Women’s History Month is almost over, so before it ends, we thought of spreading some more light about women in marketing and bid an encouraging farewell to the Women’s History Month 2021. As we have seen in our previous articles, marketing plays a very important role in the life of women and even women have a crucial and significant contribution to the marketing industry.
Marketing for Women
Today, a huge number of marketing workforce comprises women. It is observed that women often love and enjoy choosing education and careers in dynamic fields like marketing. Moreover, some superpowers such as good communication skills and better emotional intelligence make them a perfect fit for the role of an idol marketer. Marketing is different for every individual, but it is all over different for women.
Julie Zhou, Senior Director of Growth at AdRoll, describes her relationship with marketing as “I have always been someone who enjoyed dissecting TV commercials to try and determine the target audience and purpose that the creators had in mind. Marketing is the only discipline I’ve experienced to allow me to fully marry my right brain and left brain – logic, and creativity – science and art. The event that truly made me realize that marketing was the right field for me occurred when I was browsing through a gift shop in Japan. One of my favorite movies growing up was Spirited Away, an animated film created in Japan and super popular worldwide. This gift shop was selling merchandise from the film. One of the items was based on a “soot spirit” character and was literally a black fuzzy ball with two googly eyes on it. They cost $10 each, and I wanted one desperately. I knew right then and there that I wanted to learn more about the magic that could motivate someone to place such a high value on an otherwise unremarkable object.”
Marketing is a space of business unlike any other. In this growing area, anyone can enter on the ground and rise to the top. It’s also a place where women enjoy a flexible role and collaborate with driven, like-minded peers.
Meredith Klee, Director of Communications & Content at AdRoll, justifies this nature of marketing, she says “I went to school for broadcast news and thought that’s where I would land. But the itch to move to a big city and start a career vs broadcast-market hop made me flip the script on myself. Rather than focus on the news, I decided to be the person creating news and stories for reporters through PR. I had a successful decade in PR but reached the point where I was curious beyond my world and wanted to start a new chapter. I did so by taking on a more hybrid communication and marketing role in-house at AdRoll. So marketing and I sort of found each other you could say, but I’m glad it did. I’ve learned so much working alongside my marketing peers and have much more admiration and understanding for the work marketers do now.”
Marketing Liberation
Marketing has always acted as a mirror of society and has also reacted to the changes in society. Marketing is not just about the sector, business, and industry but it is much more than that. It is a combination of arts and science that helps in liberating women as a marketer. It also adds an emotional touch to the works as it directly connects marketers with the customers.
Julie says that “You always know very quickly if something is working. I don’t buy into the classic notion that marketing is difficult to measure. When you tell a story, change a call to action, pitch a story to a partner… you can tell right away if you have delighted them or if their eyes just glaze over. That is a very powerful form of feedback. No matter what someone claims, humans typically make decisions based on emotion – so having direct and instant access to this emotional response is valuable.”
With the combination of arts and science, marketing has helped women in overcoming the social taboo in the business world. Marketing empowers women to showcase their worth in their work with their capabilities, and talent. It also liberates women marketers by providing them an opportunity to engage with their customers and build an emotional connection with them as well as the job.
Meredith states that “My background is in public relations and that’s a space that’s tried and true. Marketing is more fickle and that’s what I find liberating. How you engage with customers, the type of content you create, how you capture market attention – there’s not a one-size-fits-all formula and there’s a lot of continued experimentation that goes into it which I find exciting.”
Advice to Marketers
Advice to Marketers
The marketing world is filled with persistent women who have made it to the top and reached success beyond boundaries. All of these women’s marketing leaders have their own unique stories to tell, aspiring journeys to share, and valuable advice to offer. So, let’s check out the top 5 advice from women leaders to women marketers.
1. Listening is the key to a solid marketing foundation
Being a good listener always helps a person to be a good marketer as it helps marketers in gauging the scenario and learning about what is happening. Julie adds “Everybody loves to talk. The real opportunity is in learning to be an active listener. You’ll learn more than you thought possible, and you’ll also build stronger relationships.”
2. Take Risk and Rise
3. Keep the Curious Soul Fanning for Being a Better Marketer
Curiosity is the fodder that feeds the marketer’s soul. Being curious not only gives you a chance to learn about what your competitors are doing but also lays the foundation of an effective marketing strategy.
Meredith supports the claim and says “Never stop learning. As you grow in your career, you learn what works and what doesn’t so it’s easy to stick with the “always works” path, especially when bandwidth is tight or times are chaotic. But the best marketer is one that constantly stays curious and not focused on only their piece. It’s easy to leave things with the experts, but I’ve found the most joy in learning from them and understanding how their piece connects with mine. Staying curious means you’re engaged, you’re learning, and you’re growing.”
4. Interact with your audience & customers
5. Be a mentor and motivation to other women marketers
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