Part 1: My Journey into Digital Marketing with The Skills Network

Hello, everyone! I'm Jade Murray, and I’m thrilled to share my digital marketing journey with The Skills Network so far.

A Creative Shift

Before diving into the world of digital marketing, I worked in the costume department for film and television. This role nurtured my creative mindset and allowed me to express myself through my work. However, as life unfolded, I felt a strong desire to explore a different creative direction. That's when I decided to take the plunge into digital marketing.

Facing My Fears

I still remember my first lesson. I was a bundle of nerves, feeling apprehensive about meeting new people. I worried that my classmates would have more experience than I did. But then, we kicked off with a fantastic icebreaker session that helped us get to know one another. This experience was crucial in breaking down the barriers of online learning and creating a supportive atmosphere.

Building My Digital Portfolio and Diving into Video Editing

After engaging in some fun icebreakers, we jumped into creating our digital portfolios using Wix. As a first-time website builder, I initially struggled to envision my design. However, with each update, my confidence grew, and I became excited to share my progress.

The following week, we switched to video editing

with CapCut to create a promotional video for the

 Mossley Tennis Club. Although I faced some initial

challenges, I quickly got the hang of it and was proud of the final product.

Building Essential Skills in Digital Marketing

During week four, we embarked on an engaging project focused on developing a website and marketing strategies for an anti-vaping campaign, utilising Canva. While I had only scratched the surface of Canva’s capabilities before, this project encouraged me to dive deeper, leading to significant growth and newfound knowledge.

By week five, I discovered that I was not only armed with practical tools, but I had also gained a deeper understanding of key concepts such as SEO. Terms like backlinks, keywords, and meta tags; once completely foreign to me, now feel well ingrained in my understanding.

Engaging Units and Insights

One of the most captivating units we covered was social media marketing, where I learned about the significance of identifying target audiences, setting clear objectives, and conducting data analysis. By week six, our focus shifted to the customer lifecycle, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I absorbed, especially as I embark on my digital marketing journey.

Reflecting on My Progress

I invested a considerable amount of time in understanding analytics on both Wix and Google. Our tutor encouraged us to maintain weekly blogs, which have proven invaluable for reflecting on my learning and pinpointing areas for improvement.

Overcoming Challenges

Though I began this journey feeling like a novice, I take pride in how far I’ve come, including overcoming my apprehension about HTML. In the following weeks, we delved into marketing research strategies, which allowed us to create engaging surveys about our boot camp experiences and analyse the results using SurveyMonkey.

In week six, we had the opportunity to select a charity to promote and develop a promotional video. I chose the National Autism Society, and we executed this project using CapCut.

Looking Ahead

As we move forward, we will be refining our portfolios and CVs to submit to the careers department. I am excited about the future and eager to see how I can continue to develop my digital marketing skills.

Thank you for joining me on this journey! Stay tuned for more updates as I navigate the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing.