8 Tips to Kickstart Your Digital Marketing Career

Digital marketing is a very fast-paced, competitive and challenging industry that requires a lot of patience, dedication, and passion from you in order to grow and survive long term. In this career path, you are constantly required to stay on your toes; researching new techniques, learning new strategies and thinking up new ideas on better ways to get things done.

Yes, we know it sounds like a whole lot of hard work, but that is the only way you can get ahead of the crowd and remain relevant in the digital economy. And to help you accomplish all these goals and more, we have compiled a list of the top 8 things to do that can really help you build that solid career foundation and kick start your digital marketing career journey.

1. Remain eager to learn and stay updated

For the digital marketing industry, rapid and sudden changes are regarded as a normal occurrence. And this development brings about a constant need for you to always stay on top of all major happenings and new trends in the industry. Building a passion for constantly reading and researching about your specific niche and how to make your services better will help you both in your initial stage and all along your journey in the digital economy.

2. Specialize your skills

It is okay to have a basic knowledge of multiple digital marketing disciplines, however, if you would really like to grow and stand out as a digital marketer to be reckoned with, you must first pick a few skills (usually one or two skills) you would like to focus your research and resources on in order to become a specialist in that area.

3. Learn various lingos

If you want to be taken seriously in this industry or any other, you must first take your time to carry out your research to learn the kinds of words, lingos, and terms used in the industry. Terms like SEO, Analytics and all the rest should be thoroughly understood by you.

4. Networking is important for your growth

Surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals and talented gurus in the industry is important. This contacts can serve as motivation, mentors, and guides that can really help you find your footing in the industry really fast with little need for you to grope around making mistakes, trail, and errors and hitting brick walls. They can also help you when you encounter a problem in your career growth, giving you advice and sharing with you their wealth of experiences.

5. Work on creating a professional portfolio

No one will be willing to hire you if you don’t have experience carrying out any previous job in the digital marketing industry. So it is important you step out of your comfort zone and try out various personal projects in order to gather on field working experience that you can add to your portfolio. You can also work for friends, families or anyone you come across for a discounted price. This way you can rapidly build your customer base, your feedbacks, your wealth of experience and eventually have more customers coming to you via referrals.

6. Build your brand

You might be really good at what you do but no one else will know that or find you if you don’t work on creating a very strong personal brand for yourself and your business. Trying out your digital marketing skills on your business is the best way to really try out your theories and stand out with a very visible online presence.

7. Certification can increase your value

Completing various certified digital marketing courses can really help you stand out and build your brand value thereby opening doors that would have normally been out of reach. Certification helps your prospective employer know you took your time to learn your trade and you can be trusted to deliver.

8. Decide your workplace

Digital marketing leads you to two main career paths, working for an agency taking up new clients or working for a company as their in house marketer. Understanding their differences, the benefits they offer as well as some of their flaws can really help you begin to visualize yourself in the position you want in the nearest future and get the motivation to keep working hard till you get there.

Well, those are the tips as of where promised, so step out and start taking those baby steps and building the right habits, mindsets, and connections in order to achieve your dreams. But one thing is for sure, you can be assured you will never get bored all through the way.