Succeeding in the marketing industry depends on your ability to try new tools, implement new techniques, and compile new strategies. There’s no doubt it’s difficult to keep up! But, in doing so you become more reputable which may, in turn, lead to exciting new opportunities – whether that be for your business, in your current role, or a completely different sector. Here are the five things that every marketing professional should utilise to keep up-to-date with the industry!

Podcasts

There’s an array of podcasts dedicated to the marketing industry specifically. Podcasts are a great every-day learning tool as they share information in a casual format that is engaging, stimulating and thought-provoking. The following are our top picks to stay immersed in the marketing sector:

1. Marketing Over Coffee – hosts, John Wall and Christopher S. Penn will keep you up-to-date each week with all things digital, for example, SEO marketing, email marketing, social networks, copyrighting and multivariate testing. Have a read of their popular episodes here.
2. CopyBlogger FM – each week, host, Sonia Simone and her team shed light on marketing trends such as copywriting, content marketing and mindset, as well as issues and downfalls that are happening in real-time.
3. Social Pros Podcast – join Jay Baer of Convince & Convert and Adam Brown from Salesforce as they chat to leading social media strategists, as well as discuss and ratify/debunk current trends in the social media industry.
4. Growth Marketing Tool Box – Skilled blogger and growth marketer, Nicholas Scalice from Earnworthy will inform you of the newest and best marketing tools. He interviews everyone from startup founders to product creators, drawing on innovative tools and strategies along the way.

Training Courses and Certificates

To accessorise the less formal continued learning styles, we recommend training courses. These can generally be done in any format you like and lead you down whichever pathway you desire. One fantastic online training site is Google Academy. There’s a range of certifications and courses available, and the best part is, they’re free! Two academies we recommend to every marketing practitioner or aspiring practitioner are Google Analytics Academy and Google Academy for Ads. These are bite-sized courses that can be completed anywhere, at any given time. 

Another awesome learning site we recommend is Udemy. Many well-known companies – including Adidas, PayPal and Pinterest – utilise Udemy to build high-demand career skills for their business. This is a paid platform aimed for you to progress in the marketing profession under the guidance of real industry professionals. These are just two of the many platforms out there, so do your research and see what best suits you and your learning goals!

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is your right-hand man. If used effectively, this platform can provide you with the type of direct knowledge and awareness you can’t seek anywhere else. This platform ought to be used to:

• Follow Industry Leaders – watch and learn from the best
• Network – maintain industry relationships by engaging with your connections
• Inquire – take note of what your LinkedIn community is liking, commenting on or sharing at the moment
• Promote – make your mark, whether that be your professional brand and/or your business

Workshops & Mentoring

A way to create authentic and meaningful industry relationships is through workshops. Once again, there’s plenty on offer! A favourite of the gals in our office is Women in Digital, which hosts events in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Recent workshops in Brisbane have focussed on customer experience, innovation and elevator pitches. They also offer mentoring programs, allowing you to connect with like-minded marketing professionals and discover your mentoring match. Meet up.com is another useful platform that can be used to seek workshop opportunities. There are various categories to choose from including tech, photography, career and business.

Online Print Industry Publications

Finally, make sure you are subscribed to industry publications. The following three are our go-to’s:

1. Mumbrella – A comprehensive discussion of ‘everything under Australia’s media and marketing umbrella’. Mumbrella also produces an extensive events portfolio including Mumbrella360, The Mumbrella Awards, CommsCon, Publish, MSIX, as well as the hugely popular Marketing Summit series.
2. Marketing Mag – This publication is designed to provide Australia’s marketing professionals with the advantage to excel in their business and career. They provide this through news, insight, case studies, reports, tools and the magazine itself. 
3. CMO Australia – CMO stands for Chief Marketing Officer. This publication is a direct response to the rise of the CMO role in organisations and follows unique leadership and management challenges that are faced by CMOs. This is the newest media title from IDG Communications, the world’s leading technology media, events and research company. 

So that’s how we stay in the know here at Fuse! Do you utilise any of these already? What other tools do you like to use?