By Arial Starks
Lauren Freedman
Marketing has been growing and evolving at a rapid pace over the last decade. To be successful in the field, you must also grow and evolve with it. Lauren Freedman, Digital Marketing lead at The Coca-Cola Company and a Vanderbilt Business MBA alumna, shares a few ways to thrive as a Brand Marketer.
Time is limited. Depend on others to move forward.
As a brand leader, one of the most important aspects of your job is your time. Freedman says a key part of making sure your time is spent effectively is the ability to set a shared vision and then delegate tasks to your team. Decision-making happens after receiving input and perspectives from many people, so you have to keep in mind time is limited, and you must depend on others to move forward.
“You’re not the expert, you’re relying on other people’s expertise,” said Freedman. “But as the brand lead, you have different visibility than others, so being comfortable making decisions based on their input is key. ”
Be comfortable with numbers.
Over the last decade, the marketing industry as a whole has seen a shift to predominantly online and digital commerce. This has put a stronger emphasis on data and analytics, a skill Freedman says brand marketing professionals need to embrace.
“There is so much more information across the board, so being comfortable with numbers and being able to make confident decisions quickly about those numbers is essential,” Freedman said. “You have to be able to take all of the data and use it, or else it’s not worth having the data.”
Stay current with industry trends.
The marketing industry has been growing and changing over the last decade, and it continues to evolve. Freedman says with this constant change, one of the biggest challenges marketers face is staying current and up to speed on everything.
“It is hard to make space for yourself and your team to think about things like digital and omnichannel, especially when there’s so much going on within the industry,” she said. “Divide and conquer and make sure you have a pulse on what’s going on, so you can reprioritize when needed,” Freedman continued.
Leverage your network and experts.
In a huge field like marketing, it is important to build connections with thought leaders and experts to stay current. While you may not have the time to take a deep dive into certain changes, Freedman reminds us that there are experts out there that study these trends.
“Making sure when you’re developing relationships with an agency or a vendor, you’re including thought leadership in the scope; the sharing of best practices is really important,” she said.
Freedman adds to always think about what others are doing in the market that may be more effective than your approach. “Figure out who has information and new ideas, and see if it’s applicable to what you are doing day to day”.
