Starting a career in marketing.

oconnellcloud

Hi,
I have been working in an artisan food store for over a year now. I feel as if they lack on the digital marketing side of business though in terms of social media. I have zero marketing experience and just finished an English degree. I want to break into digital marketing and I can see potential opportunities where I work.
I want to recommend starting a food blog only using what we stock in-store and also improve what images they put on Facebook and Instagram. I would do this as unpaid extra work simply to acquire some experience. I am hoping any business owners or people who are in this line of work could offer some advice please!

mahamageehad

Hi, what kind of advice are you looking for? It sounds like a good idea, but please don't underestimate the time commitment social media alone will take, not to mind also running a blog. Also, what about content- do you have a good camera, basic image editing skills? Where will the recipes come from? Where will the blog be, are you also looking at developing a site?

Digital_Guy

oconnellcloud wrote: »

Hi,
I have been working in an artisan food store for over a year now. I feel as if they lack on the digital marketing side of business though in terms of social media. I have zero marketing experience and just finished an English degree. I want to break into digital marketing and I can see potential opportunities where I work.
I want to recommend starting a food blog only using what we stock in-store and also improve what images they put on Facebook and Instagram. I would do this as unpaid extra work simply to acquire some experience. I am hoping any business owners or people who are in this line of work could offer some advice please!

Go for it! You've answered your own question on how to break into digital marketing - offer to do some work for your own employer. I would advise starting with the images (and maybe some posts) on the social media side to start off slowly.

Having the right images makes a massive difference to the impact you can have on social channels, and it'd be a good way to get yourself started. You can also review their Facebook and Instagram stats to see the impact of your changes.

protelos

Could not agree more, go for it! There has never been a better time to jump on the Digital Horse! Universities are about 15 years behind the curve and Digital moves so fast you are actually in a better sport than a Marketing grad IMO. I think your idea of helping out the store for free first is the best pay to go. 

Two separate avenues you need tot think about. 1. Your own professional development and what you need to focus on to progress and 2. What you need to do specifically for this project.
1. Get your free Google Adwords and Analytics creds first off. At the same time listen to every podcast you can. Social Media pro's, Digital Marketing radio, Social Media Marketing Podcast, Social Pro's podcast, The Digital Marketing podcast and Gary Vee (sparingly) to name but a few. Sub to a few blogs like Moz, shopify and Search engine journal. 

Actually getting credentials (Qualifications) is a tricky one and is still being debated heavily. I have gone down the route of self-thought with extensive side study. Things are moving so fast you just need to be kept up with going on. Also, I would set up a twitter just for people to follow relating to digital.  After that is it all about having a playground to play in, you would have with your store. 

2. You are pretty lucky to have a platform to work on. Keep a track on everything you do and if it impacts sales, take a bow. As stated above Social is a beast and you have to get involved, Gary Vee is a pain in the ass at times but he is down with social. You have to be your follows feeds commenting, liking etc, it takes some time but it is fun. 
One last thing I notice with digital folks is that they tend to be a step below developers in terms of their analytical ability, but they should be more sales focused. So one thing that will differentiate you will be your ability to transfer the numbers/data into a business case.

mel123

protelos wrote: »

Actually getting credentials (Qualifications) is a tricky one and is still being debated heavily. I have gone down the route of self-thought with extensive side study. Things are moving so fast you just need to be kept up with going on. Also, I would set up a twitter just for people to follow relating to digital.  After that is it all about having a playground to play in, you would have with your store. 

Any tips for websites etc to do this (self teaching)? I do this just as a hobby and to look after family business website etc, but i like to try and keep up to date.

protelos

A lot of the podcast (I preferred that format of learning) are social focused, as it is a bit more interesting. specifically for websites optimization? I do subscribe to the platform blogs... Wordpress blog and Shopify blog, but for this, I think Moz would be a great place to start, so subscribe to that and read a ton! 
Moz is great and will give you a great starting point on how to build a solid optimized site. 
But then in terms of marketing that, that is a post in itself!

Fukuyama

Just going to drop in an opposing view here.

I've worked for Irish SMEs ranging in size from a handful of employees right up to 100. I now work in IT (small company).

Digital marketing is not taken seriously by 99% of companies (to their peril). Additionally, many digital marketers (from what I've seen) were actually grads of another 'soft skills' discipline and kind of jumped into DM as a way to actually get a job. Many of them excel at writing content and making memes to keep up with the kids. Very few actually have technical skills (analytics, insights) and a strategic mindset required for coming up with brilliant campaigns/plans.

The 1% of companies who actually value Digital Marketers will do very, very well online. Only one company I worked for actually had a CEO (she was in her 40s too, so not 'young' person either) convinced by a 23 year old to send her back to college to do a one year Diploma. Since then they've transformed their online presence and dominate in their industry (travel) in Ireland.

Unfortunately, digital marketers are often seen as "the girl who writes the blog and makes the tea" and the "the lad to updates the website and the facebooks".

The GOOD news, is that competing with typical Irish companies online is very very easy. The vast majority of companies (even those trading online) have a 'digital second' approach. A high profile example would have been Ryanair until 2014 until they became 'a tech company with an airline attached'. Smaller examples would be medium size business with Wordpress sites and a facebook page.


My advise:

So while I have no real experience as a DM (outside my own websites/hobby projects) my advise would be to find a company already doing very very well in this area and send the boss an email (or give them a call). Ask for an internship.

Additionally, DO NOT do an unpaid internship. Ever. It completely devalues your role. Additionally, a company not willing to pay for solid DM doesn't take it seriously and is probably content with tweeting links to their blog and upading the slider on their homepage.

Technical Skills - acquire them:
-> Google analytics/Adwords course online
-> OSINT and industry research skills (the shady side companies don't brag about using)

Try to avoid the content side. There's a million arts graduates ready to do the unpaid internships.

nthanlade

you are amazing

noahungry

I learned a lot on ahrefs Academy. Lots of videos and reading material on SEO, blogging, link building... And picked up some great tips on website building on WordPress.

nthanlade

you are doing good work work