Transcription
Digital marketing has become one of the fastest growing careers today. Not just because it pays well, but it also gives you a freedom. You can work from anywhere, work for amazing companies, and help businesses grow. So, it's easy to see why it's so appealing to a lot of people.
But getting started can feel so confusing, or at least that was my experience. So, in today's video, I'm going to break down exactly how I got started in digital marketing, even though I came from a completely different field. I'm also giving you a step-by-step road map so you can land your first digital marketing job. So, without further ado, let's get started.
If you're new to my channel, hi guys. My name is Dian. I create content about travel, remote work, and building your dream lifestyle through skills that you can learn online. So, if that's something that you're interested in, make sure to join the community by clicking the subscribe button below.
So, let's start with how I got started with digital marketing. For those of you who are new in this channel, my background was actually not in marketing. It's actually something that is completely different and it was medicine. I was actually doing my internship in hospital when the pandemic hit. So, everything moved online and suddenly I had all of this free time I never used to have. I've always loved social media, like editing video, posting content, but I never really look at those as a real career. So during my gap year, I signed up to a digital marketing course. Actually, I took more than one digital marketing course because honestly, there's a lot of free digital marketing course out there, but yeah, it was kind of hard to find one that actually gives you the real knowledge and deliver the real value. And honestly, that ended up being one of the best decision I've ever made.
I didn't plan to do a grand career switch at all. But digital marketing showed me something that I didn't even know I wanted. And that is flexibility. Also, room to grow and something that feels rewarding. Not that medicine didn't feels rewarding, but it definitely didn't give me a sense of flexibility. And as someone who values that, I was really struggling. So for those of you who want to do digital marketing but you think you need a certain degree to do that, you definitely don't. I basically learn from online courses and taking action. And if you want to know a digital marketing course that I personally recommend, I will leave the link down below.
Now digital marketing is actually a really broad field. When you're just starting out, don't pressure yourself to pick a certain niche immediately. So you can try everything from content, SEO, analytics, social media strategy, paid advertisement, branding, and a lot more because digital marketing is huge and you won't know what you're good at and what you enjoy until you try. But what really helped me grow the most was this. Taking a digital marketing course, working with clients, building my own personal branding, and with digital marketing, you need to be open to always learn something new.
Eventually, you want to become what people called a T-shaped marketer. So, imagine the upper tea part as a digital marketer who have a general knowledge across all of the digital marketing fields. So, you have a general knowledge of paid ads, SEO, social media strategy and so on. And then the lower part of the T is your specialization. So, these are the few things that you have a deep expertise in. And this is the sweet spot where you'll become truly valuable.
So now that you understand all of this, let's get into the road map on getting your first digital marketing job. First step is definitely to learn the basics before you worry about any analytics platforms. You want to focus on the fundamentals because these are the things that would never change. This mean understanding your target audience, being able to craft the right messages, consumer psychology and why people buy, branding and positioning. These are the foundation of all good marketing. Once you get this down, everything else like analytic, SEO, paid advertisement becomes easier to understand. And a good digital marketing course will usually teach you about all of these fundamentals.
Next, you want to build your personal brand. Your personal brand is one of your biggest assets in digital marketing. And this doesn't mean you need to have tons of followers. It is simply your online presence and how you showed up on internet. Even if you don't plan to create content, become a content creator or an influencer, having a good personal branding is really crucial because honestly, employers, clients, or even brands can easily search you up. So, your digital footprint is kind of like your resume.
Now, to build a good personal branding, first you can audit your online presence. So, go to your account and edit or remove things that doesn't really represent who you want to be professionally. This is not about being perfect, but to be more intentional. Next, you want to build the foundation. So, create a strong LinkedIn profile, start your portfolio, add any certifications you have in digital marketing, and share what you're learning, even if it's just a small updates. This is how people will start seeing you as someone who's serious in this field.
And one of the most important thing here that will help you land your first client is by having a portfolio. Your portfolio is like your proof of skills. Your clients don't just want to know what you know. They want to know that you can execute and deliver results. So this can be adding mock brand project on your portfolio, sample strategies, content that you have created or some case studies. And personally, this is one of the thing that I used to struggle with when I first started with digital marketing because I didn't have a marketing background. So I was struggling to build my portfolio. And this is where tools can really help you, especially when you're just starting out and don't know how to build or design your portfolio. And that is why I want to introduce you to today's sponsor, Gamma AI. I used to spend hours, even days, creating my portfolio. But with tools like Gamma AI, it helps you build your own portfolio within minutes. So you can use a mock brand project, a content idea or even your own social media page and it will automatically turns it into a structured professionallook portfolio.
So here I will show you how to do that. First you want to go to gamma.app and here they have several different feature. What I'm going to use is this feature called generate. What you have to do here is to give it your prompt. So I will add my prompt over here and then you can also choose how many cards you want to have. So cards are like slides. I'm going to keep it a little bit shorter because when your potential client are scrolling through your portfolio, you want to keep everything concise. So, I would recommend either four to five slides and then click on generate outline. So, within seconds, you can see all of the outline generated. And you can also edit it based on your preference. If you have a specific case studies, you can also edit over here. But once the outline is good, then you can just click on generate. And this is where the magic happens. You'll see your portfolio being generated in the most professional looking way. And if you look at the right corner, you can also add images, some matrix, diagrams, and you can edit all the tags directly from here. And when you're done, you don't even need a website or a PDF. You can simply just share the link as your portfolio or pitch. So if you want to check out Gamer AI, I will leave the link in the description box below.
One of the most common question that beginners ask is how to get an experience. The truth is there are four practical ways that you can gain experience as a beginner. The first one is freelancing. So you can start small by using a freelancing platforms like Fiverr or Upwork. You don't need a big client. You just need one project to start building your portfolio. Another way is to look for an internship. Even a short internship like one to three months will give you a real hand-on- experience. This is where you learn how real business operate. So what you can do is go to LinkedIn or even any social media platform. Look for local businesses or even a social media agency that are looking for interns or you can also do your own project. This is one of the most underrated way to build your experience. So you can create your own social media strategies, blog brand campaigns, case studies, analytic breakdowns or rebrands or improvement for an existing brand. This go handinhand with the next option which is to pitch to a small businesses. Once you have a case studies, rebrands or improvement for an existing brand, you can actually show this to them in exchange of work testimonials. And who knows, they might see potential in you and might want to hire you for this.
Step four is to apply strategically. Don't just apply to 100 jobs using the same resume. So, as a digital marketer, do your homework. Research about the company before you send them anything. You need to learn about what is their company value, their mission, their target audience, their brand personality, and why you connect with them. This will help you to tailor your resume and your cover letter. So, never send the same version everywhere. You need to adjust your skills, determine what they're looking for with your current skills, so everything will align with the specific job description. You can also tailor your portfolio page. I know it usually will take a long time and effort to do this, but with tools like Gameai, you can easily just put it in the prompt. So you can make sure your portfolio include a project that match their brand.
And the last step is to keep upskilling. Marketing is one of the fastest changing industries. Every few months there is a new platform, a new algorithm, a new tool, a new trend. That's why great marketers never stop learning. You can keep up what's going on in the marketing industry from social media. I think that is still one of the best and fastest way to keep up with the trend or keep improving a new skill from online courses or online resources.
But that's it for this video. I hope this gave you a lot more clarity, especially if you're planning to learn about digital marketing. Once again, you can check out GMA AI. I will leave the link in the description box below. And that's it for today's video and I'll see you on my next one. Bye.