The New Era of Marketing

Clayton Maddox is a content marketing intern with National Trade Supply, LLC in Greenwood, IN.  He assists with social media accounts, creating content, graphic design, and PPC advertising.

The 60s are often called the Golden Age of Advertising.

“Mad Men” like Donald Draper were the pioneers, with beautifully crafted stories and ideas rolling off the tongue one after the other. The interns only dreamed that they could ever be as witty and cool as them. All ideas were destined for TV, print, billboard or radio.

That was 50 years ago though, and the marketing and advertising industry has changed immensely.  Fedoras, plaid suits, smoking and drinking at work are all gone. Even though change is rapid, it’s time marketing classes incorporate modern aspects of marketing.

Creatives like Donald Draper are still essential for marketing agencies, but there’s a whole new side to marketing that wasn’t covered in any of my marketing classes. If you’re like me, the biggest worry you had during marketing was trying to remember the 4 P’s and understanding how to figure out a target market. But if this is all you know heading into your internship, you might be in for a surprise.

At my internship we don’t discuss the marketing mix or target markets; we discuss search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising. Impressions, conversion rate and crawlers are some more lingo associated with this new era: Internet Marketing. Granted, I work for a business that sells exclusively online, but all businesses should have a presence online now.

Luckily, I heard some of these terms before from my dad’s business, so I had somewhat of a foundation, but there’s still a lot of learning I have to do. One of my managers is dedicating at least an hour per week teaching a co-worker and me the basics of Google AdWords (the platform you use to set up ads on Google’s search engine). Thankfully, they’ve been very helpful. But what if someone who had an internet marketing background would’ve applied? I probably wouldn’t have had a chance.

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“I encourage you to take the initiative to learn internet marketing on your own time.There are a lot of blogs that cover these topics in an easy-to-read way.”

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Stuart Draper (no relation to Donald Draper), CEO and founder of Stukent, stated that 64% of the 200 business schools he contacted in 2013 still didn’t offer a dedicated digital marketing class. One possible reason for this is that since the industry moves and changes so fast, by the time a curriculum is set up and a book is chosen, it’ll be outdated.

I encourage you to take the initiative to learn internet marketing on your own time. There are a lot of blogs that cover these topics in an easy-to-read way. I usually dedicate at least 30 minutes a day to reading these blogs and picking up on major internet marketing news.

If you’re looking for a way to set yourself apart, start reading up on internet marketing now. Trust me, your interviewers will be impressed.