The last 10 years of the marketing and advertising industry have experienced a significant amount of changes.  Traditional marketing avenues seem to be slowly becoming a thing of the past.  With the introduction of internet marketing and social media advertisers have been forced to become even more competitive in their respective industries.  Nowadays there are many brands who are struggling to find a sweetspot for advertising success.  Social Media, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Traditional Media – Which of these are the right fit for your business model?  Where are you most efficient and productive?

Recently I took on a new marketing position with a successful digital media company here in St. Louis that really made me think about this subject.  After six years of marketing experience I’ve puzzled myself numerous times with this very question.  How do you discover your inner true marketing potential?  Do you follow the leader(s), trend, or your passion?  How do you approach true marketing success using your inner potential?

Discovering your inner true marketing potential may take some time to perfect and succeed with.  There are a few things that I would suggest to beginners who are starting out in the online marketing World.

1. Follow Your Passion – during the course of my career as a marketer I’ve ran across far too many imitators.  Being successful in the marketing industry requires true talent and inner passion.  It’s by far the best advice I’d give to anyone else that’s currently reading this post and trying to make sense of the current state of marketing.  True success will come from within and by following your inner passion and desire.  Don’t be a follower, be a leader!  Pursue your inner passion.
2. Apply Your Strengths – you can’t be all things to everyone and be successful in each area.  Identifying your strengths will only put you one step closer to reaching your inner true marketing potential.  There were several areas that I was introduced to when first starting out.  The two primary strengths that I found myself most productive in were Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing.  In the later years web development and social media marketing came about which was something that I quickly adapted to and learned as well.  For the most part though SEO and SEM were two categories that I was interested in pursuing further.  Find your inner strengths and use them to dominate within your industry.
3. Practice & Succeed– it takes time to perfect your skill set.  Practice makes perfect like anything else in Life.  Stick with what you do best and follow that passion.  Something that I’ve done personally over the course of the last few years and the experiences have helped me perfect and accelerate my abilities.

What’s your inner true marketing potential?  Following your passion typically serves as a good metric to run with and work on perfecting.  Stay strong in the areas that you see yourself most productive and efficient.  Your brand or employer will benefit from the long-term success.