Pretty insane, right?

We are constantly logged onto AdWords and campaign dashboards, and imagine if someone asked us to teach marketing to them, we would never be able to do it without making them run through the actual dashboards of our campaign. To truly succeed with this advertising platform, it’s crucial to have hands-on experience and familiarity with the campaign dashboard.

When I started my digital marketing journey after college, the challenges were different. I was just starting my digital marketing career and was feeling confident in my knowledge of all the latest marketing strategies and tactics. I had spent countless hours reading articles and whitepapers on SEO, social media marketing, email marketing, and more. I felt like I knew everything there was to know about digital marketing.

But then I landed my first job at a small marketing agency and was thrown into the deep end on my first day. I always had a passion for marketing, so when I graduated college as a chemical engineer, I knew I wanted to start a career in digital marketing, as it was something I had a real passion for.

At first, I was excited to finally be working in the industry I loved. But as I started to get more involved in my job, I quickly realised that there was a big gap between what I had learned through books and what I was expected to do on a daily basis. I spent a lot of time reading marketing blogs and watching tutorials, trying to learn as much as I could. But no matter how much I read, I still struggled to understand how everything fits together.

This was one of those times when I realised the answer lies in learning by doing.

I started taking time out to work on some real-world projects on my own, outside of my regular job duties. I crafted my own personal website, made my own social media accounts for travel and vlogging purposes, and started practising how to gain traction on them.

I tried different social media platforms, experimented with different types of content, and even set up my own email marketing campaigns. I also started to practise marketing for my mother’s clinic and gain traction for it. As I worked on these projects, I felt more confident in my abilities. I was able to see first-hand how different strategies worked (or didn’t work), and I was able to apply what I learned to my job.

Within a few months, I had established myself as a successful marketer in Mumbai, felt like I needed to establish myself on my own, and thereby started my own creative process of starting my own agency. I was able to take on more responsibilities and lead my own projects at my agency, and it all started with me taking the initiative to practice digital marketing on my own.

I learned that sometimes the best way to learn is by doing. Theoretical knowledge is important, but it’s nothing compared to hands-on experience. And in a field like digital marketing, where things are constantly changing, it’s important to be able to adapt and try new things. I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to learn through trial and error; I believe it’s been a key factor in my success.

One of my earliest projects was a product launch for a calorie-free tea brand. I had no real-time experience managing a campaign with a huge budget. I then spent several hours each day working on creating and scheduling social media posts, crafting email marketing campaigns, and optimising our website for search engines.

But it wasn’t just about the theory; I also had to get hands-on with the execution of our campaigns. This meant spending time analysing data and metrics to see what was working and what wasn’t, and then adjusting on the fly to ensure that our campaigns were as effective as possible.

In the end, all this hard work paid off—our product launch was a success, and we saw a significant increase in online sales and engagement. It just goes to show that sometimes you need to get your hands dirty to really understand how digital marketing works and how to make it work 

“As a digital marketer now at Nuvepro, where I primarily market the concept of hands-on learning myself, I am always looking for ways to improve my skills and stay up-to-date on the latest trends in the industry. This is #mystory and how self-learning and practising in a real-world campaign environment have helped me acquire new skills and made me a master of many digital marketing skill sets.”

Of course, learning is a continuous process, and it goes without saying that you need to constantly evolve, learn, and practise to keep growing. Tell me #yourstory and tell me how learning has practically helped you amplify your career opportunities.

“Tell me and I forget; teach me and I may remember; involve me and I learn.”

                                                                                                                               –Benjamin Franklin