I fell into marketing by accident before I got into marketing,
I was actually a financial analyst, so let all this happen
and how I learned everything I know now along the way.
In this video, I won't break down exactly what's happened in my journey
and what you can do to hone your skills in digital marketing,
especially if you're currently aspiring digital marketer,
or perhaps you only become an expert in your field.
How to build a powerful personal brand to amplify your future career
and also your business.
Hi, welcome back to my channel.
If you're new here, I'm Laurie Wang.
I'm a digital marketer with over a decade experience, having
previously worked with the likes of Google, Facebook and also Ogilvy.
I'm also a creator in the trenches who's building her
personal brand into a business and sharing my lessons along the way.
I'm super passionate about helping others create living out of what they love.
So if that all sounds interesting, then hit the Subscribe button and hit
a notification bell so you get notified every time I release a new video
in one of my previous videos lessons that I learned in my twenties.
I talk about the journey that I took in exploring my career options
in my early twenties when I realized that the financial industry
wasn't for me and it wasn't an area that I was passionate about.
It was during this time when the social media scene was just taking off,
and Facebook was pretty much a place where you were writing
until those Facebook walls. Do you remember those times?
Or maybe not.
And Twitter was just still in its infancy, but I was always very curious,
and my curiosity led me to start experimenting
with different social media channels that were available then and also having
conversations with others who are also embracing it very early on.
And this is one of the key lessons and themed
I want to draw on, which is curiosity,
because having curiosity and also a sense of experimentation
is absolutely crucial in being successful in digital marketing.
This industry is constantly evolving, especially in the age of metaverse
and also Web3.
It's really important to stay ahead of the curve, and curiosity
is actually what led you to explore the latest strategies, the latest channels
and how others are using it in their own innovative ways.
So knowing what's working and what's not working
to give your clients the best advice on how to move forward?
So my curiosity led me to explore more
about this whole emerging social media and digital marketing scene,
and this is what I stumbled across on a Facebook post
by a close acquaintance of mine from high school.
And in that post, he was sharing more about the kind of work that he was
doing at his digital agency, and I thought it looked fascinating.
So I messaged him.
I just said,
Hey, we'd love to find out more about what you do, and I'll be forever grateful
to this acquaintance because not only he told me more about his work,
but he also actually connected me to a colleague of his working in London's
office, where I can actually go and have a coffee with him to find out
more about his job there.
So I had a few informational coffees.
I don't want to say the word informational interviews
because I feel like it sounds really formal for what it is
technically just a very casual conversation.
To find out more about what he's working on
and these informational coffees,
then let me to have some casual interviews with his team members.
And from there, a few months later, a vacancy actually came up,
which they thought I was perfect for, given my client facing experience
in the financial sector
and of course, is basically going back
to the ending again and starting from scratch,
which I didn't really mind at all and I couldn't wait for the chance
to start moving over. Now the rest is pretty much history.
And from there, I joined the digital agency
and I was able to be promoted very quickly and eventually
allowed to create my own consultancy firm, which is where I am today, sharing
my advice and also training with students and clients all around the world.
I think there are a few lessons here at this point in the story
because I also believe in building relationships
with not only your closest friends throughout your lifetime,
but also keep in touch with your close acquaintances.
And these acquaintances could be people.
Let's say your high school friends, college friends,
or maybe even people that our coworkers in the early stages of your career.
Because that's the author, Meg Jay said in her famous TEDx
talk in Why You're 30 is not your new twenties.
It's sometimes the people that we hardly know.
They'll eventually improve our lives dramatically,
and what she means by that is law.
These career opportunities, where maybe even referrals to new clients
the first client that you might ever have initially
is from those close acquaintances.
So these introductions and also opportunities
are so crucial, especially when you're first starting out.
Also, the key thing here is not to go into the meeting with a desperation
of getting something out of it.
Instead, think of a great way to build your network
and always ask the person at the end of the coffee or catch up to
see any other people that they recommend that you also speak to to extend
that network even further and build more connections with more people.
And also a great way of that is to build more perspectives. A.
What you think about this industry from different individuals,
and this is how I built my connections in my digital
marketing industry and the wider industries beyond that.
It's because the end, the day, I'm curious about the other person
and I truly value that connection rather than having the agenda
of getting something out of that relationship.
So if I was to start all again as in my teeth,
to switch over to a whole new industry in digital marketing
and I was that aspiring digital marketer, this is what I would do.
Number one is to build your personal brand extensively.
So these things might include, for example, having a very strong
personal branding website, which if you don't know that you yet,
you can watch that video on my channel about the introductions of how you can
actually start thinking about your website in the most powerful way.
And you also want to be reaching out for public speaking opportunities.
So one of my fears was actually speaking on stage for the longest time.
However, overcame
that because I realize public speaking is probably one of the most powerful ways
to reach a lot of individuals in one go with your message and your mission.
The key thing to jump in and get yourself wet
because the more public speaking you do, the more public speaking you would do,
and the better you will be at that as well.
So reach out to industry conferences, local events
in your industry, in your area.
These are all great places to get started before you get to that much bigger level.
Speaking as keynote, let's say, for much larger conferences
around the world, make sure the regular content
that shares about what you do and your expertize regularly.
I do this through my own LinkedIn channels, my Instagram channels
and also here on YouTube,
because I believe that regular content creation is such a great way
to not only spread your message and teach more and impact more people,
but also your learning lots of it in the process as well.
You never know
who's watching or listening to you, or maybe you're reading your blog post.
At the end of day, it's about putting yourself out there to increase
the chance of being found online or in person, and to give yourself
more opportunities and also career advancement in the long term.
Number two is to hone your skills with marketing foundations
and also a channel specific expertize
in this thing I call the T-shaped marketer.
So marketing foundations are things like copywriting,
knowing about the different social media formats and social media channels
and understanding.
Let's see how to do video marketing videos so crucial these days,
especially with online marketing understanding data.
Because in digital marketing, it's all about data and insights.
And actually, some of those data are super powerful
because if you know how to actually understand them behind the scenes,
they know how to make your campaigns even more powerful going forward.
And also other things like understanding the marketing funnel.
So how do different
stages of the funnel work in terms of understanding your audiences
and what they might need from you
at that stage in the funnel, in your marketing journey?
Understanding some basic elements of good design because design is everything
in terms of how your business is branded, how your personal brand is branded.
So knowing how to portray yourself in the right branding is also important,
especially standing out among all the competitions online.
And then as a marketer, it's
really important to choose a channel specific expertize.
So now may be things like email marketing, or maybe things like social media,
or it could be things like search engine optimization.
How do you make sure that your business or that brand is being found online?
So having a specific channel expertize will allow you then to hone
in that expertize and be known for that as well in the industry.
And sometimes it does not be actually just one.
You could choose one or mix of two and three that you're especially good at
and be able to market that with yourself when it comes to going for a new role
or perhaps going for new clients in that area and pitching your business
to them as well.
Number three is to build
a portfolio of your projects and also showcase your expertize.
I think that's a great way to do this on your personal brand website,
if you can, to have a specific area where you showcase
all your previous case studies of what you done for your clients.
Now, of course, some of these may be anonymous because of privacy policies,
but in the days while showcasing the type of project
that you have worked on and having those industry expertize in those areas.
And another great way to showcase your expertize,
of course, is to also showcase that through your content.
So having regular content creation in your schedule
to showcase different areas within that specific channel expertize
that you can then share with your wider audiences online.
And number four is something that I feel really close to my heart,
and I think something that's helped me tremendously over the years is having
regular reading and upskilling of yourself through courses.
So reading could be industry or marketing related books that are in your industry
that are quite thought provoking and allow you to have an alternative
point of view.
I think that alternative point of view is really important,
especially at times when you want to think about is different strategies
that your competitors or perhaps others in your industry are not thinking
about at the moment and how you can use that alternative strategy to create.
Even more better campaigns going forward.
And you can also regularly upskill yourself through courses.
So one of the things I always say to myself is what have I learned this week?
And usually I put aside about 20 minutes a day to make sure I'm learning
something new on that day.
And these little tiny 20 minute segments can add up to so much over a year's time.
And imagine over a decade of that as well, and regularly going to conferences
by not only learning from them,
but also building your industry connections along the way.
And I built so many amazing relationships by going to these conferences
not only as an attendee, but also over time as a speaker as well.
Number five, last not least, is to embrace the test first mentality.
And what I mean by that is if you don't test, you don't know.
So you never know exactly what your target audience might resonate with in terms
of, let's say, a specific image or video or perhaps a copy that you created.
So by having that AB testing, as they call it, it's by testing different variations
of, let's say, copy of creatives such as images or videos
and even things like the button color on your landing page.
Whether it could be red or blue or green, all of those does matter.
And by testing, you will see what's performing best for your campaigns
and for your clients campaigns and be able to then make the best decision
in the back of that.
So incisive data are so crucial here.
So I hope that
this video is helpful in helping you think about your marketing career
and how to make it even more successful going forward.
And I'm also curious what channel expertize
are you currently working on the moment?
Let me know in the comments below.
And I think these advice not only applies to someone who might be aspiring
to become a marketer,
but also any individuals who are looking to build their personal brand in this year
and beyond.
If you like the video,
make sure they give you the thumbs up and share it with the friends.
Thank you so much for watching and I see in the next video.