How to Get a Job in Marketing with No Experience
Apr 12, 2022
So you want to get a job in marketing, but you're not quite sure how to do it.
With or without a marketing degree, breaking into the marketing industry isn't easy because there are thousands of other people trying to do the same thing.
Starting out at anything can be intimidating, but the cool thing about marketing is you don't need a specific degree or background to get hired.
All you really need is the internet.
Here are 7 steps outlining exactly how to get a job in marketing:
- Learn industry jargon
- Take online certifications
- Get marketing experience
- Update your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn
- Apply to marketing jobs
- Practice marketing interview questions
- Keep building your portfolio
Now, let's dive into detail on each of those steps!
Learn Industry Jargon
You decided to go into marketing, only problem is that even with a marketing degree, you probably don't know much about real-world marketing terminology, best-practices and their applications.
Your first step towards getting a marketing job is to familiarize yourself with the industry.
Follow marketing experts' blogs, newsletters, and social media accounts to stay up-to-date with relevant marketing trends and news.
Here are a few of our favorite marketing resources you can check out:
Blogs
For more than thirty years, Seth Godin has been making waves in marketing. His blog has been appearing daily for more than a decade. Seth Godin has published 20 bestselling books and more than 60,000 people have taken his online courses. Godin is in the Guerrilla Marketing Hall of Fame, the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame and, just recently, the plain old no-modifier Marketing Hall of Fame.
Ann Handley is a writer, digital marketing pioneer, and Wall Street Journal best-selling author. She writes and speaks about how businesses can escape marketing mediocrity to achieve tangible results.
With more than 10 million visitors a month and an audience from 180 countries, Neil Patel is one of the most recognizable names in marketing. His blog will quickly become your go-to resource for digital marketing tips, trends, and strategy.
HubSpot's Blog for marketing, sales, agency, and customer success content has more than 600,000 subscribers and attracts over 4.5 million monthly. With in-depth guides, free downloads, and templates HubSpot is an invaluable resource for any marketer. HubSpot's posts rank #1 on Google for more than 34,000 keywords so you're sure to stumble across their content.
Social Media Examiner equips marketers with direct access to original research, how-to advice, and wisdom from the industry’s top experts so you can become a social marketing rockstar. They bring together the brightest minds to create high-quality content. Each week you can look forward to original focused on how to effectively market using the largest social media platforms for business.
Books
Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen
Author: Donal Miller
Donald Miller teaches marketers and business owners to use the seven universal elements of powerful stories to dramatically improve how they connect with customers and grow their businesses. His proven process has helped thousands of companies engage with their existing customers, giving them the ultimate competitive advantage.
Obsessed: Building A Brand People Love From Day One
Author: Emily Heyward
The cofounder and chief branding officer of Red Antler explains how hot new brands like Casper, Allbirds, Sweetgreen, and Everlane build devoted fan followings right out of the gate. Heyward outlines the new principles of what it takes to build and launch a brand that has people queuing up to buy it on opening day.
This is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn To See
Author: Seth Godin
Seth Godin has taught and inspired millions of entrepreneurs, marketers, leaders, and fans from all walks of life, via his blog, online courses, lectures, and bestselling books. In this book, Godin offers the core of his marketing wisdom in one compact, accessible, timeless package. This is Marketing shows you how to do work you're proud of, whether you're a tech startup founder, a small business owner, or part of a large corporation.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Author: Dr. Robert B. Cialdini
An all-time favorite book of our founder, Natalie Peters, Influence will transform your behavior and the way you communicate. Dr. Robert B. Cialdini explains the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these principles ethically in business and everyday situations. You’ll learn the six universal principles of influence and how to use them to become a skilled persuader—and, just as importantly, how to defend yourself against dishonest influence attempts:
Everybody Writes: Your Go-To-Guide To Creating Ridiculously Good Content
Author: Ann Handley
Everybody Writes is a go-to guide to attracting and retaining customers through stellar online communication, because in our content-driven world, every one of us is, in fact, a writer. Get expert guidance and insight into the process and strategy of content creation, production and publishing, with actionable how-to advice designed to get results.
Social Media
Discovering and analyzing the latest marketing campaigns so you don't have to.
Adweek is a leading source of news and insight serving the brand marketing ecosystem and their Instagram highlights some of the most creative advertising and marketing.
Discussing pop culture and PR moves for popular brands on TikTok, the dubbed "Internet Agent" is a great resource to get a modern PR and branding perspective (and some celebrity gossip).
Later helps small businesses, social media managers, and creators harness the power of marketing strategy, social media scheduling, and a custom link in. Their Instagram is a great resource for social media tips and tricks.
Fiercely committed to differentiation and success, Red Antler build brands for startups that are changing how the world works.
Podcasts
The magical place where dream careers come true.
The Sky Society Podcast is your place for marketing insights, job-hunting hacks and all the behind-the-scenes secrets for creating a career you absolutely love.
Every week, Natalie dives deep into real conversations with incredible guests sharing actionable advice on how you can build a purposeful and profitable marketing career.
Neil Patel and Eric Siu bring you daily actionable digital marketing lessons that they've learned through years of being in the trenches. Learn the latest SEO, content marketing, social media, email marketing, conversion optimization and general online marketing tactics that work today.
With over 50 million downloads and 1,400 episodes, you're sure to find something that will help you grow faster.
Each week the Buffer team answer your questions and explore marketing strategies and tactics to help you grow your business through social media and build a brand your customers love.
Take Online Certifications
For a more organized path to gaining valuable marketing knowledge, consider taking online course.
Not only will you get to dive deep into specific areas of marketing, but they also look great to employers on your LinkedIn and resume.
For a resume boost to help you get a job in marketing, certifications are the perfect choice.
Depending on what you want to learn and how in-depth you want to go, here are a few of our favorite online marketing certifications:
Free Marketing Certifications
Good marketers are not just good creatives. Having a strong understanding of marketing analytics is invaluable when trying to start a career in marketing.
If a business has a website, they’re likely using Google Analytics. Google Analytics helps you track and report on your website visitors, giving marketers everywhere crucial information on their campaigns.
Most marketing applicants have strong creative skills so getting a beginners Google Analytics certification can set you apart and help you get a job in marketing
In this course you'll learn exactly how to write blog posts and website content that will rank higher on search. This course is created by Semrush, a household name in the marketing and SEO space.
This course is designed for people that want to create content engineered to rank #1 in Google using strategies that are working great right now. Here you will find a series of in-depth video tutorials, worksheets, and practical tips aimed at helping you reach your SEO goals.
It's a 4-hour long course and is completely free.
HubSpot has one of the most popular marketing blogs and their name holds a lot of weight and credibility.
HubSpot Academy is HubSpot’s online learning platform and they offer a ton of free courses that cover a wide range of marketing topics. If you’re brand new to marketing, you can start with the Inbound certification. Content Marketing, Email Marketing, and Social Media are also some good options to get you started.
Find your marketing niche, or learn it all— branding, PR, SEO, analytics, social media, and email marketing. LinkedIn Learning offers a wide array of free, marketing certification courses that you can directly link to your LinkedIn profile.
On your journey to get a job in marketing, don't undervalue LinkedIn Learning certifications.
Learn how to develop, implement, and measure a winning marketing strategy using today's best tools and earn instant credibility from recruiters and get you one step closer to a job in marketing.
Canva is every beginner marketer's best friend. It's basically online photoshop made easy and we use it on the daily at Sky Society. There are thousands of templates you can customize to create professional designs for just about everything.
Whether you want to create a quick Instagram story, a LinkedIn header image, a blog banner, a presentation, or a custom sticker, Canva will be your go-to.
While there is no certification for completing this course, we've still included Canva Design School on our list because we love the tool so much.
It's an incredibly powerful tool to add to your skillset as an aspiring marketer so you should still give their free courses a try.
Paid Marketing Certifications
Cost: $150
Facebook’s online courses allow you to explore fast, free, self-guided courses to help build your marketing skills across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. They cover nearly every business and/or social media topic, from how to build an audience on Instagram to how to manage and run your own Facebook ad campaigns.
All of Facebook’s courses are free, but there is a fee to pay to become a certified Facebook marketer. Meta certification recognizes advanced level proficiency with Meta's family of apps and services.
Cost: $199
Develop foundational social marketing skills to grow followers, engagement, and business results.
Designed and produced in consultation with social media marketing strategists and practitioners, our industry-recognized Social Marketing Certification Course give marketers practical skills they can implement and start seeing results right away.
Cost: $15,000
BrainStation gives you hands-on, industry experience through unique real-world projects where you'll work alongside industry professionals on real business problems and collaborate with designers, data scientists, and web developers to deliver a real-world solution.
Cost: 12% of your salary for 18 months or $7,900
Plus, you pay nothing upfront until you're hired.
An 8-week live, digital marketing bootcamp that helps unemployed female graduates become digital marketers by giving them job ready marketing skills, software training, and real-world experience.
For those seeking the technical education of a digital marketing bootcamp, plus opportunities to turn that knowledge into real-world experience employers want, Sky Accelerator offers a new path to your dream marketing career.
With daily live, remote classes, 2 short-term marketing internships, and a digital portfolio to showcase it all, you'll start turning rejections into job offers. Learn by doing real projects and graduate with the practical skills you need to get a job in marketing.
Get Marketing Experience
Getting marketing experience when you have none can sometimes feel like an impossible task. Don’t wait around for someone to give you a marketing job so you can start building your marketing experience.
Most candidate for entry-level marketing roles look the same and your marketing experience is where you can make yourself stand out.
Almost anyone can take a course, get a certification, or get a degree.
Not everyone can get marketing experience.
If you want to get a job in marketing, you need to find ways to get real experience with real results!
Here are a few ideas on how you can get marketing experience at home.
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Get a marketing internship:
This is the best type of marketing experience because it's the most similar to a real job.
Look for marketing internships where you'll have the most opportunities to learn new skills and get experience doing real marketing projects.
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Volunteer free marketing help to your local community:
Search for marketing related roles on volunteer sites, or better yet, take the initiative to contact local non-profits or community organizations asking if they could use free marketing help.
There are so many places that would love some help for free, all you need to do is ask.
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Start doing freelance marketing work:
A freelance marketer is a self-employed individual who creates and implements marketing campaigns, channels, strategies and related tasks for their clients. The benefit of freelance marketing is that you would be able to compile a wide array of marketing experience.
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Create your own content (blog, social media, email, graphic design):
A fun way to build up your marketing experience is to create your own content.
It doesn't necessarily matter what type of content it is or what the content is about. It also doesn't necessarily matter how big your following is or if you have one at all.
What matters is that you create something great that demonstrates your skillset.
Choose any topic that interests you, absolutely anything you're passionate about, and create content in that niche to get marketing experience.
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Play "pretend marketer":
The title of this one may sound kinda silly, but it's not. Trust us.
Complete mock projects for a company as if you were their Social Media Specialist, Content Specialist, Marketing Coordinator, or any other role that intrigues you.
This allows you to get marketing experience by showing employers the quality of work they can expect from you if they hire you.
Dive deeper in our article: 7 Ways To Get Marketing Experience At Home.
Update Your Resume and LinkedIn
In order to get a job in marketing, you have to tailor your application materials to marketing roles.
Writing an entry-level marketing resume when you're just starting your career may leave you feeling a little stuck.
Regardless of how much work experience you have, you can still rephrase your previous work experience to highlight more transferable skills that marketing jobs are looking for.
Check out our post on Entry-Level Marketing Resume Examples for the Recent Grad for a step-by-step guide on how to write a perfect marketing resume.
Most recruiters rely heavily on LinkedIn to find new talent.
Optimize your LinkedIn profile for marketing jobs by changing your headline and bio. Add any new marketing certifications and start connecting with marketing professionals.
Make sure you have a professional profile photo and header image too.
Apply to Marketing Jobs
Now that you know exactly what you need to do to petter position yourself to get a marketing job, it's time to put yourself out there and apply to entry level marketing jobs.
Go to any job board (LinkedIn, Indeed, Handshake) and apply to as many marketing jobs as you can find. It doesn’t really matter what the job is at this point; all you’re looking for here is to have at least one relevant job on your resume, even if it isn’t your dream position.
Think where you want to be two jobs from now and even if a job may not be perfect, ask yourself it will help you get closer to your dream job.
The key to successful get a marketing job is to apply to a lot of jobs consistently. Set a goal for yourself, maybe 10-15 applications per week, and try to hit it each week. To get more insight on how many jobs you need to apply to get a marketing job, view our post: How Many Jobs to Apply For?
Don't go overboard and burn yourself out, but also make sure you're putting your resume in front of enough hiring managers to get noticed
You also want to do your best to customize each resume and cover letter to the specific job you're applying to. This will take more time, but it will increase the odds of you getting an interview.
Practice Marketing Interview Questions
If you're lacking in skills and experience, an interview is your chance to showcase your personality and secure an offer.
Practice truly does make perfect when it comes to interviews, and we've got you covered with 60 marketing interview questions and how to answer them.
An interview is like a sales pitch. You're selling the interviewer on you.
Knowing how to sell yourself is a fundamental life skill that will help you go farther, faster.
Instead of taking a passive role in interviews, go the extra mile and put in the extra effort to stand out in your next marketing interview.
When trying to sell yourself in an interview, everything matters from what you say to how you say it. It involves going above and beyond standard interview preparation and will help you better perform in your next interview.
The best way to sell yourself in an interview is
- Deserve confidence
- Speak with enthusiasm
- Tailor yourself to the role
- Distinguish yourself from the competition
- Choose an industry-appropriate outfit
- Practice and prepare
Dive deeper in our article: How to Sell Yourself in an Interview.
Keep Building Your Portfolio
At its core, a digital marketing portfolio is a compilation of your best work: the projects that exemplify your qualifications, training and experience.
For aspiring marketing professionals, a digital marketing portfolio can help show employers that even though you may not have years of experience, you're capable of performing at high level.
Every applicant has a resume, but not every applicant has a marketing portfolio.
If you're new to marketing and lack of experience is the biggest obstacle you face when trying to get a marketing job, a portfolio is going to be your best asset in job applications.
We have a detailed post outlining exactly How to Make a Marketing Portfolio Website (with Examples) you can dive into.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking to start a career in marketing, at the end of the day experience is going to be the number one thing employers are looking for so spend most of your time accumulating marketing experience for yourself.
It's never too late to do what you dream and with the steps we've outlined in this artcile, you know have all the knowledge necessary to get a job in marketing
Getting a job is not easy, but it is possible.
Doing what you dream takes hustle and a little bit of luck, but we're here to help you every step of the way.
If you want total transformation in just 8-weeks an a guaranteed full-time job, be sure to check out our digital marketing bootcamp for female graduates, Sky Accelerator.
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