8 Things I’ve Learned After 8 Years in Digital Marketing
Ending a job is such an interesting transitional period for many of us. Sometimes we have a new job lined up right away that we are excited about. Sometimes we take a nice long break and go do something else with our time - travel, start a business, connect with new people, and just explore. And then sometimes we go into an existential meltdown about what the heck we do next with our lives. I’m very much in the exploring phase of my life right now. I’m thinking about what I want to do next, now that I’ve established myself in marketing and advertising. While I spend my first week off the clock and putting time back in my hands, I’m reflecting on the last 8 years and jotting down the most important things I’ve learned. 8 years may seem like a long time or short time depending on who you ask but I have learned a few things in that time. I’m doing this for two reasons: 1) I want to look back on this post 8 years from now and see if any of my learnings helped shape the next 8 years of my life. 2) If you’re reading this and you’re starting your career in marketing, day one - then I hope you find this useful! Just like anytime you seek perspective from someone, it’s a good way to gather intel on what you can expect and take learnings from someone else’s experiences to mold your own. Finally, the following 8 learnings aren’t all specific to the Marketing / Advertising fields because many of these learnings can be applied to really any field you’re in. And with that, here are 8 things I have learned in 8 years of digital marketing.
1) Ask Questions: This was something I learned from one of my first managers when I started as an associate at Havas Media and had no idea what I was doing. I remember not fully grasping what digital advertising was at the time and how that relates to Social Media. I knew what Social Media was and I knew what Advertising was but I had no clue what the heck Paid Social was. Back in 2016, I was a pretty different person. I was extremely unconfident and unsure of myself. I was simply too afraid to ask any questions because I just didn’t want to seem incompetent. I could have learned a lot more and gained confidence quicker had I not been too afraid to ask questions. Now, this comes with a few caveats. It’s important to ask questions but in my experience, this is most helpful when you know what are the right questions to ask and your manager and your team allow for a safe space to ask questions. It’s important to have both so you feel good about asking. The right manager will be more than happy to answer your questions and the best ones take it upon themselves to guide you.
2) Pay attention to what the person right above you does all day: When I was first starting as an associate, all I cared about was doing a good job, and earning a paycheck and then I thought “oh okay, eventually I will get promoted if enough time passes.” I was an idiot. I wish I had paid more attention to the Supervisors and Directors above me and followed their lead more to use them as examples of what I SHOULD be doing so I can get to their position sooner rather than later. Granted, it can be hard to do this when you’re just trying to figure out your role and stay above water. But, one thing you can do is find a 15-20 min window or coffee break and ask either your direct report or someone in their position to ask them how they got to their position. This will do two things: 1) It can help you gather intel on what steps you need to take to excel and 2) it can help you determine if you even WANT to get to their role one day so maybe this will be a way to determine that you want to do something else. This leads me to my next learning…
3) Learn about other areas in your agency/company/group: I started in Paid Social 8 years ago, and for the first 4 years or so I didn’t bother to ask or learn from other channels (Planning, Analytics, Display, Search, Programmatic) about what they do. I think this was because I was so nervous to be in a new industry and being so green, that I just wanted to try and focus on learning Social and not get sidetracked. The truth is as a marketer, we wear so many goddamn hats - it’s insane. Working at an agency can give you specialized experience in one or two channels, but unless you make the effort yourself to take an online course or do research about what other marketers do, then you’ll end up like me and being too fixated on one area for too long. To not pigeonhole yourself you can make friends with people in other channels and over time learn a little bit about what they do. You can join groups like Bamboo’s Growth Marketer Slack channels and interact with other marketers, or you can YouTube/Google/LinkedIn about what other marketers do. This will make you a more well-rounded marketer and it will give you more ideas of what you ultimately what to do with your career in the future. Try new things!
4) Learn what is and isn’t a toxic work environment: This was a harsh reality that took me years to finally observe and even still to this day can be a tricky one to understand. When we work in the corporate world we might think, or at least I did “wow, so many people work at this group, agency, business, or whatever - this MUST be a happy place to work!” Wrong. Most people are pretty unhappy with their work even if they don’t care to admit it. Most people are just at a job to make money which is totally fine. The corporate ladder if you really think about it - is just people managing other people all the way from the top to the bottom. Chief Officers manage a Leadership Team. Leadership teams (VPs), manage Directors. Directors manage Managers and Managers manage Associates. If at any one point in that chain is there a shitty individual managing someone else, then it will at some point start to trickle down. I advise that you use your awareness and sense of intuition to really know if you’re in a bad situation or not so you don’t waste time working for people that genuinely don’t give a damn about you. This can be tough if you don’t have the means or luxury of finding another job immediately, but just know that it’s not always your fault if your work situation is a bad one. There are good respected managers and leaders out there that you can work with - you just need to find them and know when it’s time to get out of a bad situation.
5) Have goals and think ahead: This one is a tough lesson because now that I’ve worked in marketing for 8 years I am only now seeing more clearly the path in my career that I actually want to work in. As clique as it sounds, it really does take some time to figure out what you want to do with your short time in this life and that’s okay. Just don’t be like me and automatically assume, “okay I’m an associate now and I’ll just need working until I get promoted, make more money, over and over and over again until I die.” I was such a dummy. Life is more than just emails and advertising dollars. Sure, you want to pick up some skills right now but once you learn more things, be intentional enough with those learnings to figure out okay - what can I actually do with these skills that I have learned? I don’t believe people need to stay at a company for a terribly long time in order to learn something. Even CEOs of companies that have been there for dozens of years weren’t always in that role. They had to experience and navigate through a bunch of different things in order to even know how to run a company. Just don’t be complacent and do your best to chart out the next 3-5 years in your career as much as you can.
6) Eat and drink water: no seriously, feed yourself. I was stupid and went hours without drinking sometimes or eating because I felt “fine” but really taking breaks and setting those boundaries for when you need to set time away from work for a bit.
7) Be yourself. Okay, fine so this one doesn’t have anything specific to do with marketing BUT I think this is critical to any work setting you place yourself in. You should be yourself 24/7. Just be your genuine self to people and the people that want to work with you - they will find you one day - I promise. No, not everyone is going to like you and that’s totally fine, they just weren’t meant for you. Honestly, once you realize that not everyone is going to like you - you will be much better off in every aspect of your life. To do good meaningful work means being happy and being happy means being yourself (side note: learn to love yourself!). I’ll probably write an entirely different post about my journey to finally discovering who I am another time.
8) Don’t be a robot. One of my first managers once told me “Robes, don’t be a robot”. Best thing I ever learned. In an ever-growing digital world where algorithms control more of our attention than ever before it is so easy to just go about your day, your emails, and your conversations with little intention. Being mindful and attentive to everything you do makes you human. This takes time to develop but this will not just help you in your career but it will also help you in literally every aspect of your life. To not be a robot means to be human. To manage effectively is to be compassionate and empathetic in your approach and something that has helped me become the manager I am today. Not sure what I’m talking about here? Just look around - at the gym, the subway, the office, at your dinner tables. There are robots out there with their eyes glued to the 24/7 television - their phones. Our minds are the final front tier to being human, let’s make sure we are mindfully maximizing every single input we are putting into the world. This last and final learning honestly helps with the last 7 things I described.
Bonus: probably learn what CPM means and how to calculate it at some point.
Okay but seriously, thanks for taking the time to read this if you’ve gotten this far. Something I try to remember is people only know what they know. No one person knows EVERYTHING. And if you do meet someone that is convinced they know everything, they are an idiot. Whether you think my information above was useful or not, it’s just my perspective on what learnings I have gathered in my time so far. Take them for whatever they are worth and best of luck in your career journey!
