There can be a lot of ambiguity when it comes to applying for jobs that are titled “communications,” “creative,” “sales,” and “marketing,” as these titles can encompass a wide range of roles and responsibilities. Here are a few tips to help you navigate this ambiguity when applying for or posting these types of jobs:

Tips for Navigating Role Ambiguity

1. Read the job description carefully: Pay close attention to the specific responsibilities and qualifications outlined in the job description. This will give you a good sense of what the employer is looking for and can help you tailor your application to the specific needs of the role.
2. Research the company: Use online resources, such as the company’s website and social media profiles, to learn more about the company’s culture, products, and services. This can help you understand the context in which the role will be performed and give you a better sense of the type of skills and experience the employer wants.
3. Ask questions: If you have questions about the role or the company, don’t hesitate to ask. You can often get more information by contacting the hiring manager or a recruiter directly.

It is crucial to be proactive and research when applying for these roles. With careful preparation and a clear understanding of the employer’s needs, you can increase your chances of landing the job you want.

For organizations trying to build their teams, it is essential to consider how to attract applicants with the ideal professional compass and skillset you want when posting jobs. In my experience on both sides of the table (interviewer and applicant), the role expectations often are miscommunicated.

For example, marketing teams are generally more focused on creative and strategic thinking, while sales teams focus on relationship building and persuasion. Separating and defining these two functions can help recruit the right talent. It can also allow a company to allocate resources more effectively and focus on specific areas of the customer journey. For example, marketing teams can focus on creating awareness and interest in a company’s products or services, while sales teams can focus on converting leads into customers. 

When separating and defining creative and strategic thinking to ensure they align with relationship-building and persuasion efforts, here are three essential foundations to focus on:

Tips for Aligning Strategic Creative and Persuasion Efforts:

1. Establish a design language: A design language is a set of guidelines that outlines the visual and interactive elements of a company’s digital products and services. It helps to create a cohesive and consistent user experience across all touchpoints. By establishing a design language, you can ensure that your branding and messaging are consistent and aligned with the company’s overall goals and values.
2. Define the culture: Expectations around regular and open communication is key to ensuring everyone is on the same page and working towards common goals. Schedule regular check-ins with your team members and encourage open and honest dialogue about challenges, opportunities, and progress toward goals.
3. Set clear goals and metrics: It is vital to clearly understand what you are working towards and how you will measure success. Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals and establish metrics to track progress toward these goals. This will help everyone stay focused and motivated and ensure that your efforts align with the organization’s overall objectives.

Establish a Design Language

As mentioned earlier, A design language is a set of guidelines that outlines the visual and interactive elements of a company’s digital products and services. It helps to create a cohesive and consistent user experience across all touchpoints. Ultimately, a design language can help resolve misalignment between marketing and sales team functions by creating a clear and consistent brand identity and user experience and aligning messaging and tactics across both teams.

A design language can help in several ways:

1. Consistent branding: A design language helps ensure that a company’s branding is consistent across all touchpoints. This can strengthen the overall brand identity and make it easier for customers to recognize and trust the company.
2. Clear messaging: A design language can ensure that the messaging used by the marketing and sales teams are consistent and aligned with the company’s overall goals and values. This can strengthen the impact of marketing campaigns and make it easier for sales teams to persuade potential customers.
3. Improved user experience: A well-designed and consistent user experience can enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and the efficiency of the sales process. By creating a seamless and intuitive user experience, both teams can work more effectively to achieve their goals.

Define the Culture

Defining cultural expectations between thought leaders is essential because it helps create a cohesive and effective team aligned around common goals and values. It also helps to establish a clear set of behaviors and expectations that guide the team’s work and can help create a positive and productive work environment.

A defined culture can also foster trust and collaboration within teams, as team members clearly understand their expectations of them and how they should work together. This can lead to more efficient and effective decision-making and problem-solving and can help to drive business results.

In addition, defining cultural expectations can help attract and retain top talent, as team members are more likely to be motivated and engaged when working in a positive and supportive environment. Overall, defining cultural expectations is essential for any team’s success and can help create a strong foundation for achieving shared goals and driving business results.

Best Practices for Setting Clear Goals and Metrics

Some best practices for setting clear goals and metrics across teams regardless of circumstantial shifts:

1. Identify common goals: Work with team leaders to identify common goals that align with the organization’s overall objectives. These goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
2. Communicate goals clearly: Communicate the plans and their importance to team members. This will ensure that everyone is working towards the same objectives and understands how their work contributes to the team’s overall success.
3. Establish metrics to track progress: Develop metrics to track progress towards goals. These metrics should be quantifiable and actionable and used to measure progress regularly.
4. Regularly review and adjust goals: It may be necessary to adjust your goals and metrics to reflect changing circumstances. Check your goals and metrics periodically and make adjustments as needed.
5. Encourage team input: Involve team members in the goal-setting process and encourage them to share ideas and insights. This helps to ensure that goals are relevant and achievable and foster a sense of ownership and commitment to achieving them.

In Summary:

When applying for communications, creative, and marketing jobs, it is important to carefully read the job description, research the company, and ask questions to understand the role and the employer’s needs.

For organizations looking to hire for these types of roles, it can be helpful to separate and define functions, such as creative and strategic thinking for marketing teams and relationship building and persuasion for sales teams, to attract the right candidates and allocate resources effectively.

Furthermore, the foundations for success in these fields include establishing a design language, defining the company culture, and setting clear goals and metrics.

---

This content reflects the personal opinions of the author. It is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and should not be substituted for impartial fact or advice in legal, political, or personal matters.

© 2022 Karen Chenoa Sergent