In November last year we launched the Digital Marketing Academy with the University of Nottingham. Yesterday, we held an insight day that awarded students who had shown an invested interest in building a career in digital marketing with an insight day at Impression.
The Digital Marketing Academy is an initiative that aims to help students understand what careers are available in digital, what opportunities are in Nottingham, and what it’s like working in the industry.
The series of events began with the kick off day back in November for the Digital Marketing Academy with an evening event called ‘Showcase’, where we presented examples of our work and student experience alongside local agency Hallam Internet and the digital team from the University of Nottingham.
To get a taster of working in a digital marketing agency the students that wanted to then went away and completed Google’s Digital Garage, Google Analytics Fundamentals, and did one other thing that gave them even more experience in digital marketing such as work experience in a marketing team or writing their own blog. These students were then rewarded with an insight day at Impression or Hallam.
The Insight Day
Eight students from subject disciplines ranging from management to philosophy came to Impression for the day. The day consisted of workshops with numerous members of the Impression team, with the aim of allowing the students to better understand what area of digital marketing would be most suitable to them.
A day in the life of an SEO: To better understand what it’s like to work in agency, I gave the students a presentation on the daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that I work on and that are common in an agency like Impression. We spoke about client management tasks, training, and how I assist the business development team.
An introduction to SEO and client task: Ben, one of our SEO executives, gave a presentation on how a search engine works. He then led a competitor analysis based task which required the students to analyse 3 different websites with SEO best practise in mind.
‘What is CRO?’: Our CRO strategist Edd gave the students an introduction into what Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) is and why it is so important for digital marketers and companies.
An introduction to PPC and paid social: Jack, one of our PPC executives, gave a crash course into paid social and Pay-Per-Click (PPC). The students completed a typical PPC task and also got some insight into the scary world of Facebook audience targeting.
Blogging 101: Led by Laura, our digital marketing manager, the students were given an insight into what to consider when blogging for a business and how you can utilise a blogging platform to bring you business and get in front of your audience.
Q&A and takeaways: The day came to an end with a final Q&A and some feedback from the students on their biggest takeaways from the day. Out of the 8 students, 3 said they think PPC is appropriate for them, 4 SEO, and 1 CRO. With a lot of questions answered and work-based tasks to help clear up any confusion about the difference between each of Impression’s service areas, the students are ready to build upon their digital marketing careers even more.
Our new office space on King Street is perfect to hold insight days and events to give students an insight into agency life so keep an eye out on our student placement and events pages for more information on future events.
The Digital Marketing Academy is one of many projects that we take part in with the University of Nottingham and has led to us recently being shortlisted for the AGCAS award for careers service engagement in the TARGETjobs awards.
Find out more about careers at Impression here.
