There are many marketing companies that have seen success in recent years – from SEO to PPC, the skill set for this market is wide and varied. As such, there a vast number of opportunities when it comes to joining a marketing start up. However, standing out to them can be a tad more difficult.
If a marketing career is your dream next step, then there are a few ways to ensure you make the right first impression.
1) Market Yourself
One of the greatest ways to showcase your skills to a startup marketing company is to use them to your advantage. Marketing yourself can not only be a showcase of skills to potential employers, but it could even bring you to their attention before you even know they exist.
A fantastic way to do this can be in the creation of your own website. A sleek, smart, online portfolio can be the difference between your dream start-up job and the typical 9 to 5. A site can help to showcase design skills, website coding, SEO optimisation and of course content creation. For a fully-fledged digital marketing role, this can be the perfect way to demonstrate a firm grasp of multiple skills.
2) Create a Portfolio
For many workers in the modern world, a showcase of your skills is needed to land any job, let alone one at a startup company. So, even if you don’t have time to build a fully-fledged website it can be a good idea to have an online portfolio at the very least.
Curating your best work is not only a good thing for your future job prospects, but it can also be a great way to commemorate all of your achievements. Sometimes having a record of your ‘greatest hits’, so to speak, can be great to even show your current employer why you deserve that salary raise/promotion.
Remember: having a small portfolio of stunning work is always preferable to a larger portfolio that reveals your weak points. A portfolio is only as good as the weakest piece after all.
3) Freelance
Sometimes working for yourself can be a great way to demonstrate a can-do attitude that startups love and need in order to thrive. Hard work is needed to make a successful startup, from every member of staff from the interns to the CEO. So, showing yourself as a hard worker who is willing to put in the extra effort to do it themselves is one way to appeal to a start-up marketing company.
This may also be beneficial for candidates with no prior marketing experience, as it proves you have made an effort to develop your skills outside of traditional employment.
Having to set up freelancer insurance, manage your own finances and other aspects of running your own small business can also be appealing to a startup. It shows you have a business acumen, which is needed for all staff members in the early days of a startup.
It also reveals an ability and willingness to work with clients, which is front and centre to a marketing career. Talking over the phone, via email and even face-to-face meetings can be a part of your everyday work life. Freelancing helps to establish this as a skill as you deal with clients daily to both win work and ensure that work is done to a high standard.
Also, simply put: if you are good enough to attract clients to your personal brand, then you instantly put yourself forward as an asset to attracting clients to a startup’s brand.
4) Be Specific
Facts and nothing but the facts. A marketing startup needs to retain clients and to do so they need to showcase demonstrable results, which means so do you. Simply saying you helped double a client’s site traffic isn’t enough. Put in figures, create an eye-catching graph and even direct them to the site to check for themselves if possible.
Overall, use the facts and figures to paint yourself as an achiever, someone who gets the right results. You may be surprised by how many startup doors this opens!
5) Name Drop
Now, this may seem like a milder form of bragging, but it works. A marketing startup wants to know that you can handle the type of clients that they are hoping to attract. So, if they are looking to be the marketers of the fashion world, then having a famous fashion brand on your CV can be a huge advantage. Don’t be afraid to use it!
If you have prior agency experience, highlighting a number of different clients on your CV can also be a great way to demonstrate your range.
Of course, check that this does not go against any contractual agreements you may have made with your previous employer or that company. If unsure, phrases such as ‘developed a marketing campaign for a high-end fashion brand’ can be substituted. Use some of those specific figures to flesh out these statements for proof.
Ultimately, a marketing startup is looking for someone who can help to catapult them into the next stage of their business. To stand a chance, don’t be afraid to promote your own skills and how they can be a benefit to the company’s clients and ultimately its bottom line.
Marketing yourself is the key to landing a job with a marketing startup.
