Digital Marketing is a broad spectrum of roles combined into one, you’ll learn bits and pieces as you go along and learn something new every week. Digital Marketing can be diverse, it’s most suited to those who are on the pulse, understand design-based thinking and planning, be tech savvy, commercially minded and keep up to date with the latest trends.

A great digital marketing professional will have the ability to adapt quickly and learn on their own, even being ready to pivot into different digital careers as they choose or as needed should old skills become less in-demand. They will be working with diverse teams and clients, so they will have to know how to communicate well and build strong teams.

Finding the right company for you

There are thousands of agencies offering jobs in digital sectors searching for new ideas from a young and trendy workforce. Luckily this means that university students often fit the bill and are in high demand. This is great for any budding digital marketer as it means you can set the parameters of where you work, and our advice is don’t just settle for the first offer!

One way to make yourself stand out and to bag jobs with more exciting firms, is to broaden your experience level. Even just a couple of weeks as an intern can be the difference between getting a job or not. Don’t forget sometimes it isn’t your experience that employers are looking for, it’s your willingness to explore new opportunities and will to learn.

Some extra learning, and working on your skills will really impress employers at your interviews. See the “How to get a headstart in Digital Marketing” section to read more about this.

If you’re really wanting to build your digital marketing skills then it would be a good idea to apply for a position within a digital marketing agency as opposed to an inhouse position. This will really make all the difference between getting support and training in your role vs being expected to know everything from day one.

It’s more than social media posts

 

It’s important to be aware of the different roles and responsibilities associated with different marketing channels.

There is often a misconception that digital marketing is mainly social media marketing.
Digital Marketing is a whole other ball game. It involves any marketing that uses the internet and desktop or mobile technology. This can include hundreds of different types of marketing, which is why it’s important that you know if you want to study just one area of marketing or cover everything. Digital also includes search engine optimisation (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), pay-per-click campaigns (PPC), affiliate marketing and mobile marketing. Other types of digital marketing include social media marketing, graphic design, web development, branding, and analytics.

 

Social media

In 2021 97% of young people aged 18-24 post on social media at least once a week. In essence each of these young people can claim experience in social media posting however the wider macro strategy entails far more detail. Social Media Marketing involves the design and creation of social media posts, analysing consumer patterns and insights received from those posts, building a community of followers and consistently working to get engagement and interactions on your posts and lead traffic to your website.

 

There are other online marketing channels which include: 

  • video marketing, 
  • content marketing, 
  • graphic design
  • campaign metrics and research, 
  • data management and analysis, 
  • web analytics including Google, Facebook etc.
  • lead management
  • growth hacking

Things to keep an eye out for

Because there are thousands of agencies and the barriers of entry are low, it can lead to unethical practice, you will know when you have stumbled across an unethical company when:

  • They only hire apprentices
  • The team is run on work experience
  • They have unhappy clients 
  • They expect you have to experience across all marketing channels
  • A lack of leadership
  • A lack of internal knowledge
  • No training or growth opportunities

How to get a headstart in Digital Marketing

There are plenty of opportunities to get a headstart in a career in digital marketing.

As a school leaver or graduate one great option is to apply for a digital marketing apprenticeship. You can start out at level 3 and work your way up to a level 6 university level degree. Within an apprenticeship you’ll learn the basics of coding, marketing and business principles and Google Analytics. Alternatively you could apply for an internship, work with a busy marketing company and learn the basics within a short period of time. Both of these options give you the advantage of  gaining the experience of working in a marketing company and earning while you learn.

There are also multiple qualification options, you can do courses and earn qualifications from The Digital Marketing institute and The Chartered Institute of Marketing or you can complete a free digital marketing course through google, as well as Google Ads training and other live training sessions. There are also 4 Google Analytics courses you can complete at your own pace.

If you have some experience in marketing but are unsure in certain areas of digital marketing then you could apply for Digital Marketing Assistant roles to ease you into the role and continue to build your skills with guidance and support from a manager.

When applying for jobs, owning a good portfolio website will help you stand out from the crowd. Employers would love to see examples of your work and your skill set, include your designs and any of the programs you have previously used.
Before going for an interview do your research on the latest trends and updates such as any Google ranking updates e.g Core Web Vitals, it will really impress your potential  employer if you already have knowledge of these ‘new’ features.

All of these small opportunities will give you a big advantage over other entry-level candidates, with just a little home learning you can grow your experience and skill set massively.
 

I hope this helps you find a career in marketing, if you have any questions feel free to email me or connect with me on linkedin.

Alice Baker, Digital Marketing Executive, Sierra Six Media