We caught up with Marketing Assistant Alicia to see how her first few months at Join the Dots had been.
What made you choose a role in marketing?
I completed my degree in Fashion Management and Communication in May and set out straight away to begin my journey with marketing. During my time at university, I particularly enjoyed social media content creation and developing marketing strategies. When I initially started university, I was quite unsure of what direction my career would take. So, I really dived into every brief with the intention of gaining some understanding of what different jobs may entail. Consistently throughout university I found I was drawn to concept development, content creation and developing strategies. Considering this I felt my skill-set and interests were well aligned with a career in marketing, which became my goal to pursue.
What do you love about Sheffield?
I studied at Sheffield Hallam University and during my three years living in Sheffield I learned about the community feel that the renowned ‘Green City’ harbours. The independent, friendly feel of the city is another one of the many things that attracted me to Sheffield. From vintage to coffee shops, Sheffield offers a friendly and homely atmosphere unlike any other city. Living on Ecclesall Road my favourite Sunday brunch spot would be Made by Jonty’s in Sharrow Vale, where my go to was a delicious vanilla oat milk latte and an Eggs Benedict. For vintage shopping I could always count on Division Street to provide the best of the best! The pieces in Glass Onion are always unique and great value for money, plus the experience in store is always great fun. A well-known positive of living in Sheffield is its proximity to the Peak District, from Bakewell to Hathersage, I frequently enjoyed a wholesome day of walking and delicious pub food! One of my favourite spots was Rivelin Valley, where you can have a dip in the beautiful waterfall.
Why did you choose working at Join the Dots?
Working at Join the Dots has provided me with the opportunity to work between Sheffield and my hometown of Lowestoft. Remote working has allowed me to begin my journey in a career that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to pursue straight out of university. I have had the opportunity to make connections and gain skills that I will hopefully be able to foster throughout the rest of my career.
Throughout my journey working remotely with Join the Dots I have been able to learn productivity hacks such as Slack, Google Docs, Canva and social media tools like Social Champ. These tools have been essential in communicating effectively with the team and enabling seamless exchange of projects.
What have you learnt that you didn't know before joining?
Whilst working at Join the Dots I have been introduced to the exciting world of B2B marketing and the various sectors that this includes such as finance, utilities, transport, telecoms, HR, and technology. This area of marketing has taught me more than I could have imagined from social media scheduling and writing thought leadership blogs on hot business topics such as the difficult economic climate, sustainability and many more. I feel that my knowledge has expanded in more areas than just marketing.
This knowledge has mostly been acquired by researching and writing blogs, but I haven’t just learned about the topics themselves, I have also developed the necessary skills for writing a well-structured blog, for example the importance of call to action. Another lesson surrounding the blogs has been the emphasis of SEO keywords and backlinks to drive traffic. This has helped me navigate the new and slightly complicated way that marketers need to use the world wide web to their advantage to gain as much growth as possible.
One of my favourite aspects within my work at Join the Dots is surrounding social media, it being one of the reasons I wanted a career in marketing in the first place. I really enjoy being creative and get excited when I see content I created be posted on the likes of LinkedIn. Working with social media has included social media planning, copywriting, content creation on Canva and scheduling the posts. As time has gone on throughout my role at Join the Dots by constructing these social media posts, I have found my understanding of buyer personas and tone of voice has massively increased. I have learned to keep the buyer persona in mind and changing the tone to suit their profile.
With any job, I think an obvious skill that generically people improve on is time management and ability to meet deadlines. At Join the Dots I have found enjoyment in working towards clear deadlines, probably a by-product of university, and the discipline in time management when working remotely.
How do you see your career progressing at Join the Dots?
I’m delighted to continue working at Join the Dots and can’t wait to continue expanding my skills and relationships within the B2B marketing sector. I couldn’t have asked for a better first post university job!
I'm keen to get involved in project management and potentially client facing roles.
In addition to growing our talented team and investing in Join the Dots as a vibrant place to work, we have some really exciting plans over the next few months that will propel the agency forward even further… so watch this space.
To book a call with Join the Dots contact us today!