By networking with seasoned marketing professionals as well as young marketers, you can learn about the latest digital trends such as the new Facebook algorithm and digital skills like social media auditing. You’ll also be able to gain insights on the different tools available in the digital space such as Marketo, SocialBro, and Visual Optimizer that’ll help you perform digital activities required in today’s marketing space. Moreover, you can know about all the essential, useful books that all marketers should read. Examples include Confessions of an Advertising Man, Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics, and Web Analytics: An Hour a Day. In order to network with other marketers, you can attend networking events hosted by large organizations like BCAMA, join marketing-related Meetup groups, and participate in Internal Association of Business Communicators’ events. 

While digital marketing offers numerous features such as Heat Mapping that traditional mediums don’t have, the essence of digital marketing is very similar, if not the same, as traditional marketing. It’s still about conveying your brand message effectively to your target audience, swaying their purchasing decisions, and making them buy. Regardless if the message is written on a letter and mailed out to people’s homes or created on MailChimp and sent to people’s inboxes, the core of digital marketing is essentially the same as traditional advertising. As a result, traditional marketers can transfer their existing skill sets to the digital world. Skills such as copywriting, direct email writing, advertisement creation, and video creation are highly transferrable and still critically valuable in the digital space. For instance, you can utilize your copywriting skills to create AdWords ads, remarketing ads, Facebook ads, and display ads. This subsequently allows traditional advertisers to seamlessly transfer their existing skills to the digital environment. 

The fastest and arguably the most effective way to gain more experience and turn yourself into a qualified digital marketer is through leveraging volunteer opportunities. By volunteering as a Social Media Manager for a small non-profit organization or Marketing Coordinator for a professional group such as the BCAMA, traditional marketers can rack up their experience rapidly and get a good feel of the digital environment. They’ll be able to uncover skill sets that they didn’t know they lacked and pick up new skills that they didn’t learn from the books they read. What’s more, they’ll be able to meet more marketers who can help them equip themselves with integral digital skills.