If I told you that you could get a high-paying digital marketing job without any experience this year – in 2021- you’d tell me that I’m absolutely full of it. Right?
Well, that’s exactly what I’m telling you now and, despite how crazy it sounds, it’s true! You can turn digital marketing into your new career without any prior marketing experience and today, I’m going to tell you how.
PS you can learn more in this video around how to get a marketing position with no experience:
So, if this sounds like something you’d be interested in, scroll down! The steps are easy to follow and simple to complete, I promise.
How to Get a Job in Marketing without Experience
Step 1: Choose A Type of Digital Marketing
Before you get too ahead of yourself in your quest to become a seven-figure digital marketing personality, you need to be clear in what type of marketing you want to do. With a bit of research on Google or Bing, you’ll find all the different digital marketing niches and be able to pinpoint which one sounds the best for you.
When you figure out which one “calls to you”, stick with it! Don’t flip flop around and change your mind a million times; work with the type you picked and master it.
Step 2: Obtain Certifications
As with anything that requires some level of schooling or professional training, getting certified in your chosen field of marketing can be very beneficial when it comes to getting hired. Of course, there are a ton of paid programs that you can take in order to achieve various certifications.
But there are also a number of awesome free certification programs that you could start with.
HubSpot Academy
HubSpot Academy offers a variety of free marketing certifications. These include HubSpot Marketing Software, Inbound Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Content Marketing and more! Some programs combine sales and marketing, while others focus on design and marketing.
Google Digital Garage
Operated by Google, Google Digital Garage offers an array of online courses and the ever-popular Fundamentals of Digital Marketing certification program. Completion of the program awards users with full digital marketing certification.
In addition to this program, Digital Garage also has a huge selection of related courses that are great for furthering knowledge and expanding your learning.
Facebook Blueprint
Okay, so the Facebook Blueprint certification isn’t free – it’s $150. Even still, though, I think it’s worth mentioning as it is a useful certification that can show that you know your way around marketing on Facebook.
Keep in mind that these certifications don’t guarantee that you’ll get hired. T get hired, you really need to build your portfolio and slip these certifications in there to show that you’re serious and that you know what you’re doing.
Step 3: Get More Education
Throughout the entire process of becoming a digital marketer, you should be learning new things. A great way to do this is by investing in various education systems that are free or of low-cost, but that still teach you new things and further your understanding of the marketing world.
A few great sources for affordable courses include Udemy and LinkedIn Learning, which gives you unlimited courses for as low as $20 per month. You may also want to consider looking into what your local library can offer you, as many libraries around the world have started offering their clients a variety of online courses that only require a library card to access.
In addition, you can learn a lot from YouTube videos! This method is the ultimate method of learning if you’re looking to save yourself a few bucks, as YouTube is a free platform.
Step 4: Build A Website
In my humble opinion, building a website is one of the most crucial parts of your digital marketing journey. Why?
Building a website will require you to learn a little bit about a lot of different types of marketing. For example, you’ll likely need to learn how to build an effective social media profile for your website if it’s a business site. You’ll also need to learn SEO basics, which can come in handy when dealing with SEO marketing later on.
A website complete with a social media page or profile, as well as successful sales and conversions is a great addition to your portfolio. It’s an interactive representation of what you can do, and potential employers will be impressed if you present them with it.
Step 5: Try Handling Clients
Managing clients is another thing you can add to your portfolio. When I say “managing clients” I’m referring to freelancing.
When you work as a freelancer, you’re hired by various clients for various jobs – including marketing positions. Through freelance work, you can gain that traditional marketing experience without being hired by a fancy, high-up company or by going through rounds of tough interviews.
For freelancing opportunities try UpWork, Fiverr, and Craigslist. You can also conduct a good old Google search and see what you can find. These opportunities are mostly remote, meaning you can do them from anywhere in the world; you can do them in your pajamas or in your favorite suit, it’s totally up to you.
This is a great place to start when you have no experience and, for many people, it’s quite enjoyable! You can make your own hour and set your own rates. There are many people who even end up preferring to freelance over having a traditional 9-5 marketing position.
Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing
Both traditional and digital marketing share the same fundamental mission: identifying a specific audience, connecting said audience to new products, and getting the audience to purchase the products.
Connecting audiences with products and creating conversions in the form of sales using digital marketing, however, is much different than doing it through the use of magazine ads.
Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing requires the marketer to reach out to local audiences. It also means that they have to produce physical marketing materials like magazines, brochures, and pamphlets. This being said, the method of delivery is physical too, as the produced materials need to be transported to the target audience by traditional means like television, newspaper, and radio ads. To establish a brand presence, someone using traditional marketing will need to go to in-person events.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing ensures that marketing materials can be showcased to the global population. This means that companies can fine-tune their materials to interest a certain portion of the global population based on age, location, and gender.
Digital marketers are able to interact with their target audience, unlike traditional marketers. When using digital marketing, you can interact with the audience in forums, chats, social media pages, interactive quizzes, and livestreams.
When it comes to channels of delivery, digital marketing allows you to deliver materials through a variety of methods. This includes YouTube videos, Facebook ads, Instagram posts, blog articles, and, of course, marketing emails. It also ensures that the audience can engage with your materials through their preferred channel.
While traditional marketing events are a great way to meet new people and get out of the house, digital marketing events are just as effective for their inherent purpose. They are done through livestreams, webinars, product demos, and courses and programs.
7 Essential Skills That Every Digital Marketer Should Have
1. Data and Analytics
Regardless of which type of digital marketing you get into; you’re going to need to know how to use analytics and monitor data. Google Analytics is likely going to be something you use at some point, so it’s important to know how to use it before going in.
Since most businesses have a ton of data to track, digital marketers need to know how to gather this information and use it to the company’s advantage. When you’re looking to be hired for a marketing position, most employers will be looking for someone who not only knows how to read the data but someone who also knows how to use it to improve business strategies and conversions.
2. Tech Savvy
Digital marketing is an industry that is tech driven and as such, it requires those who work within it to have a good grip on the workings of modern technology. If you fall into the “millennial” category or a younger generation, technology is likely already second nature to you.
If you’re from an older generation, though, you might want to consider improving your tech knowledge before trying to get hired as a digital marketer. You should be familiar with basic technology, softwares, and programs, and having a bit of coding knowledge is beneficial, as well.
3. Writing and Editing.
At the end of the day, marketing comes down to content – and content comes down to writing and editing, which means more than just producing articles and writing landing pages. Writing is about making connections with the target audience through messages that convince them to take action.
As a digital marketer, you should know how to produce “evergreen articles”, which are articles that continue to have value years after the initial publishing date.
4. Persuasion
A successful digital marketer will have great people skills as well as an open, friendly personality that people want to engage with. Are you able to convince someone to make a purchase? Can you get your team to agree with your ideas?
Being persuasive isn’t about starting arguments, it’s about being confident that you know what you’re doing and showing it in your work.
5. Basic Design Skills
The world of marketing isn’t just about the text. It also involves a lot of well-design visuals so it’s never a bad idea to learn your way around Photoshop. In fact, Photoshop (and other related image manipulation softwares) is a good skill to have just in case you need it.
When you know the basics of design, you can make small corrections and adjustments to what your graphic artist has done without destroying the product they created or wasting a ton of time trying to get them to adjust it.
6. Listening Skills
One of the most common errors that brands make is focusing too much on their content creation and promotion and not enough on their customers. Failing to develop a good relationship with your customers can lead to poor conversions.
An effective piece of content is founded on the data that you gathered and analyzed in order to help you determine the most useful information to provide your target audience. It will also help you make a decision about the best way to deliver it to them.
So, what’s the best way to come up with these crucial pieces of data? By listening! By listening to what your customers are telling you through the data they’ve given you, you can tailor content to cater to what appeals to them.
7. Multitasking
When you work in digital marketing, there’s always more than one thing going on. That’s why it’s so important to have the multitasking skills to handle distractions while getting your work done efficiently. At any given moment you could be writing a report while scanning for the latest Tweets and listening to your co-worker’s latest idea.
If you can’t multitask, you’ll quickly find yourself falling behind.
