Imagine you just landed your first digital marketing gig - now it’s time to rock that job and prove your worth as an indispensable marketer. What’s the trick? The answer may surprise you.
Help your boss succeed. This simple but powerful concept works every time. When you make your boss look good, you make yourself look even better.
Developing an apprentice mindset and committing to career long learning will position you for accelerated growth and transform you into a digital marketing rockstar.
Getting started
Know your job and do it exceptionally well. Ask your boss questions, start developing a relationship, and find out their goals. Once you know what your boss wants to accomplish and what problems they need to solve, you can chime in and say “I know how to do that” or “I would like to help/learn how to do that”. Be a dream employee.
Going beyond your job description
Ask how you can do more and give more than is being asked of you. Let’s say your boss, the content marketing manager, has a goal of publishing two awesome blog posts each week. Your job as the content marketing assistant is to help write and edit the posts. Do just that - but also start brainstorming more posts. Chose an idea you really like and draft an outline. Send that to your boss and they might like it so much you get to write it. You just developed a new blog post from scratch and saved your boss some time.
Look for areas of growth within the company and make recommendations.
The key is to show initiative. (Tweet this) For example, familiarize yourself with the company website and make a list of all the ways the user experience (UX) could be improved. Then volunteer to make those changes or provide support to the person who can make the changes. While a larger organization may not grant you access to their website, you still might be able to tweak a temporary landing page or event page.
Even if these voluntary projects don’t fit in your normal work day, take them home as your personal pet project (and don’t expect compensation) You’ll be investing in your career and your effort will be rewarded, even if you don’t see an immediate payout.
Approaching your work as an apprentice
“We’re all learning here; the best listeners will end up the smartest.” – Josh Bernoff
An apprentice learns from a more skilled individual, which in your case, can be your boss or coworkers. You’re the newbie and probably surrounded by people in the office who know a whole lot more than you. Adopt an apprentice mindset and learn from everyone else, as much as you can. (Tweet this) Maybe you’ll even develop a mentor relationship - not necessarily because they are teaching you directly but because you are learning from them.
Honing your skills
As a digital marketer, you’re never going to know it all because technology keeps changing. But you can (and should) keep learning new skills. You’ll be amazed how many new opportunities emerge as you develop expertise in various areas.
Acquiring new skills opens new opportunities. (Tweet this) Let your boss know you’re ready to try new projects that use your new skills. Learn to code, become Google AdWords certified, study other digital marketers, take an online design class, read free ebooks...the list goes on and on of in-demand skills you could acquire. And then offer to take on a project at work utilizing your newly acquired skills.
The founder of Digital Marketing Group, Oscar Pena, said it best: "Digital Marketing is only effective as you are."
Don’t feel like you have to be a master before you volunteer for new assignments or challenges. The best way to grow is to put yourself in a place where you don’t have all the skills, experience, and answers. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Your boss is successful = you’re a digital marketing rockstar (Tweet this)
Are you ready to take your digital marketing skills to the next level? Test your skills with the free talent assessment or download the free ebook Breaking Into Digital Marketing.
