No Longer A Marketing Dinosaur! Thanks, Digital Mums
Pre-my 2 daughters, I used to manage an international B2B reports / books marketing department in the City.
My role was a traditional old fashioned direct marketer — sending out thousands of direct mail letters and brochures internationally to places as diverse as Malaysia, Peru, Syria, Bangladesh, Bermuda and Serbia. It was an exciting time with the company pushing the boundaries, seeking out undiscovered markets and testing where we could successfully sell our economic and political forecast reports.But then I gave birth to two girls and could no longer commit to working and managing a team up in London, so I quit in 2011.
Fast forward 4 years to 2015 when my youngest daughter is due to go to Reception in September. How the marketing world has changed! When my first daughter was born in 2007, my friends and colleagues were talking about Bebo and MySpace. I’d only just signed up for LinkedIn, let alone Facebook. Instagram, Pinterest hadn’t even been thought of.
So where did this leave me? How would I rejoin the marketing world? Years of marketing and management experience under my belt, but from a different age.
To be honest, I was feeling a bit of a dinosaur.
Then I spotted an article about Digital Mums in The Guardian where they provided a 6 month training course online to become a freelance social media marketing manager FOR MUMS!
For the first time in ages I felt a connection with what the founders, Kathryn Tyler and Nikki Cochrane were trying to achieve. I couldn’t believe that they were actually really helping Mums to use their brains and work, but still have time with and be there for their kids. Other schemes or employers always wanted one element without the other. The course brings together real life businesses and the Mums so that the mums work on LIVE social media, planning campaigns and encouraging. Scary but real! There were weekly, rather than daily assignments too, so you could work more flexibly around the inevitable sick child, or last minute disaster at home.
OK, I loved the idea but would my “dinosaur” marketing background experience be enough to get me on the course?
I’d had two feisty and demanding children with little time on my hands but I did still have a marketing brain I could use and I was really interested in small businesses and the power of social media. Could I be a part of this? Really?
Without thinking, I emailed for an application form. Demand was very high following very positive press including the Daily Mail, Guardian and Huffington Post.
I sent off my application quickly before my doubts could set in(or other eager mums could take my place!). And hurrah! I was accepted on the April course !
But would my dinosaur knowledge be enough? I hadn’t “worked” in marketing since 2011. Four years ago !
To my surprise, there’s a lot more in common between good social media marketing and direct marketing than even I realised.
Find out how the dinosaur came of age when she started up with Digital Mums’ Advanced Social Media Marketing Course in the second part of this blog.
