Tips to Help You Land Your First Marketing Job

The marketing industry is an incredible environment of creative, brand-obsessed visionaries, who are driving brand and industry storytelling.

However, nailing a job application isn’t all plain sailing, despite the rapid growth of the industry and the high demand for talent.

There are many strings to the marketing bow. Some career paths are traditional, such as print marketing or direct marketing. Some are emerging sectors, such as social media management, automation marketing and affiliate marketing. 

While the specialisms required to become a senior digital marketer, for example, have to take stock of marketing essentials, tech, customer profiling, copy, design and social media management, making the first step into this vibrant career means getting some basics right. 

The amazing thing about marketing is that at entry-level, attitude and passion for the industry counts a little more than skills. Many of the plug-and-play platforms marketers use - such as social media platforms, CRMs, SaaS software etc - can be learned.

What you need to communicate is your raw passion for brand storytelling, your passion for people and user-first experiences, and your eagerness to learn. 

Here are some tips for eager workers who want to enter the marketing industry!

Note: The below top tips are designed for school leavers and people seeking a new career path in marketing that hasn’t worked in the industry before!

Do you know the 5 Ps of Marketing inside and out?

Product, Place, Price, and Promotion. These are the 5 Ps of marketing and despite being an 80-year-old marketing concept, the basics still matter and each element underpins good marketing practice: 

• Product: what is this product, solution or service and how is it serving the needs of customers?

• Place: where does your audience reside? What digital spaces do they work and live in? How do they socialize and share ideas and products?

• Price: what does your product cost, and what models of payment work for your user?

• Promotion: How do you promote your product, and what is your go-to-market plan?

• People: who makes up your company, your user base, your customer, your advocates and your community?

This concept is designed to create an ecosystem of market and customer understanding. Entrants into the marketing field must understand what and why each element is important. 

It's especially vital that, when interviewing for a marketing role, you can use the above 5 points as a framework for telling your interviewer how much you know about their product. See it as a guideline for how to communicate why you like their product, platform or service. Your interviewer will be bowled over, trust us. 

Does your resume focus on the right metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)?

Your resume is a window into your personality and professional experience - but marketing is about results, reach, engagement and impact, so always bear this in mind. 

To open the door to your first marketing job means pivoting your resume to show the very best in marketing theory, and that you understand how successful marketing works. 

If you’re coming at your first marketing job straight out of education, we advise you to focus on showing your education through a series of projects, with clear ordering to how you communicate your schooling,

This is also relevant if you’re coming into your first marketing job from a sideways or lateral role. 

We advise you to segment each entry within your experience section into the following order:

• Requirement - here is what we/I needed to accomplish

• Work - what did we do to complete this project

• Outcomes - what was the outcome?

By focusing your experience on storytelling, and giving your employer a clear line of understanding in how you go about completing assignments, you’ll be showing the right sort of organizational prowess needed to succeed in marketing. 

What sort of marketing do you value? Have an opinion!

It’s ok to have an opinion! Although we don’t advise chucking freeform judgements on marketing onto a resume, an interview is an opportunity to provide good examples of marketing and your knowledge or passion for marketing.

Marketing is a creative job - as much as the role hinges on tech, great copy and a bit of sales, it’s all about telling creative stories about brands and shoppers. 

Use your own opinions on the market/brands/companies in your network to show your passion for the industry. What brands, adverts, designs, promotions, blogs, or people do you love? Talk about them!

Your interview counts…but not as much as your attitude and research

Finally, attitude counts above all. If you approach a marketing opportunity using the above framework of resume perfection and valued opinion, you’ll be presenting yourself as a positive marketer, who is passionate about the industry, knows about the company in question, and wants to learn. 

Prospective employers will sense this positive attitude and want to bring you into the fold. 

Remember: in your first job in marketing, you aren’t meant to know it all. All you are meant to do is approach each day ready and willing to learn, get better at your craft, and help your employer reach into their market further. Keep your attitude positive, and the marketing world is your oyster.