How To Start A Career In Digital Marketing With No Experience

Originally published on Relish Growth.

This post will share how to start a career in Digital Marketing with no experience.

In 2022, it will be 10 years since I started my Digital Marketing career. I didn’t even realize it had been that long until a couple of months ago.

Even though it’s currently not my main job, as I’m looking to switch fields now, Digital Marketing will always be a part of me. This is why I run three blogs as a business.

I know that Digital Marketing is one of the top ten in-demand fields. As a subsect of the ever-going Tech industry, it simply means it will always be on-demand. So, there’s no such thing as being too late to get into Digital Marketing. Whenever you’re ready to start, it will always be available for you.

Unlike traditional careers, Digital Marketing is slightly different to get into as the field requires you to be mostly self-taught. The constant-changing industry has not been around for that long compared to traditional industries.

And as such, I believe getting a Digital Marketing degree is a waste of time. With algorithms that change every other month, you’re better off being self-taught.

Now, this means that this field is not for everybody. If you easily get exhausted by the constant change, you might need to give this career path a second thought.

You won’t have libraries to look up stuff you don’t know about. Instead, you will have to read verified media outlets to get your news. You’ll also need to continuously tweak your strategies. It goes without saying that the field can be tough, but if you play your cards right, it can also be downright rewarding.

So, if you’re looking to switch fields or are simply out of college and considering Digital Marketing as a potential career, this article is for you.

Here’s How To Start A Digital Marketing Career From A Professional

Here I’ll be sharing all the steps I took to get my first paying job as a Digital Marketer.

Enrol in a Comprehensive Digital Marketing Course

As you will find out later, Digital Marketing is super broad, and the days of becoming a generalist instead of a specialist are long gone. It can be divided into sub-categories such as Social Media, SEO, PPC, and Email Marketing, to mention a few.

Your job is to have a basic foundational knowledge of these categories before deciding what to specialize in. You can’t just get into Social Media if you are best suited for SEO. So, take a comprehensive course and learn as much as you can.

Google’s Digital Garage’s Fundamentals of Digital Marketing remains the best course I took. It’s free and teaches you everything you need to know in 26 modules.

Pick and Master a Speciality

After taking the course, you’ll know what category of Digital Marketing you want to specialize in. During the course, you’ll find out by taking note of what areas you naturally gravitate towards. If you’re creative, you might enjoy Social Media. If you prefer being technical, SEO and/or PPC might be the ones for you. How about Email Marketing?

If you love selling, you might actually have a knack for it. If you’re still unsure what speciality to choose, go on Coursera and do a couple more Digital Marketing courses.

When you’re done, pick your speciality and master it as much as possible. Take all the relevant courses. Read all the ebooks and watch all the Videos. My favourite resources are Hubspot Academy, Facebook Blueprint and Backlinko.

Create Personal Projects to Experiment & Showcase your Mastery.

My favourite part of Digital Marketing is when I have to create personal projects to experiment with what I’ve learnt. I’ve created several Instagram pages to provide Instagram Marketing services.

I’ve also written content for free because I wanted to get my name out there as an SEO Content Writer. I’m using my three blogs to experiment and showcase my SEO skills. Instead of waiting for a company to offer you unpaid internships, learn to create professional personal projects. It will help you in the long run.

Check out 5 Online Side Hustles Worth Trying For Extra Income

Build your Portfolio with Case Studies & Results.

One of the ways you can Fastrack your Digital Marketing career is by building a portfolio. All those personal projects you’re experimenting with? Create case studies around them and document them in your portfolio. I like to create a sub-domain from my name domain and use it as a portfolio. ( Every professional should buy their name domains.)

Always learn to document your results in your portfolio, no matter how small. This will help you in your job interviews along the way. When it comes to Digital Marketing, people love to see what you can do and the results you can get, not what you say you can do.

Document your Journey on LinkedIn

Another important thing you need to do when starting your Digital Marketing career is document your journey on LinkedIn. This is especially good for those who want to be employed by top companies as quickly as possible.

You need to spend a bit of time on LinkedIn sharing what you’re learning, your case studies and your results. You never know when a job offer will be waiting for you. It might seem like extra work posting on LinkedIn, but I promise you, it is absolutely worth it.

Pitch your services to small business owners for FREE or a token to get hands-on experience.

At some point, your personal projects won’t cut it anymore, and you’ll be itching for a project to get hands-on experience. This is why you pitch your services to small business owners. In my experience, more often than not, they almost always need specialized professionals.

So, if you decide to pick Instagram Marketing as a speciality, make sure you have a part of your portfolio dedicated to Instagram Marketing. Your pitch should include building an audience through organic and paid methods.

This should be backed up by two or three Instagram accounts that you have built successfully. It also helps to be honest that you’re simply looking to get hands-on experience from an authentic brand after learning so much.

Pitch your portfolio to hiring managers.

You have a solid irresistible portfolio when you combine your personal projects and pro bono work. After spending all this time on LinkedIn, you need to engage with recruiters who have previously engaged with you.

This is the time to go into their DMs and pitch your work. Whether they are hiring or not, just be in their books. This way, they’ll easily remember you when a role arises. This is also the period to decide what type of industries and companies you want to work for.

In Conclusion,

I hope this post on how to start a career in Digital Marketing was helpful. This is a 7-step plan I wish someone had told me when I started about a decade ago. It is by no means a conclusive list. It is just a guide to get you started.