How Can Marketers Stay Relevant – Keep Learning

Updated March 4, 2025

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Working in marketing is now intrinsically linked with technology and while that’s great for lots of things like proving ROI and efficiency, it does come at a cost. That cost is continuous learning. If you want to work in marketing, you can’t afford to rest on your laurels anymore. So, how can you balance doing your job with keeping up with all the changes?

Picking a Niche

It can be tempting to try and learn everything. Sure, you’re already posting on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest so why not add Snapchat? But if you spread yourself too thinly you won’t be able to learn in enough depth to give a value. So you should pick an area you’re interested in. If it’s social media, then focus on keeping up with all things social. If it’s analytics and data science, then make that your thing. If you’re interested in coding then start learning basic HTML.

When you’re deciding where to focus you can also look at where marketing might be heading in the future. We like to keep abreast of the CMO survey, so taking a look at their most recent results might give you an idea of where you should spend your time.

Always Keep Learning

As mentioned in this recent article from MarketingWeek employees need to treat their career the same way they do their fitness. You don’t just go to the gym once and expect to keep fit. If you’re exercising regularly and then stop you know that your fitness is going to drop off. The same goes for your marketing chops. Just because you studied the four Ps in college, doesn’t mean you’re still at the top of your game 10 years later.

You should make time to learn new things every week or month. Put aside time for your own professional development. It can be as simple as setting up Google alerts for topics that are relevant to you and reading the articles. Or, something more involved, like signing up for online courses on websites like Coursera. Or even taking a proper course or qualification in your own time. Whatever method you choose, taking time to learn and improve yourself will put you above the majority of your peers and keeping this habit up as you grow older is likely to improve your long-term mental health.

Find a Sponsor

You might have got this far and thought “great idea, but I don’t have the time!”. Everybody is busy, and finding a quiet 30 minutes to study marketing after coming home from a full day of work isn’t always possible, let alone palatable. That’s why at Spectrum we have “work” time dedicated to learning. As employers, we think that it’s important for our team to be able to grow. The more knowledge and expertise they have the better. It means we can sell more advanced services to our clients, and that we can work more efficiently. So it’s win-win. Many other companies share this attitude, so ask your boss if there’s a budget for staff training, or if you can spend work time devoted to learning. Selling them the benefits of letting you improve to get better at your job shouldn’t be too difficult.

Saved by the Bell

If you’re interested in learning more about marketing we salute you. At Spectrum, we’re all passionate about learning new things and trying new technologies. Have you seen something that’s going to change marketing? If you have we’d love to hear about it.