How to Get a Job in Digital Marketing
In terms of marketing jobs, digital is where it’s at. Job growth year over year continues to increase and new skills and positions are popping up every year. Between working “in house” or at an agency, agencies generally offer a faster rate of learning and a greater variety of work. So how do you get a job at a digital agency?
Voracious Learning & Passion
As an industry, digital marketing is evolving quickly. So much so, that if you were to let your foot off the gas and let your skills stagnate, you’ll quickly be left behind. Successful digital marketers consume and use new tactics.
Recommended reading for beginners: Moz Beginners Guide to SEO, Moz Beginner’s Guide to Social Media, Moz Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing, Moz Beginner’s Guide to Google Analytics.
Build a Personal Website
All that stuff you just read about above? It’s just surface-level until you can apply it in a meaningful way. Without real clients to work with, a personal blog or website is a great way to learn to apply some of these techniques as well as to get exposure to:
- Website Hosting
- Website Design
- Basic HTML
- Content Marketing
- SEO
- Analytics
- Digital Advertising from the publishers point of view
Specialization
Digital is at a place in time where no one person can be great at everything. So it’s a bit silly when people’s resumes claim expertise in “website design, website development, social media marketing, and SEO”. Moz has a great article on “The T-Shaped Web Marketer” that quickly illustrates why knowing a little bit of everything, but specializing in one vertical is a good personal development strategy.
Know Your Metrics and Industry Terminology
Digital is a revolution in marketing and one of the underlying ethos is a tie to data. Content marketers need to know their organic traffic and time on page stats, designers need to know how their designs push users to CTA’s (Call to Action), developers need to know about their LAMP stack and techniques for reducing page load time, and online media buyers should know their ROAS (Return on Ad Spend.) In interviews, knowledge of metrics related to your discipline and your mastery of them will set you apart.
Get Certified
Beyond a degree or diploma in marketing, digital usually requires specialized certificates that show competency in a variety of fields. Some popular certifications are:
- Google AdWords
- Google Analytics IQ and Analytics Academy
- Hubspot Certificates (Inbound, Email, Sales, Content Marketing, Sales Software, Growth-Driven Design)
Nice Touches for the Interview
Because this is digital, there are a few things that you should absolutely do before an interview:
- Find the person who is likely doing the interview, creep them on Facebook/Instagram/LinkedIn/Twitter/etc.
- Read about the company from their website. Learn their priorities and be able to reference some parts of the website in depth.
- Figure out what events the company is attending and show up to one. Prioritize talking to people from the company.
- Spend time talking about your strongest work. Don’t bring 10 so-so work items that you don’t feel comfortable defending
- Call an agency up and try to book a portfolio review. It’s a great way to get honest feedback on your work and make a connection that can advocate for you.
Competition is getting fierce, but with the tips above, hopefully you can get your foot in the door. We also presented at NAIT IT Connections on this very topic, check out the slide deck for more details.
What are you waiting for? Apply today!