humans evolved with both logic and emotion. In fact, our emotional brains tend to overrule our logical brains. This is why many marketing and sales techniques play on feelings of scarcity, love, hunger, and desire. Sex sells. So does inadequacy, comfort, longing, status, and a hundred other emotional nuances inherent in the human condition.

Stories tap into the emotional aspect of the buying process and serve as a shortcut directly into the customers’ minds.

Many companies bombard their customers with logic; facts, figures, and features galore. But it is the stories about the products that actually help them sell; the case studies, success stories, and benefits to the end customer. These are what harnesses the emotions of customers and transforms browsers into buyers, looky-lous into loyal fans.

The Bottom Line: Key Takeaways for Marketers

The bottom line is that stories sell. Brand stories are especially powerful as they engage customers in the overall company narrative like nothing else can. But product stories, service stories, and success stories are also powerful motivators.

Your Digital Marketing Action Steps

• Don’t flood your audience with facts and figures. Even if you sell a highly technical product, start with the story first and support it with facts and figures.
• Use plain, creative, and natural language in your written materials. Avoid corporate and industry jargon. I always have a tough time convincing my clients in engineering and manufacturing that this is so because they love their jargon (marketers do, too). But at the end of the day, engineers and manufacturers are people, with brains hardwired to love stories. Their stories may resonate with numbers but they still love a good story!
• Show, show, and show - then tell. Demonstrate the value of your products. Paint colorful pictures about your products with words, photos, and videos. Collect testimonials and success stories among your customers and get their permission to share them. But above all, show - don’t tell - your customers what value they’ll receive from your brand, your business, your products and services.

You may also want to read on Seven Oaks Consulting: What You Can Learn About Marketing from a Lucky Lobster.

Would you like to explore how stories can increase your ROI? Your next step: Call Seven Oaks Consulting for a consultation. We helped a local photographer increase her annual revenues by 50%. We have launched multi-million brands through compelling storytelling. It’s content marketing with digital rocket fuel. Call (434) 574-6253 for a consultation or contact us for a free no-obligation consultation.

by Jeanne Grunert

Cause Marketing Considerations

You may not be familiar with the term cause marketing, but you're probably familiar with brands of all sorts touting the Black Lives Matter hashtag or a similar cause they believe in. Brand have participated in cause marketing since 1974 when 7-11 convenience stores issued collectible cups to commemorate the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Since then, many brands seem compelled to align themselves with a cause.

When the cause is chosen with care and aligns with the company's brand positioning, mission, and vision, it can be a great boost for the company.

However, just because a cause is popular doesn't mean it's right for every brand. Before you append that hashtag, add a frame to your company's profile picture, or drape your website in blue/pink/green/black/or rainbow colors, think carefully. There are many considerations to weigh to ensure that cause marketing supports rather than detracts from your brand.

What Is Cause Marketing?

The original meaning of cause marketing was to align a for-profit brand with a non-profit to support the missions of both. The purpose of cause marketing is to showcase a brand's corporate social responsibility while simultaneously generating positive feelings in the general public.

There are several benefits that brands receive when they participate in cause-related marketing campaigns.

What Are the Benefits of Cause-Related Marketing?

• Positive public relations. Consider the Avon 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk, which almost always generates lots of positive publicity for brand. Photos of women of all sizes, shapes, colors and ages walking in solidarity to raise money for their sisters suffering from breast cancer is a powerful image and seen throughout October as walks continue across the nation. This form of cause marketing raises over $115 million annually for breast cancer research.
• Increased visibility. Along with the positive public relations comes increased visibility, which also boosts the company's brand awareness among their target consumers.
• Additional marketing opportunities. How many companies participate in awareness campaigns? Supermarkets are "pink washed" in October as breast cancer awareness month and the subsequent alignment of brands ranging from yogurt to frozen meals takes front and center. Affixing the cause's pink ribbon, special color, or other visual identifier to a company's public advertising and marketing helps it stand out and may lead to additional marketing opportunities.
• Increased sales. Some people prefer doing business with companies that align themselves with specific causes. Goya Foods voices its support for President Trump, and while liberals predicted a slump in sales, the brand experienced a temporary boost as supporters poured into markets and bought canned Goya foods. PetSmart gives local animal shelters space to show pictures (or the actual pets, as in the case of cats) in their stores. If people adopt the pet, they certainly need food, toys, and other equipment for their new family members. Supporting the cause ends up supporting the brand and increasing sales.

Drawbacks to Cause-Focused Marketing Campaigns

There are also several drawbacks to cause-based campaigns.

• Skepticism: Given how many brands rushed to declare themselves woke, equitable, and fair to all colors/creeds/sexual preferences in 2020 in the wake of the riots and other racial unrest in the United States, it's no wonder that the public can be skeptical. If a brand's values and attitudes do not align with the cause, consumers can spot it a mile away. A line of inexpensive clothing produced in Pakistan that suddenly declares itself against the exploitation of workers may get hoots of laughter instead of support because clearly, to produce a $5 t-shirt they aren't coddling their workers. Similarly, a company known for its antipathy to female workers that suddenly calls itself equitable or voices support for more women on boards of directors is also opening itself to criticism.
• Money: Consumers also want to know exactly how much money a company does indeed give to support a cause. If they choose a more expensive brand because it supports a cause they believe in, how much of their purchase goes towards the charity?
• Oversaturation: Too many brands leaping into cause marketing has led to consumers feeling jaded by all the colorful ribbons, slogans, and hashtags. They are overly saturated with messages about problems and how brands support, solve, or stand strong with whatever. It leads to message numbness in the marketplace.

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Choose Your Cause Carefully

Given the pros and cons of cause marketing, brand would be wise to choose their causes carefully.

When I worked for Martin Viette Nurseries, one of the top nursery and garden centers in the nation, their specific 'cause' was the local Mental Health Association. The company donated the beautiful location on Long Island to host an annual gala.

Now, there is nothing wrong with supporting this charity or another health-related charity if you're a garden center. It certainly was a great cause. But it did absolutely nothing to support the brand. A charity gala is just one step. To successfully convert the event into a cause marketing campaign, other relationships could have been developed.

• The garden center may have hosted workshops on how gardening improves mental health, with speakers from the mental health association
• They may have donated gardening tools, supplies, or landscape design to the local mental health hospital
• They may have put signs around the nursery during mental health months etc.

Just hosting the gala was one way to align with a cause but not an effective form of brand marketing.

Should You Jump on the Latest Social Cause?

As I mentioned before, many companies leaped before they looked at the cause marketing scene in 2020. They pinned hashtags to their posts, demanded that their employees forswear allegiance to organizations, and promoted their own version of social justice warriorhood to their employees and customers.

There are several problems with this (lack of) strategy, however:

• Before trumpeting support for any cause through your corporate communications channels and aligning your brand with a cause directly or indirectly, make sure you are completely aware of all of the connotations and denotations of the cause.
• Ask yourself: Is this cause something that my avatar or target customer would support? You'll lessen the risk of brand/cause mismatch by taking the time to understand who your target customers are and what they care about (hint: it's not what YOU care about that matters).
• Does this cause align with my brand's mission and vision? If you don't have a stated brand mission and vision, work on that first before declaring your undying love of a cause.

Alignment Is the Key to Cause Marketing Success

Cause marketing is a powerful way to boost both a for-profit and a non-profit by aligning both together to share a value-driven message. It goes awry when there's a mismatch and it thrives when both resonate with the target customer. Consider carefully this alignment before jumping on the cause campaign train.

by Jeanne Grunert