Digital Marketing and Education Collide

Introduction

Focal to my internship thus far has been learning. In truth, learning is the core of everything we do in our everyday lives. Pursuing what we didn’t know before and becoming educated in the process is where we are able to find value in our experiences and mentorship. Evan has mentored in ways that have opened myself to the digital marketing agency workspace. I have become increasingly exposed to new strategies and vital practices that guarantee success within the digital marketing business. I have found genuine enjoyment in the work I have been completing and continue to thrive to learn more about a space where I can see my career headed. 

First Experiences to Design

Beginning when we are so young, we enroll into school and begin our first form of structured learning. We then continue for twelve years until we are encouraged to learn further, eventually finding our niche and pursuing all knowledge possible. I have personally found that through our school system I have been able to find the direction I wish for my future to head. Between the timelessness of art classes of all levels, the practical aspect of CTE (Career Technical Education) courses, and the freedom found in learning how to write with unique style and diction, I have been swaying towards producing digital marketing content. Most of this realization came from my normal high school classes, however my first exposure to the connectivity of the web was through producing simple hard-coded landing pages, and eventually fully customized WordPress websites using page building themes. To fuel my enjoyment of creating, my classroom experiences were able to reinforce my practices through structured curriculum that has benefited me in numerous ways. In particular, a course I took “Adobe Visual Design” has become forefront in combining my joy for art and desire to create digital marketing products. During this course we specialized in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Grant it these programs heavily favor the graphic design business. Considering this, I have still found them ever so useful in learning the fundamentals of great design and content production. This course developed a necessary technical aspect that coincided with my prior years of art course education.

Digital Marketing Exposure in Schools

On the contrary, my education has not provided everything necessary to succeed in the digital marketing field. Oddly, I have yet to see a marketing course offered at my school, our only offerings are simplistic business courses that appear to barely scathe the practices of good commerce. I wish that marketing was made as heuristic as math, english, social studies, etc. In reality, marketing is essential to every company that an individual will work for or create. At its core, converting passerbys into paying customers is how any business earns money and heightens its presence. Admittedly, my most accurate knowledge of what great marketing looks like has been acquired within these past few weeks working with Renewal Digital, a digital marketing agency. Beginning my internship with the idea that “marketing is good advertising”, I have found my thoughts to be shallow and have learned that marketing is so much more. Everything about a business’ presence is in regard to marketing and works to captivate the attention of a potential client. I am joyous and appreciative to have the chance to learn such information now. However, I wish I would have had the opportunity to learn marketing from a younger age and build experience inside and outside of school.

Conclusion

Adjoining my education and internship together has been beneficial nonetheless, I have found myself growing off prior foundational knowledge and acquiring new skills daily. With learning being the pinnacle of all work that I complete, I am able to accurately measure where my current skills are and where I have room to improve. This is essential to success in the digital marketing field.