I recently spoke with a friend of mine who is changing careers and was looking at what he needs on his resume to get a job in online marketing. Thinking of my work experience, as well as the time I spend applying for jobs, this was the advice I came up with:
- Read Job Descriptions. Indeed.com is a great place to look for jobs because it aggregates listings from lots of different sources. For our purposes, I would use the job descriptions to get an idea of what exact skills you’ll need and what job titles make sense for you to go after. It will help you decide whether your skill set and interests lies more in an analytical position (web analyst, PPC analyst, etc.), creative (copywriter, art director, web design, etc.) or managerial/strategic (brand manager, campaign manager, event manager). Another thing to think about is whether you want to present yourself as a specialist or a generalists. Will it be more important for you to have a breadth of knowledge (jack of all trades) or depth or knowledge in one area? This will determine where to spend your time developing skills.
- Take Online Courses. A college degree of some kind is great but don’t let the lack of one stop you from learning and pursuing a career path. There are plenty of free or cheap online courses and tutorials. Lynda.com is an amazing resource I use almost everyday. They have video tutorials on almost everything I will mention in the points below and tons more. They have a 7-day free trial and after that, it’s $25/month, which I think is well worth it. I would set aside 2 hours a day to go through these. For web design, w3schools.com is also a great resource that I’ve gotten lots of use from. Also, if you are into podcasts, there are several you can follow to keep up with marketing trends. My favorite is “Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield.”
- Build an Online Resume and Online Footprint. Having a great LinkedIn profile is a given. Fill is with great keywords that match the job descriptions you are going for. Also request recommendations from friends and former co-workers. Also make sure to post interesting (and clean content) throughout all your social media profiles. Employers check these out when it comes to hiring so you need to not only “not look bad” but present yourself as insightful and professional, even in your everyday Facebook posts. Another thing that made a big difference for me was an interactive resume I built (jakehaws.com/resume). I included pictures and videos that went along with my job experiences. For this page, I actually did the HTML and CSS code from scratch (partly to help me learn) but you could build something that shows pictures and videos in a wordpress site. It can be a great item for a follow up email after an interview.
- Learn WordPress and Start a Blog. This is definitely a must. I had a blog on blogspot (50songsin50weeks.com) and even though the topic wasn’t directly related to my job, they saw that value in a cool idea and the writing and work behind it. It helped set me apart and polish my blogging chops. The trend the last few years has moved towards wordpress websites. These sites are easy to setup, edit, and operate plus there are thousands of plugins available. Some people use wordpress as a blog platform but many are using it more like a typical website or to create landing pages. At the very least, learn how to install templates (many are free) and make formatting changing. These days, very minimal coding (if any) is required. I would recommend purchasing a domain and hosting account. You can get a Go Daddy domain for about $10/year and hosting for about $10/month. There is also plenty more in this area you can learn on lynda.com.
- Learn Google Analytics/Adwords. After you setup your site, setup a free Google Analytics account and tie it to the site so you can get experience watching traffic. Try and get training on Google Adwords if you can (Keep your eyes open for Adword credit codes, use them to advertise your website/blog, and monitor the stats on the back end). You can get certifications from Google in both of these. To take the Google Analytics Individual Qualificaion test, you’ll pay around $50 (last time I checked).
- Learn Adobe Creative Suite. This includes several programs but the main ones are Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign and Dreamweaver. These are the bread and butter if you are a graphic designer but with marketing, depending on the role, just having a basic knowledge is enough. You can look at job descriptions and decide which are important. If you decide you wanna dive deeper into web design and creating HTML emails, I would focus on Dreamweaver. You can go to Adobe.com and get a 30 day trial on all of these programs.
- Consider Learning Code. Knowing extensive code is becoming less critical as WordPress has become more popular (if you are just making a basic site) but it can still be helpful to know the basics of HTML and CSS. If you wanna dive deeper, learn Javascript and PHP. Even if you just mentioned “I’m learning HTML right now” in your job interviews, I think it would look impressive.
- Learn Marketing Through Social Media. Get familiar with the basics of how to market through Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. At the very least, setup a Facebook page for your personal blog/website and invite your friends to follow it. This will give you access to their advertising platform on the back end. I would recommend spending $20 just for the sake of trying it out and learning how it works. Depending on the business, there might be other social media channels you would focus on (Pinterest, Instagram, Vine). Listen to social media podcasts to help keep your pulse on what is happening in this space.
- Learn Email Marketing. This is another area where you’ll want to get familiar with the basics. You can setup a free account on Mailchimp and practice by sending HTML emails in mass to a list of friends and family.
- Learn About CRMs. Almost all businesses use some sort of CRM (Customer Relationship Manager). Salesforce.com is the industry standard. Unfortunately, since it is proprietary, tutorials and training are a little harder to come by. But you can setup a free trial and at least get familiar with how to use it. They have some videos and instructions you can see on the back end, as well.
- Learn About Marketing Automation. This is kind of a new area you should research and get familiar with. It can encompass lots of things but the core of it is using technology to be more targeted in your interactions with your customers and prospects. The big names is this area are Eloqua, Hubspot, Marketo, Silverpop, Pardot and Act-On. Almost all of them will have information (papers, videos, webinars) where you can read up on their features or learn about marketing automation in general.
This is by no means an exhaustive list but these items are things you should think about having on your resume or being able to talk about during job interviews. Are there are any other important skills you think should be added?