Marketing is a desirable career choice and especially in the digital marketing field. More and more young people decide to make digital marketing their career choice because they want to be involved in a fast-moving sector that constantly brings more and more innovation. Every brand now needs at least one digital marketing specialist, so this is more than welcome for them. Not only people that just finished high school or university decide to go into marketing, people with years of working experience from different fields move to marketing and thrive there. Do you want to know how you can easily kickstart your digital marketing career?
What’s digital marketing?
Let’s cover our basis and briefly explain what digital marketing is. Digital marketing is any online activity that aims to grow brand awareness and sell products. No matter if you use organic means like SEO or paid like Google Ads, all of this lands in the digital marketing field. The jobs in this sector can be very diverse because there are so many options and activities you can explore.
8 Tips on how to kickstart your digital marketing career
Digital marketing is now one of the most important activities for every business. Being present online and putting a lot of effort into making your brand recognizable, and being able to compete with others is more than necessary. Many businesses that neglect the power of digital marketing suffer in the end because they are basically invisible compared to others. And that companies realize the importance of this job is very beneficial for people that want to kickstart their career in digital marketing.
There are many different types of digital marketing specialists like SEO marketers, paid acquisition marketers, social media managers, and hundreds of other positions that you can think about. Each of them might require some very particular knowledge of the topic in question, but most marketers still share some main qualities. And the 8 tips we will share with you will show you how to develop more of those qualities and kickstart your career exactly.
Be curious
Something that each digital marketing specialist should have is curiosity. The world is moving fast, and digital marketing is evolving even faster. All the tools you will use — all the techniques and algorithms you will depend on — will change so often that you will get lost if you don’t keep track and stay updated. But it is not only that. You should be curious to find and learn new things. Marketers don’t have the luxury to do the same thing over and over again, believing it is the only way. They should always look for something new and improved or even come up with such ideas themselves. This is why being curious and showcasing this will be very beneficial for your career.
Be ready to learn a lot
As we mentioned, there are many different fields of digital marketing, and you might focus only on one or two. This by itself doesn’t mean that it will be easy because you will have a lot to learn, but you should be ready to learn more and go outside of your scope. Every activity in digital marketing is connected. You can be running social media campaigns without covering all your other basis. This is why you should be eager to learn how everything in digital marketing works and is connected. You don’t have to know all the details, but at least the basics will be required. Also, go back to the previous point and reread it — things change so fast in marketing that you will have to learn something new.
Start networking
Never neglect the power of networking. The conception that marketing people are those positive, really outgoing personas is not entirely wrong, and it also became a conception for a reason. For marketers, networking is crucial. There are a couple of main reasons behind it:
- You will meet people that might turn out to be valuable contacts in the future;
- You can learn a lot about the experience of other brands and use it to your advantage;
- You can meet potential future partners or colleagues if your company is looking for any of the two;
- Brilliant ideas are born when many creative people get together.
Try to learn the terminology
Words matter more than anything in marketing. And we don’t mean it only in content marketing, where you will have to produce content using the right wording. You will have to learn so many marketing terms, and it is good to start as early as possible. You should know the meaning behind SEO and SEM and their difference. The same will apply to terms like PPC, UA, ROI, CVR, and many more. Speaking marketing slang is a requirement for being a digital marketer.
Be prepared to be a bit of a nerd
We said that marketers most cases are those cool people with outgoing personalities, and it is true, but you should also be prepared to be a bit of a nerd. This is because no matter how fancy marketing can look from the outside, it involves using many tools and analyzing an enormous amount of data. This is why being a bit technical and, in some ways, a nerd is also good. You won’t need to know how to code or implement software, but some basic HTML knowledge is always good if you are a content marketer. Or, if you are doing paid advertising, knowing how to analyze your results and optimize your bids is part of your daily tasks. Be prepared to be nerdy in times when this is required.
Build your own brand
If you want to be a marketer, there is no better way to practice than to try to promote yourself and build your own brand. You should try to have a solid online presence by having a website or a blog if you would like to focus more on content marketing and SEO or a social media account if you would like to develop more. Like that, you will gain a lot of practical knowledge, and on top of that, you will have something to use as a portfolio when applying for jobs.
Choose your specialization and dig deep into it
Digital marketing is so broad, and you can be a specialist in everything. This is why you need to choose your specialization and try to learn everything you can around it. There will always be small things that you can grasp only when you have enough practice but try to learn as much as you can on the topic you are interested in. If you are passionate about it, you won’t feel so much like studying, and you will enjoy it. It is always better to be prepared in the best possible way before starting your career for your own comfort.
Get any useful certification
Certification is important for any profession, and digital marketing is no exception. There are many certifications out there that you will find. Some are useful, and others not so much. Don’t try to be everywhere and get a diploma for every class and course you see on Google. Choose the relevant ones and the ones with a good reputation. Sometimes less is better if the certificates you have are from places known to be a good source of information and training. And don’t stop looking for additional knowledge and certifications once you advance in your career. Digital marketing is a field where you will never stop learning.
