If you want to stand out when applying for marketing jobs, you need to have experience. But how do you get experience if you can’t get a job… because you don’t have experience? It’s a classic chicken and egg scenario. But there’s one thing you can do to break out of that cycle: take matters into your own hands and create your own marketing experience.

In today’s blog post, we’ll show you how to do just that with four simple steps. Afterward, you’ll be well on your way to an exciting marketing career.

 

4 Smart Steps How To Get Marketing Experience

 

1. Clarify your target job

The first step is to get clear on the kind of marketing job you want. Do you want to be a copywriter? A social media expert? Or maybe you have your sights set on a management position. As a career, I’ve noticed that 90% of my clients rarely know what they want. So take the time to figure out what job would make you happy.

Whichever it is, make sure you’re clear on the job title, responsibilities, and required skills. This will give you a much-needed focus as you move forward with your job search.

 

2. Read 5 great marketing books (or take 3-5 marketing courses)

How To Get Marketing Experience from book on bookshelf

One of the best pieces of advice I ever heard was to read five books on a subject before taking any action. The logic is that you’ll know more about the topic than 90% of the population afterward. And that’s certainly true when it comes to marketing.

You can become a marketing expert by reading five great marketing books or taking three to five courses on the subject. This will give you a strong foundation of knowledge to draw upon as you create your own marketing experiences (which we’ll get to in a minute).

Personally, I read all of Seth Godin’s books when I was getting into marketing. But you can also find great marketing books on topics like copywriting, social media, and SEO. It all depends on your interests and goals.

 

3. Put your marketing knowledge to work

Once you’ve got the marketing theory down, it’s time to put it into practice. The best way to do this is to create your own marketing experiences. But the question is, how? The answer will be different for everyone. But there are a few options you can consider, for example:

  • Start a blog. This is what I did. I took all the marketing knowledge I gained (e.g. blogging, SEO, copywriting, etc.) and put it to use by starting my own blog. Not only did I get real-world experience, but I also had a lot of fun doing it.
  • Reach out to small businesses. Many small businesses don’t have the budget for a full-time marketing team. So they’ll jump at the chance to get some free or cheap help. This is a great way to get your foot in the door and build up your portfolio by sprucing up their website or building their social media presence.
  • Use freelance websites. Sites like upwork.com or fiverr.com offer a great way to get started with freelance marketing work. You can find all sorts of marketing-related gigs on these sites, from copywriting to social media management.

Just remember, the goal here is to get some real-world marketing experience under your belt. Don’t worry too much about compensation at this stage. You can always negotiate for more later on, once you have some experience to back you up.

 

4. Document your marketing achievements

Now that you’ve started putting your marketing knowledge to work, it’s time to document your achievements. This is important for two reasons. First, you need to have a portfolio of your work to show potential employers. But more importantly, you need to be able to talk about your experiences in job interviews.

When you’re documenting your experiences, make sure to include:

  • The name and contact information of the company you worked for
  • Your specific roles and responsibilities
  • Your achievements (e.g. increased website traffic by X%, increased social media followers by X%, etc.)

This will give you the ammunition you need to land your dream marketing job. And it will all be thanks to the experience you gained by taking these four steps.

 

Conclusion For How To Get Marketing Experience

By following these four steps, you can gain the marketing experience you need to land your ideal marketing job. Just remember to focus on what you want, learn from the best, put your knowledge into practice, and document your achievements.

And if you’d like to take that experience and write the BEST resume of your life, check out my earth-shattering resume course, The Hellbent Resume; where you can learn how to write a resume SO GOOD it will leave employers DROOLING.