Looking for a career in digital marketing but don’t know where to start? I’ve been there. Despite a successful PR career, I wanted to try something new, challenging and in-demand. So I chose digital marketing.
I’m not going to sugarcoat it for you. Digital marketing isn’t easy. There’s a steep learning curve and you’ll stumble along the way.
So to help smooth your career path, I asked Damien Cummings, a former marketing exec at Philips, Samsung and Dell, to share his best digital marketing career advice.
In this article, he shares tips on how to:
- Get a new digital marketing job
- Transition to a digital marketing role
- Get promoted in a digital marketing job
Why did you pursue a career in digital marketing?
I came into it by accident. I left McKinsey to start a web development business in the mid-1990s. I didn’t know much about marketing and digital marketing didn’t exist. But after building websites for corporates, it was clear demand generation was needed. That started me on this path for the last 22 years.
Why have I stayed on this path? Because I believe in digital and the integration of marketing. There is no such thing as digital marketing. It’s just marketing.
Many senior marketing leaders struggle with this concept. Therefore, they hire a “head of digital” to cover their lack of understanding, skills or competence in this space.
Modern and future CMOs (and CEOs) will be customer-centric, data-driven and digitally savvy. This is what has inspired me to stay with the craft for so long.
What does a digital marketing job scope look like?
Unfortunately, digital marketing is one of the least defined roles in the industry. It’s a catch-all for digital advertising, demand generation, search, SEO, website management, content marketing, social media, social community management, data, analytics and e-commerce.
This causes an individual contributor, forced to do everything, to burn out quickly. That’s the biggest challenge for people wanting to advance from a digital marketing role to a marketing leadership role like a CMO. It’s a tough role spanning technical skills, creativity and influencing ability, all while trying to keep up with the latest trends and educate the rest of the marketing team about them.
The best organizations break these roles up into specializations:
- performance marketing leaders who manage search, CRM and demand generation
- digital (advertising) managers who manage ads and run campaigns
- content and social marketers who engage with online communities and create the right content for them
- website managers
- data analysts and e-commerce experts
What advice would you give to someone who wants to get a digital marketing job?
I’d offer three tips for getting into digital marketing.
First, have a firm grasp of marketing fundamentals. Having a university degree in marketing can give you this. If you don’t have a degree, then there are great resources available online. I’d start with free courses from LinkedIn Learning. After the free courses, you can learn more from paid programs like Cornell’s online marketing courses.
The goal is to use this marketing knowledge to know your customers and how they behave (both in the real world and online). This customer understanding will give you insight into the digital channels and tools you can use to engage or sell to them, and importantly, how digital fits into broader marketing activities (e.g. the right context).
My second tip is to walk-the-talk. Create social media profiles across as many platforms as you can manage (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.). Use these platforms for creating and seeding content. It doesn’t have to be your own content, but it needs to be focused. This demonstrates that you have at least a personal understanding of social and content.
You will also need to “be the consumer.” How?
- Buy things online.
- Use e-commerce sites.
- Sign up for e-newsletters.
Once you have a thorough understanding of digital platforms, you’re in a good position to educate others about them.
My last tip is to create something you can showcase. It’s tough hiring someone with no experience. But it’s a lot easier if you’ve created your own personal e-commerce site (services like Shopify are great for this) and are using digital marketing tactics to generate revenue.
Is it possible to transition to a digital marketing role if you don’t have a relevant background? If so, how?
As with my other advice, the only way to get into digital without experience is to create that experience in a personal capacity.
Three easy ways to do this are:
- Start an e-commerce site
- Create a blog (and write on public platforms like LinkedIn)
- Build a community (it can be anything from a dog lovers site to a car enthusiast club) where you can demonstrate you can grow its membership through digital marketing (social, email newsletter, etc.)
Better yet, leverage your passion and do all three!
For example, if you love animals create a pet accessories online shop, a Facebook and blog community and write about it. It’s the next best thing to being a professional digital marketer. If you combined this with a marketing or technical background, you’re in a great position to transition into digital marketing.
Source:-Forbes
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