If you’re studying to complete an online journalism degree, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’ll be permanently boxed into a career as a journalist. But the truth? Attaining a qualification in journalism can open the door to a number of different career pathways – one of them being an exciting and rewarding career in marketing. So, how exactly do you leverage your journalism degree to build yourself a career in the marketing industry? The transferable skills you attain during your studies in journalism will take you far.

Here are just some of those transferable skills and how you can leverage them to pursue your marketing career aspirations. 

Transferable Skill # 1: Content Creation in the Era of ‘Content is King’

Content creation is an essential part of being a marketing professional. Indeed, in the era of ‘content is king’, creating quality, human-written, and valuable content has become a cornerstone of effective marketing, digital marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. 

But not everyone knows how to write good copy. It takes great skill to be able to conceptualize, create, and craft content that not only reads well but is also interesting to read. The best type of marketing content also often includes a ‘call to action’ (CTA), which encourages, inspires, and compels readers to think, feel, and even act in certain ways. 

As a journalism grad, your ability to craft compelling copy will take you places. You know how to create copy that captivates, compels, and converts- all essential elements of good quality marketing content. 

Transferable Skill # 2: The Ability to Identify and Target Audiences

Knowing which audiences to target is another transferable skill you’ll pick up as part of your journalism studies and which is also essential to marketing practices. Indeed, without targeting the correct audiences, marketing campaigns can fall flat. In the same way, media broadcasts – whether they be print, radio, or television – must also be targeted correctly so that their messages reach the right people. 

In marketing, audience segmentation is a strategy where target demographics are identified within an audience. This enables marketers to tailor their messages to the ideal audience and, just as importantly, create campaigns with messaging that resonates closely with a particular audience’s values, interests, and needs.

As part of their degree, journalism students learn a great deal about audiences – from segmentation to understanding and identifying audience needs, and also how to target messages so they are received by the people they’ll hold the most value for. When transferring into a career in marketing, journalism grads can take this knowledge with them into their new profession.  

Transferable Skill # 3: The Art of Storytelling for Brand Marketing

As a journalism student, you’ve likely chosen to pursue this educational pathway because you love to tell stories. No doubt, you have a natural flair for the art of storytelling. You also love to write for the reader and make just about anything sound interesting. 

The good news? Your storytelling flair is also transferable to marketing. In brand marketing especially, the ability to captivate the readers’s attention and tell them a good story is essential. 

You need to be able to grab the attention of your audience. While you have it, retain it for as long as possible. For this reason, it’s not enough to just be able to craft a ‘clickbait’ headline. Your storytelling needs to be captivating enough to have your reader immersed in your brand’s story and follow the messaging through.

This is something you’ll have a solid grasp on as a journalism grad. Something you can easily transfer to your new career as a marketing professional.

If you’ve recently completed or are completing a journalism degree, you may feel that your career prospects are somewhat limited. But there are other options out there for you. One of the most exciting and rewarding? A career as a marketing professional.

By capitalizing on the skills you’ve acquired during your studies in journalism – your ability to create compelling, captivating content, identify and target relevant audiences, and perhaps most importantly, tell a great story – your marketing career will take you far.