Are you trying to kickstart your inbound marketing career? Demand for inbound marketers grows every year, and there's never been a better time to get involved in the exciting movement which is fundamentally changing the way companies do business.
In today's post I share a number of tips that will help you to stand out amongst the other applicants, and land that first job, prior experience or not.
1) Work Through HubSpot's Academy
The HubSpot academy is a great place to learn more about inbound marketing, and acquire qualifications that inbound marketing teams will take seriously. We require all of our team to pass the HubSpot academy "Inbound Certification", and applicants which can demonstrate these skills by passing the exam before applying stand out from the crowd of people who don't take the time to do so.
2) Start A Blog
If you aren't already blogging, why not?
Blogging is an important aspect of the inbound marketing process, and running a blog is a great way to show off your writing, research & critical thinking skills. You don't have to blog about marketing: anything you are passionate about is great.
When we see an applicant has a blog we're interested in seeing the way they write, and how effectively they can promote themselves. A great blogging tool is Wordpress, which you can get started with here.
3) Be Active On Social Media
If you are trying to get a job as an inbound marketer, you should know a thing or two about social media. If your LinkedIn profile was last updated in 2008, it's not going to reflect positively on you. Social networks are used daily by inbound marketers, and proving your proficiency is important.
It's all the better if you can demonstrate that you are able to intelligently engage in relevant inbound marketing groups & discussions across LinkedIn and Twitter. To prove Facebook knowledge, why not setup and promote a page for your blog?
Make sure your social media accounts are kept appropriate, too. Some employers won't care, but many will, and it's not worth missing an opportunity over something so stupid. If your Facebook photos feature you passed out next to a table covered in empty vodka bottles on a "big night out" in London a few months back, you should probably make your profile viewable by "friends only".
If you can't decipher Facebook's privacy settings, you're going to struggle with a career in inbound marketing. Likewise, if you regularly tweet racist hyperbole to the big wide world... Good luck.
4) Show Some Initiative
Don't just send in an application. Try to engage with potential employers before you make that application. Share a few blog posts written by the employer with your followers, or perhaps leave a comment on a piece of content they have written. The right employer will always love to have feedback, and intelligent, critical feedback demonstrates skills that are difficult to get across on a CV.
5) Get Friendly With Analytics
Are you analytically minded? It's pretty vital in some inbound marketing roles. Now you don't have to be a statistics genius, but if you don't know how to convert fractions into percentages, you'll be struggling.
Install Google Analytics on that blog you are running, and experiment with the data. See what conclusions you can draw. It's also well worth understanding how to use & apply some basic statistical techniques, for example significance testing. The Google Analytics IQ is well worth studying for and taking, too, if you have the chance.
6) Read, Read, Read & Read Some More
Great inbound marketers never stop reading and learning. The field evolves rapidly, and what's best practice now is often totally different to what was best practice a year ago, let alone five.
Keep up with the latest happenings in the inbound marketing world. It makes sense to subscribe to a number of different inbound marketing blogs, and spend half an hour each day just reading & digesting new material. There's hundreds of great blogs out there. Check out this list for a great start. Feedly is a great tool for managing all the blogs you read.
7) Keep Up With Technology
Inbound marketers can't afford to be scared of technology. You don't have to be a next generation super hacker, or part of the original Facebook development team, but being able to demonstrate technology skill goes a long way. Learn some basic HTML on Code Academy. Play around with developing some Excel macros. The more you can do to demonstrate your ability to get to grips with new software and technology, the better. Prove you can use technology, too. Don't just add items as checkboxes on a CV. If you learn HTML, make a basic web page. If you've mastered your macros, have one ready to talk about in an interview.
So that's it. 7 pointers that'll help you to land that dream inbound marketing job. What are you waiting for? If you want to pursue a career in inbound marketing, we currently have an open position for a Brand Journalist.
