Four ways to ignite your career in digital marketing

As a young professional just starting out in your digital marketing career, it can sometimes feel overwhelming. You’re trying to establish yourself in your current position, and figure out the most effective ways to rise up the ranks of your agency.

If you’re working towards reaching your digital marketing career goals, there’s no shortage of steps you can take to stand out. Here are four ways to turbocharge your career in digital marketing.

(Note: These tips were shared with us by marketing unicorn Shelley Morrison, VP of the Global Demand Center at Domo. Give a listen to our entire conversation with Shelley on our 3-Minute Marketing podcast.)

Tip #1: Seek opportunities for challenge and growth

“Every career decision I’ve made I’ve done with this idea of, ‘Is it going to challenge me? Am I going to learn something that I have never learned before or will change the way I do a thing within digital marketing?’”, says Morrison.

When planning your next move, ask yourself, “Is it scary?”. If the answer is yes, that’s a sign that it’s a digital marketing career path worth pursuing. It’s easy to get comfortable in a role and settle into a routine, but true growth comes from challenging yourself to be the most well-rounded marketer possible.

Tip #2: Understand your entire organization

“At my past agency, I shifted from building this digital media and analytics arm to actually running all of customer success, sales, and marketing,” says Morrison. “Those are completely different roles in an agency world, but it challenged me to think about [my clients’ businesses] in a different way.”

As you advance in your career in digital marketing, it’s necessary to take a wider view of things and understand the inner workings of your entire organization. Having a 30,000-foot view helps you discover how marketing can make the biggest impact.

Tip #3: Make your boss look good

If you’re able to look at data that leads to decisions that make your boss look good, you could become an indispensable part of the team. Don’t be afraid of challenging your boss with new and better ways of doing things.

“That’s one of the ways that I think I’ve become invaluable to folks like my bosses, previous bosses, and managers,” says Morrison. “If I disagreed with something and thought there was a better or more interesting way to do it, I would bring it to the table.”

Your boss is looking to you to come up with innovative ideas. Let them run it up the food chain and get others excited about it.

Tip #4: Advocate for yourself

When pursuing digital marketing career opportunities, promote yourself and knock down your own doors.

“I am an advocate for myself,” says Morrison. “If I want something, I will tell my manager, ‘This is my goal, this is where I want to go.’ I take that ownership on myself, I don’t leave it to my manager to do it.”

Work with your manager to define the milestones you want to hit and own them.

Looking to grow your digital marketing career?

We’re always looking for talented and driven marketers here at WebMechanix. Check out our careers page to see if you’d be the perfect fit. And if you’ve enjoyed these insights, check out all the episodes of our Three-Minute Marketing podcast to learn from the world’s top growth marketers.