Specialist marketing jobs are difficult to land. They are not always advertised, and those who win these positions have cultivated the work from a base of experience and relationship building. Here we consider how to build your career from the ground up. Then, we consider how to use Shopify as a means of adding to your experience. Imagine the next year as a journey towards getting the skills, qualities and reputation required to be the go-to person for the marketing position of your dreams.
Learn your trade
Your starting point is learning. You might feel you consume marketing every day and so know your style, and you understand what will work, but it is a specialist profession, and you need to become an expert. Therefore, you need to take online certifications. While the internet is an excellent learning tool, with blogs, books, YouTube Videos, Ted talks, webinars, and more, you should look to get a certificate that you can add to your CV. Not only will you receive a structured course covering all the fundamentals, but you will look more employable too.
However, the internet is also full of courses that promise you a certificate, but not all of these qualifications carry equal value. If you want to work in the industry at a high level, then you need to show you have been educated by the best. You want to seek out a training provider that is recognised for excellence in the industry. Unfortunately, most of these courses will require a sizable investment of cash.
Get experience any way you can
Getting experience is gold. Consequently, getting marketing experience that doesn’t pay in cash but in a reference and something for your CV is still valuable. You are investing your time in building your reputation as someone who knows what they are doing.
You should also look to apply for any marketing work at any level. Even if all you do is the admin for the marketer, you see how this professional goes about the work and the choices they make for strategy and tactics. Use the boss as a role model to assess all the right behaviours, ready for when you start your business.
To get the position, go to a jobs board like Indeed or LinkedIn and apply for everything reasonable. Remember, this first job might not have “marketer” in the title, but it will be for a marketing company.
If you are still at university or college, then you could also look for an internship to do in your longer holidays. Many major organisations, such as HubSpot, offer intern positions to a select few.
Keep updating your CV
As you learn and as you gain this experience, you can update your CV. In the jobs market, you are selling yourself. When applying for marketing positions, your CV reflects your skill set in selling an idea to a target market. A poorly devised resume will do little to sell you to your potential employer. Spend some time making yourself look good in your actions but also how you package these actions.
Gain experience by starting your business
If you have been working for a while and looking to change careers, starting at the bottom in low paid jobs might not be a serious option. Therefore, you need another route to build valuable content marketing, SEO, online ads, analytics, email marketing, social media, and more. One great way to do this is by setting up an eCommerce business on sites like Shopify.
The products you purchase and sell are less important than the way you build and market your brand. For instance, you could set up a t-shirt business or some other handmade crafts and use your marketing skills you have learnt to build up the experience needed.
To be successful on Shopify, you would be expected to demonstrate all you have learnt in your training. For instance, you would start the process by devising a business plan. To validate this business plan, you need to do market research and competitor research. You need to understand your audience, and this requires in-depth analysis. You will find out the power of direct customer feedback and all the tools available for gathering this.
Then, you get into the nitty-gritty of design. You need your logo, your brand colours, and the design for your website. You will need a strategy for content creation for this website and consider how this will overlap with your presence on social media. While the core of an eCommerce business appears to be buying and selling, it is actually a lot more to do with accessing your market and building that customer base that will help you close the sale.
From Shopify to Marketer
It might be that you don’t aspire to be a business owner on Shopify or a PA to a marketing manager. However, getting into specialised roles that are hugely competitive requires the right contacts and the best CV. Therefore, you need to gather the building blocks of a career and build it from the base up. While certification is an essential first step, you need to show these ideas and concepts in practice. With your Shopify business, you will gather all the necessary experience and build an online presence that will make you an obvious choice for a future position.