Source
r/AskMarketing•
roxya

Advice on where to start?

I work for a small-ish business in the automotive industry (spare parts, mostly for motorcycles) that turns over several million $ per year.

I'm the graphic designer and web designer/developer. I create our print adverts and our websites. I do the artwork, I create the content. But I have no marketing training, and we have no marketing people. There's no strategy.

Our sales are all B2B (and mostly exports), but the products are ours, so marketing to end-users is my responsibility. I feel like I'm shooting in the dark.

What I'm looking for is advice on how I can start to make improvements, for myself and for the company. Are there any good books I should start with, or any types of courses that would make a difference? I understand there are so many different things that are relevant... branding, market research, social media/email marketing... I'm not looking for a quick fix, just somewhere to start.

Thanks for your time.

Posted May 21, 2014, 11:56 AM UTC

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mtjess60Digital•

Personally I would take Hubspot's Academy's free inbound test. Since you're a designer, that part will come naturally. Their test forces you to learn the whole picture and understand the basics holistically (SEO, social, email, landing pages, etc). From there you can refine your knowledge: http://academy.hubspot.com/

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roxyaOP•

Thanks, this looks like a great place to start :)

0
lh01•

I have a background in jrn and moved into marketing several years ago, so I have no formal training. I have followed Unmarketing for a while and get a lot of insights from him. I haven't read any of his books, but I am sure they'd be worth checking out (especially The UnMarketing Book): http://www.unmarketing.com/about/unbooktour-dates/

I would also suggest working closely with your sales people to learn who your audience is, what they need from your biz and what they think of your current marketing efforts. Good luck!

My best advice is to find a way to measure success for any new ad campaign or effort. Use that data to adjust as you learn what works and what doesn't. And don't stick with something that's not working just because you've always done it that way.

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[deleted]•

For email marketing, the Only Influencers blog has a lot of free content that should provide a good starting point. http://onlyinfluencers.com/blog

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