May 2023

In the summer of 2022, I started filming and distributing videos about curly hair on an Instagram page. I thought I was doing a pretty good job as a content creator. However, when I became the Social Media Assistant for the WWU Marketing Program, I got training in media accessibility. I quickly realized that content creators and social media marketers ignore a considerable segment by not making their content accessible to all.

What Does Accessibility Mean?

When most people think about accessibility in marketing, they think about web accessibility, which means making websites, web pages and landing pages designed to allow all people, including people with disabilities, to use them. However, accessibility should be applied to websites and every type of digital content and social media platform.

As an executive team member in the WWU Marketing Program's Integrated Marketing Communications course, I have the opportunity to hear from product managers what their teams of content creators are succeeding at and what their teams are struggling with. I also get to analyze the products that teams create and promote and give feedback on how well these products align with teams' Creative Strategies, which are influenced by our client's Creative Brief. Some things I think about as I look at products and promotions are target market, brand elements, brand values, product strategy, and potential. As I consolidate my notes, I have pinpointed an integral part of the Creative Brief that many teams overlook: the marketing objectives.

Integration is one of those things that you always hear about, always assume to understand, and is always present in your marketing journey, but what really is integration? Well to put it plainly, integration is the act of creating a cohesive message (or perhaps a piece of content), that conveys to your target market a sense of a unified vision, message, and creates a clear understanding of what you offer or are trying to communicate. In order to truly help you understand what integration is and why it is crucial to your success as a marketer, I will use the following paragraphs to explain where marketers go wrong when attempting integration, what goes into integration, and what integration accomplishes.

Marketing and Teams 

Marketing is arguably one of the most collaborative fields of business out there. If you are not working within a team, you will most likely find yourself within at least some sort of collaborative setting in your career and education. During my time at Western Washington University, I was a part of many teams as student studying marketing. Especially when taking the Integrated Marketing Communication class (IMC), it was especially important to learn how to function effectively within a team as collaboration was the main key to success. Here are some of the things that I have learned about how to be a great team member.

When I first signed up for Integrated Marketing Communications I didn’t know what to expect, but I did know that I was going to get real hands-on marketing experience, which I had yet to experience in any of the other marketing electives I had taken. Now don’t get me wrong, being able to effectively perform a SWOT analysis and confidently compile a sixty-page industry report gave me a plethora of valuable skills and knowledge. Still, IMC was the first opportunity I was given within the marketing program to apply that knowledge in a real marketing setting to produce effective and quality content. 

During my time as a product manager in the Applied Integrated Marketing Communications class at Western Washington University, I experienced many challenges and unanticipated obstacles. Going into it, I knew that leading a team of students would be a huge learning experience, and I was both excited and nervous for what the quarter held!

Now, in my current position as the director of operations for the class, I am seeing the product managers run into many of the same roadblocks that I did. Well if you are a product manager reading this, I hope the following 5 tips that I learned along the way helps you lead your team to success!