What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who's just starting out with marketing communications? What's the most important thing to focus on first?

Don't wait for permission to be an expert. Don't wait for some other person or institution to bless you with approval. Don't feel like you have to spend the early decades of your career doing what someone else says. Yeah, definitely find mentors and learn everything you can and ask a million questions, but also learn to trust yourself, follow your instincts, and experiment. Try things. Do side projects. Break things. Get in trouble. Fail. That's how you learn. That's how everyone learns. The biggest struggle I have with less-experienced employees is getting them to trust themselves instead of reflexively coming to me for direction and approval on everything. I have to drag them kicking and screaming into believing that they were already capable of all of this. The average 25-year-old has probably consumed as much media in their lives than the average 45-year-old. You have experience. You have perspective. You have nuance. You have instincts. You don't know everything yet, but you're never going to learn those things by outsourcing your thinking and decisionmaking to someone else. Get out there and trust yourself. You'll screw some stuff up, and that's fine. Learn and move on.

The best thing someone new to marketing communications can do is learn to write clearly before trying to sound persuasive. Everything builds from that. When I stopped writing to impress and started writing to be understood, engagement went up fast. It wasn't because the campaigns were smarter, it was because people actually got the message. Clear writing always beats clever writing. After that, focus on understanding how people move through a funnel. Most beginners chase reach or clicks and ignore what happens between interest and action. So, in SEO or Google Ads, match search intent with what's being offered. In CRO, see where interest drops and fix what caused it. Once you know how to move people from awareness to conversion, the channel becomes less important. Don't worry about trends at the start. Focus on the numbers that explain why people act. Metrics like CPC, CTR, and CAC aren't just for reports because they show behavior patterns. See how they connect and you'll know how to tune campaigns without guessing. When you mix psychology, data, and simple language, you stop running random experiments and start building campaigns that actually work. - Josiah Roche Fractional CMO, JRR Marketing https://josiahroche.co/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/josiahroche

Focus on understanding human behavior before you worry about tactics. When I built my PR and branding firm, the strategies that worked weren't the flashiest campaigns or the trendiest tools—they were the ones rooted in psychology, message clarity, and emotional resonance. If you know why people think, click, trust, or buy, every channel becomes easier. You can adapt to algorithms, platforms, and formats because your foundation is solid. Learn how to craft a good story and understand the audience's mindset. Everything else in marketing communications becomes far more effective once you get that piece right.

Start by getting uncomfortably close to the real problems your audience faces. Most beginners jump straight into polishing messages, but the message means nothing if it isn't shaped by what people are actually dealing with. In our world at Ready Nation Contractors, the turning point came when we stopped guessing and started listening to the calls that came in during the first hour after storm damage. You hear the panic, the confusion, the quick calculations people make when water is already running down a wall. Once you absorb that, your communication changes. You write shorter. You get to the point. You stop hiding behind clever phrasing and speak in the same rhythm people use when they need answers now. That's the foundation. When you build everything from that place, clarity becomes natural. It also keeps you honest, because you're no longer creating content for an imaginary audience. You're speaking to people who are in the thick of something and need a steady voice. If you get that part right, the rest of marketing becomes much easier.

For anyone stepping into marketing communications, the most important starting point is learning how to translate complexity into clarity without losing the truth. At A S Medication Solutions, we work in a space where every message touches medication handling, clinic workflows, and patient safety, so the habit of simplifying without distorting became non negotiable early on. New communicators often focus on sounding polished or persuasive, but the real skill is expressing what you do in a way people can grasp in one pass, even when the subject is technical. If your audience understands you quickly, they trust you faster. The way this showed up for us was shifting from long explanations about dispensing systems to short, grounded statements that showed a clinic what would change in their day. That shift made our communication sharper and helped clinics make decisions with less hesitation. When you focus on clarity first, everything else improves. Your writing becomes steadier, your messaging becomes more consistent, and your audience feels respected instead of overwhelmed. It is the one discipline that will carry you through every stage of your career.

If you're just starting out in marketing communications, my biggest piece of advice is this: prioritize clarity and time to value. Your audience is busy. They are not looking for clever slogans or long-winded pitches. They want to quickly understand how your message helps them, solves a problem, or supports their goals. Clarity should always come before creativity. Focus on helping people grasp what you are saying and why it matters. One of the most valuable lessons I've learned is that people rarely have the time or patience to interpret unclear messaging. If it takes effort to figure out what you mean, they will move on. As a communicator, your job is to simplify, not complicate. That means using plain language, being concise, and staying focused on what matters most to your audience. It is also important to remember that your audience is not just external. Some of your most impactful communication will happen inside your organization. Sales, product, customer success, and leadership teams all need to understand the message and how it connects to what they do every day. When internal teams are aligned, external messaging becomes more powerful and consistent. Time to value matters here too. If your messaging takes five paragraphs to get to the point, you have already lost your audience. People appreciate communication that gets to the value quickly. It builds trust and shows respect for their time. Marketing communications is not just about telling stories. It is about translating complex ideas into something useful and meaningful for the person reading or hearing it. When you focus on clarity, relevance, and getting to the point quickly, you become someone people trust to move things forward.

One piece of advice I'd give is to cultivate the mindset that content without engagement won't get your brand anywhere. This means focusing on mastering one platform first, rather than trying to be everywhere your target audience is. I feel like this was one of our earlier mistakes, how we simultaneously posted content after content on our Instagram and Tiktok, resulting in a failure to build and engage with a strong and loyal community. It's best to focus on documenting results for one platform, learning to read the analytics, and using the data to improve the effectiveness of your marketing strategies. By focusing on one platform at a time, we were able to differentiate our approach with content marketing, wherein we focus on crafting bite-sized videos on our TikTok while doing a mix of static content and short reels over at our Instagram page; both proven and tested to resonate with our target audience.

Marketing without strategy is motion without progress. When starting out, place a heavy importance on establishing a clear, sustainable, and strategic foundation before diving into tactical execution. From my experience, marketing should be treated as a core business pillar, not a list of tasks or a cost center. Properly executed marketing strategy can unite every aspect of an organization behind its purpose. Therefore, it is essential to develop and execute a strategy that ensures your marketing and communications efforts are integrated into the organization's core operations and revenue strategy, rather than operating as disconnected tactics to drive the most effective results.

You need to identify your target audience before you use any ad platforms, email builders, or landing pages. Most new marketers are focused on creating new products (tactics) because they provide a sense of accomplishment. However, if the marketing message does not align with the needs of the target audience, then there will be "noise" rather than impact. The first step is to identify the demographics, motivations, and challenges/pain points of the target audience as well as how people actually define their challenges in their own terms. After defining the issues of the target audience, communicate one issue clearly that your solution resolves for them. Clarity of communication always trumps creativity. Avoid using jargon or hyperbole and communicate in the language of the target audience. This will establish a solid foundation for all future communications.

When you are just starting out you need to be able to inform and educate people quickly. That's where video comes in. Video gives the most amount of information in the shortest amount of time and is the quickest way for buyers to get information - at any stage of the buying cycle. And when you are just getting started, the most important part of video is not what you see...its what you hear! The message of a video should emulate what you would say to someone if they were standing in front of you (or on a virtual call). How would you explain your product or service or answer one of their questions? This messaging becomes the foundation on which you apply appropriate visuals that make video so effective.

Do not consider your marketing as just a means of generating leads; it is also the start of building relationships. My recommendation is to create content that establishes you as a knowledgeable, trustworthy, and helpful resource, long before you ever attempt to sell something. You should focus first and foremost on providing value to your audience by creating informative content, educational resources, or support. By establishing yourself and your brand as a reliable pillar of knowledge and stability, you will build a foundation of psychological trust, making it far easier and more sustainable to convert those interactions into sales.

So much of success in marketing is about effective communications online and offline. My advice for success is to be a student for life, walk the streets and notice your surroundings, do you know which movies won at the box office last weekend? Books on the NYT best seller list? Top Billboard and Grammy songs? Oscar winners? Why was Game of Thrones popular? Even if it is not your taste you need to know about these things and have an opinion. A career in marketing communications is about relevancy so every day I try to pay attention to pop culture, trends, etc. You have to keep your antenna up and stop looking at your phone! You have to be driven, focused, intensely curious and always be looking for the next way to make something better, be a good listener to customers/clients, colleagues, feedback, the market to show respect for great ideas, and be a great communicator. With these traits and a strong work ethic you increase the odds to succeed.

Start building your portfolio from day one by saving every marketing piece you create, even from part-time or entry-level roles. Make sure to get proper permission from your employers and turn each piece into a case study that demonstrates your business thinking and project management skills, not just your creative output. This strategic approach to portfolio development will set you apart early in your career and help you transition into more advanced marketing communications roles. In addition to this, you can also keep a historical catalog that demonstrates the growth in your skills and development over time as you hone your craft.

Today is a tough time to start out, but it isn't impossible. There are so many "shiny objects" to chase right now, especially with AI. Don't get stuck chasing shiny objects, the core of marketing remains the same. Stay focused on the customer and where their attention is being spent.

Rather than trying to "be clever," focus all of your efforts toward being truly helpful to your customers. The best piece of advice I could give any beginner would be to write clearly based upon user intent—not based on what sounds "good" to the author. Many beginners create marketing copy that may sound good to them, but actually doesn't address what their customers want to know specifically. Start with an emphasis on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) along with doing extensive user research to ascertain what type of language and concerns your users are talking about. Good marketing isn't about shouting out your message; it's about making your content the right answer in the midst of all the confusion when someone does a search for information.

The clarity must precede creativity. Numerous new marketers dive directly into the design, slogans and social media pacing without establishing the essence of message or target audience. The best communication one can have is one that starts by knowing who you are communicating to and what is the problem you are addressing. At the beginning of our launch of Health Rising Direct Primary Care, we had a bigger and more varied message, which seemed to have no focus. As soon as we focused all our outreach on a single question, namely, how can we make healthcare feel personal again, our response to the audience was transformed instantly. The patients started to interact since the message targeted something particular and relatable. Optimal marketing communication is not about size but fit. Know what you are saying, and all platforms, posts, and campaigns will become easier to develop. Even the most polished marketing does not have a sense of direction without the same. Be clear of purpose and all other aspects such as tone, timing etc will just come naturally.

Start by really knowing your audience. Don't dive straight into fancy campaigns or chasing trends. Figure out who they are, what they care about, where they hang out, how they talk. That little bit of insight changes everything. I've seen new marketers waste weeks crafting posts nobody cares about because they skipped this step. Picture homeowners in hurricane zones—they respond to practical, visual tips about roof repairs or storm prep, not some generic ad with a smiling stock photo. Focus on getting your voice right, your message clear, and your channels consistent. Once you've nailed that, everything else—emails, social posts, campaigns—falls into place. Skip it and no matter how many tools or tricks you use, your marketing just drifts. It's brutal, but that's reality.

Know your audience before you know your message. It is almost customary for individuals to dive straight into delivering a killer pitch, wherein the messaging is polished, the templates are designed immaculately, and all efforts are geared towards building the most impressive campaign. The problem arises when they fail to understand who they are talking to. That's backwards. As a marketer, always try to spend some time deciphering who your target audience is. Who are they? What is their actual problem? What does success mean for them? What utility will they get from the product or service? What language do they use? Try to understand whether they are technical, skeptical, or simply busy. Once you have genuine clarity around these questions, your messaging doesn't just align, it practically writes itself. I've seen some amazing campaigns that completely missed the mark because they failed to factor in their actual audience insight. Conversely, however, I've also witnessed messaging that is straightforward and simple, but captured the larger imagination of the target audience because it spoke directly about what they cared about. So if you're just starting out, I would strongly urge you to resist starting with that beautiful collateral just yet. Focus on researching your target audience first, then engage with your customers openly. Read where they congregate both offline and online, identify their pain points and struggles, and understand their workflows. The communications piece becomes infinitely simpler and definitely more effective when rooted in genuine understanding rather than assuming.

What guidance would you offer someone who is just beginning to use marketing communications? What should be the primary focus first? Clarity should come before creativity for any marketer. It's tempting to focus on brand aesthetics or clever messaging, but those things come later. Understanding your audience so well that your message seems to flow naturally, almost as if it were written by hand, is the cornerstone of effective marketing communication. Learn the language, preferences, and pain points of your target audience before investing in campaigns or channels. Every message will have a stronger impact once you can express what they already feel but are unable to express. Too many inexperienced marketers begin by attempting to "sound like" the competition or use sophisticated messaging to win over leadership. In actuality, simplicity scales more quickly than sophistication. Translators, not entertainers, are the most effective communicators because they connect the dots between what the audience hears and what the company wants to say. Everything else, including paid advertisements, digital marketing, PR, and branding, flows organically from that bridge once it is stable.

Pay attention to knowing your audience. All other elements such as messaging, channels, campaigns are simply effective as long as you understand who you are talking to, what he/she is interested in, and what information feeds him/her. At the beginning of my career, I was taught that no matter how brilliant a campaign is, it will fail to achieve its purpose unless it reaches the hearts and minds of the intended audience. Begin with listening: examine the social discussions, conduct a survey of the prospective customers, and monitor the engagement trends. Write there messages that address real issues or respond to real questions, not by attempting to write clever copy. Development of that base makes each of the marketing decisions that follow, such as tone, visuals, timing, more strategic and effective. In effect, the art of getting the audience right initially predisposes the creation of campaigns that do not only fill channels, but move people, as well.