How To Become A Digital Marketer After You Graduate From University

Starting an online business or seeking a career in online marketing is one of the most viable options after graduation. After all, we now live in a digital world, which opens a lot of opportunities for fresh graduates who are already tech savvy to begin with. The question is: how to become a digital marketer after you graduate from university?

Of course, having the right skill set can give you an upper hand. However, the Internet is an undeniably difficult subject to study. It is fast-paced and continuously changing—what may be relevant today may become outdated at any moment.

But this doesn’t mean that becoming a successful digital marketer without much experience is impossible. If anything, this gives you the chance to build a strong foundation right off the bat.

Below are some areas to focus on in your journey towards becoming a skilled digital marketer.

Digital Marketing Basics

Digital marketing covers a lot of ground. From search engine optimisation to social media marketing, there’s a long list of information that needs to be learned. It doesn’t help that online marketing is an ever-evolving area of study. Staying updated about new strategies while studying an information-heavy subject may put off a lot of people pursuing a digital marketing career.

This is why you need to establish a point you can always go back to the moment things become too overwhelming. Knowing the bare basics can give you that starting point.

No matter how much digital marketing changes overnight, most of the basics remain the same. Familiarize yourself with basic terminologies and concepts. From here, it will be easier to branch off to more advanced matters.

Traditional Marketing Knowledge

Most people who are eager to learn digital marketing tend to forget its traditional marketing aspect. Their knowledge becomes limited to the digital landscape. On the surface, there are very stark differences between digital marketing and traditional marketing. There’s a lot of technical work and Internet-related data involved. But even so, digital marketing and traditional marketing still have some things in common.

If you want to  digital marketing to its full potential, it may be beneficial to learn some traditional marketing concepts as well.

Valuable Technical Skills

Keyword research, PPC advertising, social media marketing – these are just some of the most critical areas in digital marketing today. Some technical skills are required to fully grasp these concepts. The great news is, there are a lot of tools available that could make the job more efficient. Learning your way around these tools should be easy for someone like you who probably knows how the Internet works.

Data Analysis

Data analysis in digital marketing involves a lot of numbers. But more than the algorithms and formulas, it is even more important to decipher what those numbers mean.

For a newbie, for example, having a lot of Facebook likes might seem like your marketing campaign is successful. But without constant engagement from followers, it might not prove to be an effective strategy. To be an effective digital marketer, one must go beyond the numbers and see whether goals are being met.

Organisational Skills

Organisational skills come in handy for any digital marketer. It’s not just about organising data – but also about scheduling posts and knowing which type of content should go where. It’s about having the ability to segregate different audiences and figuring out how to deal with each group, staying on top of every strategy and its results, and being able to tweak and adjust according to every trend.

With trends, practices and algorithms changing constantly and quickly, there’s not much room for the disorganized in digital marketing.

Ability to Gauge Risks 

Taking risks is a very important part of being a digital marketer. You should have the ability to gauge trends and decide whether they fit your overall goals or not. It’s also essential to know whether going for a certain keyword, despite its massive popularity (and the bigger competition) is worth the investment. You must know when to experiment and when to stay on the safe side.

Knowing how many risks you’re facing, of course mistakes will be made along the way. But that’s the real challenge here. Can you calculate risks and know when to make a sudden turn in the middle of a straight road to grab the chance of creating some real impact?

Creativity and Flexibility

Don’t be fooled into thinking that digital marketing is purely technical and scientific. The truth is, one also needs to be creative in order to adjust to the changing needs of the brand. The ability to think outside the box is critical to your role especially if you want to make the brand you represent stand out. Simply riding on every trend that everyone else follows just won’t work.

Your creativity will be even more valuable if you pair it up with flexibility. It’s an unpredictable field. You should learn how to roll with the punches and work with what you have without compromising the effectivity of your marketing ideas.

Motivation to Learn

The moment you tell yourself that you’ve learned everything there is to learn is the start of your journey to failure. We’ve said it over and over – the market shifts, the audiences change, the industry evolves. This means that there will always be new strategies to learn, new technologies to discover, and new tools to master.

Knowing this, it is obviously a fight against success if you have no thirst for continuous learning.

Conclusion: how to become a digital marketer after you graduate from university?

Just because you just stepped outside the gates of your university does not mean there is no chance for you to make it to the big leagues. So, how to become a digital marketer after you graduate from university… Digital marketing could be a great path for you especially if you’re always up for a challenge. Granted, there’s a lot to learn. It will also take some time before you can consider yourself a master in the field. But every second will be worth it the moment you see targets being hit, consumers noticing your brands, and markets being influenced by the way you strategise.