Starting a career in a marketing can be an exciting journey with so many lessons to be learned. The digital marketing industry is always evolving, there’s always something interesting going on and this always keep you learning.
We invited Olamide Omoregha, Head of Marketing and PR at ConnectinSkillz shared his journey into marketing with our #I4GMarketing learners. It was such an insightful session.
In this blog post we share his story, lessons he has learned and his advise for anyone starting out their career in Marketing.
Before beginning my professional marketing career six years ago, I was exposed to various conventional marketing strategies, including door-to-door marketing, roadside marketing amongst others. I learnt different important marketing skills such as negotiation skills, sales, buildimg trust through marketing, etc.
As I built my career in marketing. I also had to read books on sales, marketing, and attend productive seminars. While I didn’t study marketing as a course or attend any IVY league school, I did learn everything I know today from books, seminars, and available learning opportunities. As an undergraduate, I was devoted to self-improvement, learning the specifics of marketing, and ensuring that I was constantly upskilling.
I transitioned into the tech space as a marketer when I found out about the opportunities available. I had to take a course on digital marketing and earn a certificate because its quite different from other forms of marketing.
When the tech industry began to look promising, I decided to transition into the tech space, and that was how I took a certification course in Digital Marketing.
Here are some steps you can take to kickstart and solidify your career in Marketing:
- Asking questions is important for everyone going into the marketing industry. It opens you up to a lot of things that you need to know and will be of help to your career.
- Studying the local techniques of marketing will give you a foundational knowledge of how to sell, where to sell, when to sell, and who to sell to.
- Building a community will open you to customer loyalty, retention, and referrals. As long as you are sincere with your product and solve a problem they have. Your audience will patronize you and want to be the first to get product updates.
- Learning negotiation skills is very important as a marketer, it opens you and a customer/client up for a conversation, which can result in closing a deal or selling a product or service.
- Collaboration with customers is carrying your customers or clients along the whole process. Let them have a sense of belonging. Asking them for feedback is vital to them and the company.
- Building trust marketing is necessary for you as a marketer, it enables brands and customers to trust your processes.
- Don’t promise if you can’t deliver.
- Celebrate your wins with yourself anytime you feel downcast.
Keep working on yourself, jump on projects, tell your story, document your journey and always talk about your wins. Let your people see reasons they should bring you on board, hire you and collaborate with you.
By following these steps, you can begin to build a foundation for a successful career in marketing.
What is one thing you’ve learnt from Olamide’s story? Tell us how you would apply it in your career