How to Get Into a Digital Marketing Career from Anvil at pdxMindShare

Wednesday night, we hosted our monthly pdxMindShare career-focused workshop and networking event at Trader Vic’s in downtown Portland. Our event was a little different from our usual as we had a panel discuss how to get into digital marketing as a career instead of a more general topic. We had a great turnout with over 50 attendees including many new faces and some of our frequent guests. Our panel consisted of some Anvil team members, Heather English, Will Hattman, Pascal Inderabudhi and Rachel Swaney, and they took the time to discuss their backgrounds and how they got into digital marketing as a career in addition to great tools and resources to use and become familiar with, the differences between working in-house or in an agency, and much more. Here are some takeaways for those who were unable to attend or those who need a refresher:

• Regardless of your education and background, digital marketing is a rapidly changing industry. If you are interested in pursuing a career in this or already in one, it’s imperative to stay on top of changes and trends by reading relevant articles and blog posts by those well respected in the industry.
• There isn’t really a class at school you can take to learn about the different digital marketing disciplines, but you can do things like get certified in Google AdWords and Bing Ads. Additionally, there is a course at PSU CEPE on Search Engine Marketing which Kent Lewis, the president of Anvil and founder of pdxMindShare, regularly teaches. He’ll always touch on the latest trends and bring in speakers from different disciplines so students get relevant information across the board at the time they are taking the class.
• Some of the skills that helped our panel participants with their digital marketing careers included knowing Excel really well, staying on top of industry trends, understanding Google Analytics and having Google AdWords and Bing Ads certifications.
• Working at an agency might be more challenging than working in-house, but the pace, the ability to work with different industries and the amount you learn makes it very rewarding.
• Those who work in an agency not only have to keep up with trends and changes in digital marketing, but they also need to keep abreast of the industries their clients are in. Our panelists find great and relevant information from their clients as well as setting up Google alerts for specific and noteworthy news for their clients and their competitors in addition to other information that might help them better service their accounts.
• In addition to learning or brushing up on softball and bowling skills through ad league play, the panelists have been surprised to acquire a number of skills from working at Anvil including keyboard short cuts and learning more about all the disciplines digital covers.
• Other tools, in addition to what has already been mentioned, our panelists recommended becoming familiar with included Moz and SEMrush.
• If you are looking to get some experience in the industry, it was recommended to try and volunteer with organizations and network at events.

Thanks to everyone who attended, and we hope to see you on Wednesday, May 20th for our next event featuring Dawn Montefucso who will talk about “How to Get Your Business Groove Back.” The event is at Trader Vic’s on NW Glisan and 12th in downtown Portland. The workshop will kick off at 4:30PM and networking will follow starting at 5:30PM. Everyone is welcome, it’s free and no RSVP is required. Hope to see you there!