Cheryl Goeres: "How I Got a Job in Digital Marketing"
Digital Ads Coordinator/Instructor, Cheryl Goeres shares her experience and how she started her career in digital marketing.
1. Was your career path linear, or did a variety of experiences get you where you are today?
I started my career as a graphic designer. I went to school for graphic design for marketing and my first “career” job was an in-house graphic designer. I really enjoyed the marketing aspect of my bachelor program and that was missing as a graphic designer. I changed jobs into a marketing coordinator role where I was still doing graphic design but I now had marketing responsibilities such as campaign planning and execution and organizing booths for our tradeshows.
When I was a marketing coordinator, the company had hired a marketing agency to help with a large campaign. This is when I was introduced to digital marketing. I hadn’t run advertising on any digital platforms or even used Google Analytics. I was instantly drawn to it. Once the contract was over with the agency, I took on the digital marketing activity for the company. I knew I wanted to continue developing my skills as a digital advertiser. From there I found myself at my current role as a digital ads coordinator.
2. Why did you pursue a career in digital marketing?
I have always had a passion for problem solving. As someone who is also quite creative, it gave me the ability to utilize both in a single career. I love strategizing a plan to help a client achieve their goals and I love analyzing the results as they come in even more.
3. What’s your favourite part about working in the field?
The industry is constantly changing which keeps you on your toes. It can be very exciting. Since it is always changing, there is always something new to learn and to test out. Learning new advertising platforms and new ways to target people is one of my favourite parts of working in this field.
4. Who inspires you in the industry?
I have always been a big fan of Jyll Saskin-Gales (also known as the google pro on social media). She is such an experienced person in the digital advertising field and I’ve always admired her career path.
In the marketing field in general, since I started university, Arlene Dickinson has been a huge inspiration to me.
5. Where do you think the future of digital marketing is heading?
In the digital ads industry, there has been a changing landscape of user privacy and it’s going to continue moving in that direction so companies will need to rely a lot more on their own user data. Have to start thinking more outside of the box in terms of targeting because it continues to get harder to ensure you’re targeting the right people.
6. If you weren’t in digital marketing, what industry would you be in?
I would likely be an event planner. I’ve often been told I should be. I am a very organized and detail oriented person so planning comes naturally to me and I find it very enjoyable.
7. What was your dream job as a kid?
I wanted to be a singer. I’ve tragically discovered that I am a terrible singer but I absolutely love music.
