Holy Cow! When you read the list of the 10 Most Hated Jobs constructed by CareerBliss based on research from hundreds of thousands of participants, it’s a real wakeup call to see 20% of the field represented by Marketing.  What’s going on these days within Marketing departments to earn such an objectionable ranking on this list-you-don’t -want-to-be-on? 

The answer is pretty simple actually.  Uncertainty.  Marketing chiefs and employees face a constant battle with uncertainty – often tasked with managing or integrating complex technical components within standard communication mediums where the Best Practice manuals have yet to be written.  For all the hype about how far we’ve come in the Marketing world, there’s still an overwhelming amount of “gut decisions” that have to be made.  Gut decisions cause stress.  Everyone wants to know they’re making the best, most effective, most economical, most-likely-to-succeed decision.  That’s called being a good steward of the company funds. 

Often Marketing professionals struggle to see where the “Win” is in the daily tasks they’re doing – how it all ties together to make a difference.  Where the proof is that the $1 we invested in Marketing resulted in $2 of product sales.  People are driven by accomplishment – all of us want to know what we do matters in the big picture.  If you can’t measure with certainty the value you create for your employer – what confidence should you have in the security of your employment? 

Uncertainty.  Marketing.  Sadly, they’ve been closely connected for the past 100 years.  Today, we continue to make inroads towards concrete measurement through Direct Marketing, Database Marketing, Social Media and ever more sophisticated Reporting tools.  We’re closing the gap all the time between “I think it made a difference” and “Our campaign delivered a 125% ROI”.  At FaceTime Strategy, we’re working to get Marketing taken off that list…