You need experience to get a digital marketing job. But how can you get your first digital marketing job with no experience? Fortunately, there are ways to land your first digital marketing gig with little to no experience. 

Prospective employers want to see how applicants are capable of helping with their digital marketing efforts. If you show these prospective employers that you’re the best one for the job with quality work and relevant knowledge, then you’ll likely get hired regardless of the fact that you have no prior digital marketing experience. This digital marketing agency can show you the ropes. 

What Are Digital Marketing Jobs? 

According to Hubspot, digital marketing is a huge, overarching term for any marketing effort that targets an electronic device or Internet service. What one digital marketer does may be completely different than what another does. Large companies often have one person that handles one aspect of the digital ecosystem. 

Digital marketing strategies may target: 

• Email 
• Text messages 
• Mobile apps 
• Blogs 
• Website ads 
• Online affiliates 
• Paid Per Click (PPC)
• Social Media 
• Online PR 

The list is endless. As new technologies emerge, so do more jobs. As a result, digital marketing doesn’t boil down to just one single thing. It’s a general term with unlimited potential. If you learn more about one branch of digital marketing, it can help you understand more about the digital ecosystem as a whole. And that can help you land your first of many digital marketing jobs. 

Do This Before Applying To Digital Marketing Jobs 

Create a Great Resume

On average, only 10% of job applications end up in a job interview. When employers are digging through hundreds of job applications, it’s tough to get noticed. Creating a great resume will give you an advantage over other applicants. A rookie mistake is creating a bland resume that looks like a graduate dissertation. 

Canva is a great tool to help craft a visually-stunning resume that’s sure to catch your future employer’s eye. They have templates to create quick and easy resumes. Though, beware. Going over the top with a resume design can deter future job prospects. 

Put your name at the top of your resume, but don’t make it huge. Use a little color, but not too much or they’ll flinch when all the color evaporates from their printer. A great resume can be divided into a few sections that should be no longer than two pages as a whole. As a note, make sure to also save your resume as a PDF so it’s easy to access. 

Personal Information 

Your personal information should go at the top of your resume. Make it easy to read. The personal information section of your resume should include the following: 

• Name 
• Phone number 
• Location (city and state) 
• Email address 
• Portfolio/personal site

Make your information easy to access. Embed the link of your portfolio site or personal site into your resume. That way, prospective employers can have immediate access to your work. 

Summary 

This section of your resume should immediately follow your personal information. Your summary should briefly explain why you’re applying to the job and what makes you the best fit. Make sure to tailor your summary to each job you apply for. It’s easy to tell when a resume has a generic, robotic summary. 

Skills 

Include skills in your resume that are relevant to the job that you’re applying to. Also, feel free to include technical skills that may not be related to the job but could be seen as an asset.

 For instance, any skill that could relate to digital marketing is worth noting. Specific Microsoft Suite, Adobe Suite, and Google tool skills should always be included. Make sure to include any certifications you have as well. 

Examples of Work 

Did you work on a digital marketing campaign during an internship? Maybe you wrote content that got a ton of views. Try to include three pieces of work in your resume. Make sure to include links to your work. 

Job Experience 

It’s tricky writing about job experience when you don’t have any. Though, it’s not impossible! List your job experience from the past five to ten years with descriptions of your responsibilities. Don’t just list responsibilities. Write down your responsibilities in a way that showcases your budding talent as a digital marketer. 

For example, a data entry job doesn’t have too much overlap with a content marketing position. However, there is software that both jobs use that could translate into a viable skill. Those working in data entry and digital marketing might use a content management system (CMS) and Google tools. 

You’re welcome to write down past internships, college organization duties, and volunteer work as well. It still counts as valuable job experience even if you didn’t get paid for it. Just make sure to write down that the type of position (ie: volunteer work or an internship). 

Make a Portfolio Site 

Potential employers want to see your skillset. The best way to do this is with a portfolio site. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have any official job experience to post on it. Create blog posts that get clicks. Showcase a social media page you own that has thousands of followers. Show off the fancy graphic designs you created with Photoshop. Your work, paid or unpaid, can get your foot in the door with little to no experience. 

WordPress is a CMS with free options to get your site up and running. Wix is another place to build a free portfolio site as well. You can always pay for their premium features later, but make a free one in the meantime.  

Get a Certification 

Since you’ve never had any digital marketing jobs, how can you show prospective employers that you know about the industry? The answer: certifications. There are tons of reputable sites that can help you get a certification or two to add to your resume. Hubspot, Udemy, Lynda, LinkedIn, and Google all have courses that can help you get digital marketing certifications. Plus, many of these certification courses are free! 

Join Digital Marketing Groups on Facebook 

There are hundreds of marketing groups where seasoned digital marketers provide knowledge for free. Such online groups are also resources to turn to when you need answers. Need some advice on a blog article? Want to know the best email marketing software? There are gurus on Facebook groups that are happy to provide answers free of charge. 

Arguably the best part about Facebook groups is that they’re so many. Remember, digital marketing is a huge field. For instance, there are groups for content marketers and ones respectively for email marketers. Join them all or join one that aligns with a certain digital marketing niche that interests you. Hey—you might find a mentor in the process. 

Learn About Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO means improving a site to make it more visible in search engines. Though, some might say that you can use SEO to boost an Instagram or Facebook account. Just like Google and Bing, certain tactics can get a Facebook page or Instagram account more views. It’s important to know about SEO because it can help improve most digital marketing campaigns. 

The concept of SEO can take years to master. But you don’t need to be an expert to know SEO basics. The basics of SEO start with on-page and off-page SEO. 

On-Page SEO

These are factors directly on a website that help or hinder its domain rank. A domain rank, or domain authority, is how likely a site is to rank for search engine result pages (SERPs). When people search for a site they type in a phrase. Website owners want their site to rank in the search engine for certain phrases. Better domain authority makes it easier to rank for the terms they want. 

Elements that affect on-page SEO include: 

• Images 
• Site structure 
• HTML tags 
• Page speed 
• Titles and headers 
• Meta descriptions 
• Site content (like blog pages and product descriptions) 
• Mobile responsiveness (the ability to use a site easily on different devices)

Again, you don’t need to be a guru to understand how SEO can help digital marketing efforts. Knowing the basics can separate you from the hundreds of people applying for the same job. Knowing how to boost a site’s SEO through different campaigns might impress a hiring manager because it means more brand awareness and possibly revenue for the company. 

Off-page SEO 

This aptly-named term means factors that are off a webpage that affect SEO efforts. Factors like getting links from other sites (backlinks) and reviews can make it easier to rank for search terms. If lots of sites are competing for the same term, it makes a term harder to rank for. A site with lots of high-quality backlinks and great reviews can likely rank for a difficult term. 

Not all backlinks are created equally. In SEO, there are white hat and black hat practices. Sometimes, people think they can buy links (a black hat practice) to boost their domain rank. This could result in a Google penalty, which deeply hurts SEO efforts. 

Expand Your Network

Networking is a great way to get your first job at a digital marketing agency. Firstly, it helps connect you with experienced digital marketers. Secondly, it’s an opportunity to find possible job opportunities. This is important because it’s another way to set you apart from all the other people that are applying for a job. 

If you impress the head of marketing or CEO at a company, that is better than the best resume. Even if they aren’t actively looking for new employees, they might keep you in mind when they do. 

There are different ways to network. LinkedIn is a great site that can help you make connections. Meetup is also a great site that can help you make connections. Meetup is a site that organizes online and in-person groups for individuals with similar interests. Check out both LinkedIn and Meetup to expand your network and land a job at a digital marketing agency. 

A Digital Marketing Agency in South Florida That Works 

Everyone who works at The Digital Intellect started somewhere. We all remember how difficult it was to land that first job at a digital marketing agency. That, combined with the fact that we’re now experts in the industry, is why we’re able to confidently show you how to land your first digital marketing job. 

Coming up with a digital marketing strategy is complicated. It can be like throwing money into a blazing fire when you try to do it with no prior knowledge. If you want to boost your marketing efforts, hire a company that knows how to get it done without wasting your time and resources. Contact us now to see how we can help your business thrive.   

References: 

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-digital-marketing

https://zety.com/blog/resume-statistics

https://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo