Career Advice

Remote Working: A Digital Marketer’s Guide to Success

Discover essential strategies and tools for remote working in digital marketing. Unlock your potential with this comprehensive guide!

By DMJ Team

Remote working is all the rage at the moment in the digital marketing industry, enjoying widespread implementation from small and large companies alike. In fact, half of the entire workforce is working from home in some shape or form.

Since the Covid-19 lockdown, nearly half of the UK’s workforce say they’ve been working remotely – and some businesses have implied it could become the future.

The advantages of working from home are abundant – both for employers and staff. Remote work has a range of benefits, including:

  • Boosting employee efficiency
  • Driving staff productivity
  • Decreasing stress
  • Enhancing morale
  • Reducing staff turnover
  • Greater employee engagement.

As someone in the digital marketing industry, you’re in a great position to take advantage of remote working, as the marketing profession is perfectly set up for this kind of thing. Plus, there are numerous opportunities to either work on a freelance basis as a contractor or seek full-time remote work in an organisation.

Granted, working from home doesn’t suit everyone, as there are unique challenges that come with working away from the conventional office.

Remote digital marketers will have to ensure they’re set up for success.

Whether you’re seeking a remote job in content, social media, web design, email or search, here are some top tips on how to take your digital marketing job remote:

Tailor Your Resume for Remote Working in Digital Marketing

If you’re using the same Resume and cover letter you’d use for an in-house digital marketing job, it’s no wonder you’re not hearing anything back from the work-from-home job you applied for.

Hiring a professional resume writing company can be useful, as this will ensure your Resume is presented in the best light while pinpointing the key skills and achievements you can bring to a remote digital marketing role.

An expert Resume writer will cut out needless or irrelevant details and identify what makes you stand out.

However, there are a few things you can do yourself to write the perfect resume and cover letter:

  • List the employer’s top qualities. If the job ad states, “excellent verbal and written communication skills” or “organized”, scatter these phrases throughout your application.
  • List the job ad’s tools. Did the ad mention Photoshop or a specific content management system? Do you know how to use remote project management tools like Trello? Record all the software stated in the job post, mentioning your skill level for each.
  • Adapt your Resume to highlight your remote skills. Consider what principal qualities recruiters and hiring managers are in search of in a work-from-home digital marketing position (these are normally highlighted at the top of the ad or they’re mentioned more than once).

Communication is Key

When you aren’t physically in an office with other workers, it’s sometimes easy to misinterpret a piece of information. That’s why it’s vital to over-communicate with your clients and team, otherwise you risk frustrating and confusing them.

The next best thing is a video call. Seeing your clients and colleagues on a conference call goes a long way – they become real humans rather than faceless voices coming out of your speakers. So, always push to do video calls with clients and your team.

It’s essential to tell your clients and colleagues what you’re doing. When you’re in a remote digital marketing job, it’s important to let everyone know you’re still there. A great way to do this is to send regular micro communications.

For a digital marketer, it depends on your specific job role. This may be everything from sending the results of marketing tests to updates on positive-trending metrics or new market opportunities.

For instance, on the topic of PPC advertising, you might report on things like:

  • Split test winners/losers
  • Keyword opportunities for new campaigns to test
  • Leads generated from new campaigns.

On the content marketing side, you may look at:

  • New keywords you’re ranking for
  • Exciting new backlinks
  • The latest organic website traffic growth.

Communicating these sorts of information frequently to your team and client base goes a long way in working effectively from home.

Having the Right Tools

As an individual working in digital marketing, it’s essential you have the correct tools. For example, make sure you have high-speed Wi-Fi, as having poor internet connection could get problematic, especially when it comes to video calls and sending over hefty files.

You really can’t do without Wi-Fi for a lengthy period of time, so be sure to have a quality mobile hotspot so you can get online wherever you are.

Purchasing a decent pair of noise cancelling headphones is also a good idea, as they’ll enable you to work anywhere without getting too distracted.

While little tools and technologies like these may not appear essential, they can make a huge difference in the long run.

Set a Schedule and Stick to It

It’s important to establish some consistency when you’re working remotely. Sure, you don’t have to be in the office at a certain time, but it’s worth sticking to a schedule – as if you were in an office.

That means having a clear idea of when to work and when to stop, so you maintain a healthy work-life balance. So, set your hours. This will help you stay on track and focused, as you have a deadline for when you need to complete your projects each day.

Stay in Touch with Your Team

When you’re working remotely, you lose the ability to connect with your team on a physical level. For instance, you aren’t lunching together, sharing lifts to work or catching up over a tea or coffee, which makes it difficult to build meaningful relationships.

But just because you’re working from home, doesn’t mean you can’t connect with your team. Thanks to a multitude of collaborative tools, it’s more possible than ever before to keep in contact and communicate with colleagues and clients – even if your team is spread out across the world.

Here are just some of the collaborative tools you can take advantage of:

  • Kahootz. This collaborative tool is awesome for secure file sharing as well as task management. Some of its highlights include personalised forms, shared diaries and discussion forums.
  • Zoom. The free version lets up to 100 people enter a video conference together, although you’re limited to only 40 minutes for any conference of three or more individuals.
  • Slack. The app works well with other software such as Zoom, Dropbox and Google and the free plan is great for small teams, with pricing plans starting at £5.25 per month.
  • Asana. Asana allows you to plot your project out as z Gantt charts, then create portfolios of steps, and monitor each member’s workload. The application is also compatible with Microsoft Office 365, Gmail, Slack, and more.
  • GoogleDocs. This app is a whole lot better than sending files back and forth to clients and co-workers. Use Google Slides for presentations on marketing or for pitching, Google Sheets for analysing market research (keyword data) and Google Docs for content marketing collaboration (writing articles and eBooks).

Working from home as a digital marketer has its pluses and minuses. So that you experience more of the former and less of the latter, the secret is to be tactical with your choices. By concentrating on productivity, you can avoid the drawbacks that entrap so many oblivious digital marketing workers, instead reaping the rewards that flexibility and individuality can offer.

Follow our tips, and you’ll realise it’s now simpler than ever before to join the ranks of location-independent digital marketers across the globe!

Get started by browsing the latest remote digital marketing jobs today

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