5 Reasons why a PGDM in Marketing helps you to upskill and stay relevant!

A PGDM in Marketing can be done only after you have attained a graduation degree. While there can be many pre-requisites, top-tier management institutes such as N. L. Dalmia Institute of Management Studies and Research (NLDIMSR) has simplified this into two key criteria as below: 

• Bachelor’s degree with a minimum of 50% in graduation. The candidate can apply when he/she is appearing for the final semester, but for securing admission, he/she must be a graduate. 
• The candidate must also have appeared for any of the 7 entrance exams i.e., CAT, XAT, MHCET, CMAT, ATMA, MAT, or GMAT.

How does the eligibility criteria help?

Students who have cleared this eligibility criteria have a graduation in a specific stream. It could be finance, technology, accounts, banking, or even marketing streams such as advertising and journalism. The fact that they have attempted an entrance exam makes them qualify as candidates with good aptitude as well. 

What is a PGDM in Marketing? 

PGDM or Post Graduate Diploma in Management is a two-year course. A specialization in Marketing means that the student learns about the theories and concepts in sales, marketing, customer engagement, digital marketing, market research etc. At NLDIMSR, a PGDM in Marketing is a modernized program that makes constant use of case studies and analytics to empower students with an in-depth understanding of industry relevant practices and learnings. The program gives a detailed theoretical and practical knowledge about the different marketing strategies and techniques such as digital marketing and marketing research. The Marketing students and faculty at the institute also engage in various informative and practical events with the clubs and forums formed for and by the students of the Marketing specialization. Such exposure builds on to their learnings from the graduation courses and enables them to be well-rounded managers with strong understanding of business operations as well as customer management. 

Can a PGDM in Marketing help you to upskill and stay relevant?

Let’s understand what upskilling and staying relevant would be. It essentially means that you must add value to your existing repertoire of skills and expertise by adding new dimensions to it. Let’s check out 5 key ways in which a PGDM in Marketing can help you to accomplish this: –

1.It helps you to learn about the AER:

AER is a vital element in business and marketing. What is ‘AER’? It is the three stages in which your customers engage with you. These three stages are Acquisition, Engagement, and Retention. Marketing will play a key role in all these stages. There is no other department in the company which will be closely involved in all the three stages. Hence, a PGDM in Marketing will equip you with the understanding, skills, and experience in terms of acquiring customers by converting prospects into customers. It will also teach you the various ways in which you must engage with the customers to strengthen relationship and enhance business with them. Lastly, it will enable you to work towards retaining customers, ensuring customer satisfaction with respect to the companies products and services, and augmenting the lifetime value that every customer brings to the company. The cumulative result of the above activities is acceleration of sales, business development, and new market development which contribute significantly to revenues and growth of the company. A smart marketing professional is, thus, indispensable for the growth of an organization and a PDGM in Marketing enables you to become just that!

2. It helps you to enhance soft-skills, interpersonal skills, and networking:

Marketing leaves you with not much choice when it comes to customer interactions, and engagement. Whether it is a prospect or a customer, nothing escapes the marketing funnel. Hence, a marketer is expected to constantly engage with all segments of the target audience. Everyday, they practice the art of speaking, convincing, and cajoling customers to buy their products and services. Marketers, thus, become very knowledgeable and good at presenting their offerings and representing their brand. They must constantly network with their customers and industry peers and hence their interpersonal and networking skills are on a constant rise with each year they spend as a marketer. A PGDM in Marketing is a stepping stone to the above and it can transform you into an excellent presenter and networker with a good understanding of what the customer really wants.

3. It can make you a multi-faceted professional:

A multi-faceted professional is in great demand in any organization. It is like having an all-rounder in a cricket team who can contribute with both the bat and the ball. A marketing professional normally comes with basic knowledge and sometimes work experience in areas such as finance, technology, accounting etc. By adding knowledge of marketing to his arsenal, he can become a manager who can manage multiple functions. Such professionals are always in need in organizations and a PGDM in Marketing helps you to beat the competition and grab such coveted roles in companies that you work in. If you chose to go the entrepreneurship route too, having a good grasp of multiple functions of an organization is always an added advantage.

4. It will give you hands-on exposure to new-age technologies:

The advent of digital marketing has completely transformed the way marketing budgets, activities, and execution is planned. The advantage of digital technologies is that marketing can now be data and insight-driven. A smart marketer must rely on such insights to quickly understand the effectiveness of his campaigns and tweak it in real-time if it doesn’t meet the desired expectations. Hence, marketers of today are very good with handling software that helps them in areas such as digital asset management, customer experience/ journey management, CRMs, management of user interface and user experience, content management systems, and data analytics platforms. A PGDM in Marketing will help you to understand how technology integrates closely to enhance effectiveness of a marketing manager in terms of budget optimization, curated messaging, sharper segmentation and targeting and enhancement in positive call-to-action.

5. It helps you to become the best brand ambassador for your company: 

A marketer must constantly collaborate with the various departments within the organization. He is always in sync with its vision and strategy. Since a marketer is the interface of the company with the customers, he must be constantly updated about the products and services of the company. A marketer is also responsible for creating collaterals for sales enablement which includes case studies, success stories, website content, brochures, factsheets etc. A marketer constantly experiments by putting the content about the company out to the customers through campaigns. The results, captured by technology, helps him to constantly augment the positioning of the company’s products and services to ensure that it is curated and customized for each segment of the target audience. In the process, the marketers always know the best way to position the company. He is often the best brand ambassador and representative of the company when it comes to presenting the company to customers, investors, media, and other key stakeholders. A PGDM in Marketing will equip you to be one of the best brand ambassadors or evangelists of the company’s products and services. Hence, it enables you to become a rare asset that is constantly updated and relevant. 

Wrapping Up 

Marketing is, probably, the only function in the organization that has to constantly adapt to changing preferences, mindsets, habits, of the customer. It has to constantly innovate, ideate, and evolve to understand the messaging that can click with customers to enhance sales and business for the organization. A PGDM in Marketing is a definite way to enhance both hard skills in technology, data analytics, sales etc. as well as soft skills such as presentations, networking, interactions, and curating the apt messaging and positioning for the company. Go for a PGDM in Marketing today and ensure that you enhance your rarity quotient and become a true asset in the organizations that you choose to work. Explore one of the best programs in PGDM Marketing at NLDIMSR and help us to enable you to achieve your growth aspirations!