Entry-Level Marketing Jobs and the Skills You Need

In a world where customer expectations have never been greater and a world-class customer experience (CX) is now merely the price of entry, skilled marketing professionals are in the proverbial driver’s seat regarding their career options.

But how do those new to marketing, especially recent college graduates, acquire the skills needed to succeed in entry-level marketing jobs?

In this blog post, you’ll learn about the most commonly needed, must-have skills for entry-level marketing roles, additional specialized skills and technical abilities that are often overlooked, and the biggest challenges by those new to marketing careers.

Must-Have Skills to Succeed in Entry-Level Marketing Jobs

The ideal, entry-level marketing professional is a self-starter, detail-oriented, and a lifelong learner.

Because so many companies need their marketers to lead transformational campaigns, marketers need to take initiative as self-starters. A typical campaign can often involve dozens of moving parts. So being well-organized and detailed-oriented is vital.

And the pace of change in marketing is neverending; the culture of and thirst for lifelong learning is a must.

Specialized Skills and Technical Abilities When Starting a New Marketing Career

For entry-level marketing jobs, two abilities are essential:

1. Content creation: Content in all major formats (video, audio, images, and text) allows a company to get found by the right people, in the right places, at the right time, and, most of all, in the right context. For today's digital buyer's journey, content often takes the place of many at least early-stage sales interactions.
2. Internal and external collaboration: Because today's marketing investments impact sales enablement, customer success, customer marketing, product development, and channel partner activation, the ideal marketing professional knows how to build consensus needed for successful collaborations, internal and external.

Biggest Challenges Faced by Entry-Level Marketing Professionals

The ideal new hire in a  marketing position like this anticipates needs, relentlessly focuses on goals, and is exceptionally persistent.

But these roles are not without their fair share of challenges.

In so many companies, many non-marketers mistakenly think they understand marketing because they consume social media, email newsletters, or webinars. 

One of the biggest challenges: is powering through the toxic combination of ignorance and arrogance that infects so many marketing strategy decisions that entry-level marketing professionals must contend with. 

Yes, dealing with these battles does get easier as your career advances. Still, many company leaders controlling marketing budgets don't grasp today's marketing playbook needed for the digitally transformed world.

This combination and environment is all the more reason why those in the early stages of their marketing careers must embrace being well-organized and detail-oriented self-starters -- while paying close attention to content creation, and internal and external collaboration.

What do you feel is most important to succeed in entry-level marketing positions? Let me know in the comments section down below.

And if you're serious about jumpstarting your entry-level job with skills that turn heads and get results, be sure to enroll now in our free 7-day eCourse: Go-to-Market Strategy 101 for B2B SaaS Startups and Scaleups.