fordable professional development ideas to help martech pros

Both marketing and technology are constantly changing. The intersection of these two fields, martech, reflects this. As martech professionals, it is important to constantly improve our skills and knowledge.

You should also be able to develop other capabilities than your expertise in your field. You should take advantage of the opportunities to improve your interpersonal skills. Don’t forget about learning from the skills of your coworkers. DevOps topics and sales topics, for example, can help you understand your stakeholders better.

Professional development does not have to be costly or time-consuming. These are some affordable and time-saving opportunities that do not require too much commitment.

1. Training provided by the company

Companies are motivated to help their employees. They hire and manage talent development teams to accomplish this goal. These teams offer training that is applicable across all disciplines, including coaching, teamwork and ethical behavior, as well as helping to promote the existing organizational culture and to onboard new employees.

Training is promoted through intranets, newsletters, and town hall meetings. These meetings are usually held during regular business hours. It is simple for employees to adjust their obligations and schedules to allow training sessions to be accommodated, as senior leadership supports it. They are also free of personal expense and help participants network within the company.

2. Outlets for industry and discipline

No matter what profession they are in, it is important to stay current with the industry where they work. It is important to understand the products of your company, no matter how technical or inept a martech practitioner may be.

Many industry-specific outlets offer up-to-date information about current trends and forces that affect industries. These outlets are worth following. These companies often have websites, newsletters or podcasts. Some examples include Inside Higher Ed, Skift, for travel and hospitality, Supermarket News, for grocers, and many other. Trade associations may also have such outlets.

These outlets are helpful in professional development. These outlets can help you to understand customers’ and users’ motivations and make tactical and strategic decisions. They can also offer competitive intelligence, emerging trends and tech to think about. MarTech is a great example of discipline-related outlets.

Get deeper: What top skills are you looking for in digital marketing?

3. Offerings from vendors

Many vendors offer product training and certifications, especially for big players like Adobe and Salesforce. White papers, webinars, user communities, and conferences are all common offerings. This is a benefit for them in building a loyal user base. These offerings can often be free or very low-cost, making it simple to justify the time and effort.

While many of these products are product-specific, it is not a reason to discount their wider value. You should consider how product-specific information could be applied to a wider context, including other products. Be aware, however, of the benefits and disadvantages to product specialization.

4. Professional associations and professional communities

Many martech-related communities and groups aim to help and support one another, just like other professions. You can find these groups at Meetup.

Such groups come in different types. There are many types of such groups. Some focus on specific products that vendors may support. Others focus on specialties. MO Professionals, Marketing Ops Pros are just two examples of MOps groups.

Sometimes, groups are dedicated to specialists in the same industry. For people who work in tech disciplines, or just tech in general, there are geographical groups such as Silicon Slopes Utah.

These groups might have LinkedIn groups or Slack workspaces, or listservs. These groups require volunteers leaders and participation. Help out to strengthen your network and at the same time, grow it.

5. Online courses

Coursera, LinkedIn Learning and Pluralsight offer free access to the majority of content through their on-demand training services. Libraries may offer patrons access at no extra cost in some cases.

Although they lack the ability to interact with instructors in real time, on-demand courses are extremely convenient. Many courses offer hands-on activities and can be validated through exams and quizzes.

6. Libraries

Many great resources are also available at your local library. You can find books and other publications at the library. Library card holders have access to premium databases such as LexisNexis or other outlets that are behind paywalls.

Ask a librarian for help if you are having trouble finding a book or publication. It will be a surprise to see how willing they are to order anything at the request of a patron. Use your tax money. Not everyone has the space for huge bookshelves.

7. Mentor relationships

Mentor relationships are important. These relationships are not necessarily financially rewarding, but they do require mutual planning and time commitments between mentors and mentees.

Mentor relationships must be mutually beneficial for both parties. NPR’s “Life Kit”, a podcast that discusses effective mentorships, recently released an episode. It provides helpful tips for how each party should prepare and behave to achieve a positive outcome.

8. You

You. You are a great resource for professional development. You can help others in many ways that require a broad range of commitment.

Participate in an event or conference. Mentor another professional. Help create an outlet. Participate in a meet-up, whether it is virtual or local. Open office hours for experts.

Accept the invitation to speak in class. Hosting a martech intern in your company. You can start a blog, podcast or YouTube channel.

My professional life is full of joy because I get to contribute to MarTech. Although I am not a genius, I enjoy the opportunity to share my thoughts and help others avoid the same mistakes and hurdles that I have.

Explore deeper: People skills and martech skills: You don’t have to choose

There are many opportunities, but only one accountability

There are many affordable professional development opportunities available today. You are responsible for your own destiny and can only take advantage of these opportunities.

MarTech first published the post 8 cheap professional development ideas to martech pros.