Digital marketing is a very dynamic and saturated domain. With every new graduate undergoing courses to increase their DM skills, it’s become increasingly difficult for companies and agencies to hire the right digital marketing talent. Most of the young talent have undergone 3-6 months courses with very limited real world exposure and companies want people who can start delivering results in the first month itself, because to be honest, marketing requires spending money and when companies spend money, they want returns. Now a guy fresh with Digital marketing skill will ask – if i don’t have experience, how will I get a digital marketing job?
The answer is, by being smart about it and staying ahead of the crowd. Now many people will not digest the fact that, companies are not training people to on the job as it involves cost and time. With the world being fast and marketing being a fast moving commodity, people with proven skills will be picked up from the crowd.
Now there are two parts on how to get hired for a digital marketing job.
1. Work experience
2. Getting noticed.
A job seeker cannot pick either and both are interdependent on each other. So you cannot get noticed without work experience and you cannot get word experience without getting noticed. So how to break this cycle? Follow the below steps to break this cycle early and get picked for a job without having to apply for any.
Start Early & Reap Benefits
Before your Digital marketing learning (course or a degree) ends, pickup a digital transformation for any client. Even if it’s for free, you are still getting work experience. Work for this client, deliver exception stuff and document your journey. From brand building, to keyword search, to website, to creative development and to actual result, complete 1-2 of these projects while your learning continues. Even if the results are far from the client’s expectation, you can still say ‘Hey! This is what you get for free’. These 1-2 experiences will become your case study which you can send to recruiters. One critical aspect here is to being honest with the result. If the result was positive, it doesn’t matter if you exaggerate. If the result is as not per the expectation, you can write down the learnings from it and how differently you could have done the things.
The habits that you take up when starting early, will stay with your for the rest of your life. So, starting early will make you understand the value of consistent effort and do better in your career than others.
Industry Updates – Know what’s happening.
Many people work in their silos and don’t connect with the industry. Read digital marketing blogs, news & case studies every day. When you read about the industry, you will have things to talk about when you talk to a recruiter or a hiring manager. You can mention in your resume about where you consume your daily industry knowledge. This shows a hiring manager that you are connected in the industry. Below are some blogs that cover digital marketing news
Digital Marketing Events/Summit
Many summits, conferences and exhibitions take place in and around your city. Most of these offer free entry and can offer you a direct connection with people who work in the industry. You can also talk to them about how their products/insights can help the clients you work for and then from there exchange numbers and follow their company. When their company is hiring someone like you, just send them your resume directly and voila! magic!
Digital Market Yourself
Yes! You heard that right! If you cannot market yourself on the internet, how will you market other brands? I’m not asking to start a digital marketing business. I’m asking to market yourself for a job. So, start with creating your website and a solid resume. List yourself on job portals and link back your profiles with your website. Create a backlink wheel. Then, register on Google maps on popular business district in your city. So when brands search for digital marketing person, your name pops up. You can also spend some money to run ads, so digital marketing executives see your ad asking to give you a job. Great targeting can land you a good job.
On Spot consulting
When you are connected with people in the digital marketing industry on linkedin, they might announce a certain new addition to their agency, like a new client or a new campaign around a product. When you spot a new campaign or a client, email or message the person posting on linkedin your ideas, suggestion as well. Out of 10 such activities, chances are 3 will respond back with 1 person willing to talk or offer your a freelancing or consulting profile. These type of consulting profiles might convert into full time roles. Even if they don’t and the hiring manager happened to be a cheapster, you still got some real world work experience to add to your resume, which will make you an experience holder and skip that fresher zone.
Not lose hope
Remember, there’s no short cut to success. Like a fish, try splashing water all over the place and you will cross the ocean. With consistent efforts in the initial days of your career, you will be able to chart out a better path for yourself and reap the benefits.