As a full service digital marketing agency with over 13 years experience, Ambergreen work across a variety of marketing channels and client sectors. This makes us extremely well placed to know what it takes to succeed as a digital marketing professional. In today’s blog post some of our more experienced team members offer their advice for those considering embarking upon a career in the world of digital marketing.
Grant Whiteside:
Grant founded Ambergreen back in 2001 and is recognised in the industry as a search marketing pioneer. Grant is the Product and Development Director which means he has to continuously develop the marketing services and strategies we provide for clients to ensure that they are relevant to today’s needs.
Top tips:
Keep learning; the technology, the platforms, the devices and the opportunities continue to grow every day. So; whatever you’re doing for a client now, it will have evolved to a point beyond recognition within 2 years; never rest on your laurels or you’ll be left behind.
Nearly everything is measurable. Get a basic understanding of Data and Goals and why you are measuring them. Regardless of what you do in your marketing career, if you cannot measure its impact or attribution, you’ll have hard time proving it was a good idea!
Know your channels. Understanding which marketing channels to use and why is as much a skill as knowing how to use the channel itself. Not everyone has to be a channel specialist, but all businesses would benefit from knowing which channels to use when to use them to hit their goals.
Company Culture. Buying into Company Culture is a key element to having an enjoyable and rewarding career. Make a point of understanding the company’s values and vision of the future; if it feels good like a natural fit where your values are in line with that of the company, then it will be a good move for you. If not; think twice before diving in.
Embrace your marketing industry; learn to live it, breathe it and love it, there’s nothing better than knowing that you know your stuff and you can make a real difference to an organisation and be recognised for it.
Josh Englander:
Coming from a background in journalism and content Josh recently assumed position as Head of Planning and Strategy at Ambergreen. He is currently organizing Ambergreen’s business development strategy as well as the company’s expanded range of services and products.
Top tips:
Learn the basics. Just as Picasso learned the strict fundamentals of painting prior to going in crazy artistic direction, you should first learn the basics of marketing before you start speaking the strange tongues of digital marketing.
Talk to your clients and colleagues. Don’t rely on Skype to communicate in the office.
Avoid the bad habits. Don’t get in the habit of speaking about ‘consumers’ as if they were a species separate from you and your digital marketing colleagues. In fact, don’t use the word consumers at all.
Keep in mind the core objectives of a project. It’s way too easy for a group to start running toward a destination without knowing why you’re going in that direction. If you don’t know what they are, ask the client to remind you.
Limit your screen time. People who interact with the actual world more often than the virtual world are better communicators, critical thinkers, and problem solvers. I don’t have scientific proof; it’s just a theory.
Emma Lauchlan:
Emma started her digital marketing career as Account Exec at Ambergreen back in 2007 after which she spent seven years client side and is now back at Ambergreen heading up the Account Service team; devising online marketing strategies for a range of clients and developing the Account Service team to the highest of standards.
https://www.ambergreeninternetmarketing.com/blog/latest-recruit-emma-lauchlan-account-director/
Top tips:
Work for an agency. That may sound rather biased (based on my current role!) but having worked on both sides of the fence (agency-side first) I think it’s a great way to get exposure to multiple digital channels within one environment. From there, you can either choose to specialise in on channel or choose to become a bit more of an all-rounder. It also gives you exposure to various sectors (travel, finance, FMCG) so you can begin to hone your interests.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s the only way you learn! It also helps you to get a feel for how other people’s minds work.
Attend industry events. As well as helping to keep you up-to-date with industry trends, I often find that industry events can be a hot bed of inspiration. Hearing firsthand how others have pulled together campaigns using new and innovative techniques or have overcome a problem can really stimulate your own creative juices.
Anurag Ahluwalia:
Similar to Emma, Anu started his career at Ambergreen 7 years ago, sought experience at another agency and has now returned to Ambergreen as an Internet Marketing Consultant. In this role he gets under the bonnet of search engine algorithms to ensure clients’ search marketing strategies are implemented with great effect.
Top tips:
Understand change. Possibly a strange one for a first tip, but by the time I finish writing this, a few things would have been tweaked by Googles algorithm and some sites would have lost/earned traffic as a result. Keeping on top of this change to understand how it affects you and the industry is really important as it is now a wheel that drives SEO and if SEO is what attracts you then you really need to embrace this change, all the time – IT WILL NEVER STOP. And this is also what keeps the search industry fresh, challenging, lively and interesting.
Learn, learn, learn. The need to learn never stops; you will constantly need to evolve and update your skill set in very short periods of time. This can only happen if the cycle of learning keeps moving. As Grant says, if you don’t learn you will lag behind in the race. Getting hands on experience is almost essential and I would certainly suggest that you lay your hands on everything as digital marketing is multi-faceted. This will help you in choosing the right path which you can focus on and then develop your career and skills in.
Its about knowing the Lingo! There is no other industry where jargon rules and new words, acronyms and terminology pops around nearly every day. Read extensively so that when someone asks you to explain the CTR, CPC and CPA on a PPC campaign and the impact it has overall on SEM then you are ready with the answer.
A bit of geek-iness is good. You are not expected to be a nerd knowing high level coding and programming languages but a basic knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript can help you understand the opportunities that might impact your marketing campaigns and improve the way you communicate with web developers and designers – something which you will do quite a lot if you work in an agency environment.
Be Connected. Engage with digital marketers in the real world by attending conferences, meet-ups, workshops, events and expos which will really help you get exposure in the industry. This will not only offer you an opportunity to meet likeminded people but can greatly enhance your skillset where you might discover interesting things not heard before!
Jesper Harbers:
Starting out as an intern, studying Marketing, Jesper quickly became a firm fixture at Ambergreen and has worked his way up to be our International Paid Search Consultant. His prime area of expertise lies within managing paid strategies for global gaming clients and high end travel clients – to name a few.
Top tips:
Have your own web properties: It has never been as easy to just launch something and test out new techniques on your own website which if successful you can launch for clients. Those that go extra mile will be rewarded in the long term.
Know your audience; knowing who your audience is still key to all marketing success. Knowing your audience will allow you to spot why certain trends are happening and where you can find them online.
Attribution; It is not easy, but being able to attribute a value to different steps within the conversion funnel will allow you to distribute your marketing spend where it has the most effect. Understanding this piece is more important than ever before.
Do what you love! As Grant Whiteside mentioned above, there are channel specialists and people that would like to have a more all-rounded skill set. Do not get into internet marketing because it is growing area of opportunity, do it because you love it. The key is to find something that you love doing as it will make your work life so much more rewarding!
