5 Ways To Put Back the Mojo in Your Marketing Job
Marketing is an intriguing business, be it on the agency side or client side. The highs of flexing your creativity and wowing consumers are balanced by the lows of crushing deadlines, endless emails and the ever-present need to churn out results. Getting stuck in a rut is common, and some people even fall out of love with the business and leave to plant pigeon peas. If you find yourself staring at your laptop screen and wondering why you chose this career path, here are five tips that may help rekindle your personal marketing magic.
AI
No thanks to The Matrix or iRobot, but AI isn’t coming for our jobs. Not yet, anyway. The development of AI is exciting because it’s a tool we’ve never had before.
Remember searching for days for a West Indian-specific stock photo, or taking eight hours to finish a comprehensive review of a marketing strat plan meeting? Those days are gone. Resistance is futile—embrace AI to make the tedious parts of our jobs way easier. And by doing so, you can be freed up to do that thing that only humans can do: be creative.
Lifelong Learning
This predates how much AI has changed the marketing landscape. But if you develop this aptitude, then any industry changes, big or small, won’t rock your boat as much. It definitely will help you to manipulate the various AI platforms to get what you want and keep your C-suite or consumers happy. And part of the fun is that there is always something new to discover, some new campaign to see and criticise or some trend to explore. Oh, you’re getting frustrated by how fast things change? Let us introduce you to …
Work-Life Balance
Now that everyone is reachable 24/7, that doesn’t mean that everyone should be reached 24/7. Unplugging is a crucial part of staying sharp. No one is indispensable, but you will reach the end of your usefulness in any position if you no longer have a creative well to draw on. As trite as it sounds, witnessing sunsets and sunrises, playing in the dirt or the sand, working on manual projects, in-person conversations: these are the things that truly inspire us, give us the fuel to keep going. So be stricter about building your life around what happens before 9 am and after 5 pm and see if it doesn’t change how you feel about your job.
Networking
You can do this formally or informally. But we’ve found that taking the time to hear from and speak to others in the industry can go beyond insightful to reminding us why we chose this field. The BUZZ Chief Creative Officer had the chance to attend a conference focused on Gen Z in February. And our managing director jetted off to a fruitful Worldwide Partners Inc. conference only last month, where she was reminded that, “The journey of transformation—though sometimes delayed—is one we’re never walking alone.” And that’s the real power of networking: its ability to help us realise that we are part of a community that experiences similar challenges, but from which we can draw knowledge, resources and inspiration when needed.
Change Your Perspective
Reframing is a helpful therapy tool that you can use even if you’re not in therapy. When we’re tired and frustrated, it’s easy to tell ourselves, “This job is overwhelming,” or “Nobody ever listens to me.” But when we reframe, we can give ourselves healthy solutions to challenges. Instead of “This job is overwhelming,” try reframing and admitting, “I’ve been overwhelmed this month. What part of my role am I struggling with?” Then make a plan to communicate with your team and get the support you need to tackle all your to-dos. Maybe schedule some time off to watch a sunset while you’re at it.
