How to become a Marketing Automation consultant?
Thinking about becoming a Marketing Automation consultant? Marketing Automation is a high-demand skill. The idea of making money by helping businesses automate their processes, and, you know, spend less time with marketing is pretty tempting, isn't it?
Well, I'm here to help! Let's talk about tips to get your first Marketing Automation project! I'll share with you things that helped me when I made the transition and decided to specialize in Marketing Automation myself.
Learn about the logic of Marketing Automation first
Marketing Automation is about using specific software (like HubSpot, Marketo, Salesforce, ActiveCampaign), to automate business processes. The framework of how you do these automations, the logic behind it, is always the same. So, spend some time learning about how Marketing Automation works, what you need to implement marketing automation in a business, and the right way of automating processes. If you need a hand with this, check out this course here.
Build your portfolio around Marketing Automation
Even if you didn't have experience working specifically with Marketing Automation for a business, is there anything you automated for a business in the past? Have you helped your previous employer create an email sequence? Did you use a Marketing Automation tool in the past? If so, add these experiences to your portfolio.
Your portfolio should be a short presentation summarizing your work experience. When people apply for jobs, they submit a resume, right? When you apply for consulting projects, you send your portfolio. It's more visual than a typical resume and summarizes projects you've worked on.
If you don't have experience with Marketing Automation per se, pay attention to my next tip, as this will be more helpful.
Get familiar with different Marketing Automation tools
This tip is valid whether you already have experience with automation to include in your portfolio, or if you don’t have any experience. What you need to do here is to familiarize yourself with marketing automation tools. Get a free trial from tools like HubSpot, Mailchimp, Convertkit, ActiveCampaign, and others, and spend a few days playing around with the tool. It's a free trial, right, so you're not going to break the system.
Play around with building email sequences and other automation processes. You might want to spend some time reading about these tools too. You'll quickly realize that the logic of Marketing Automation applies to any tool you use. What I mean is, creating an email sequence inside HubSpot follows the same logic as creating an email sequence inside Activecampaign. The tools might be different, perhaps one is more visual than the other, but the logic is the same!
This way, you can include a few notes in your portfolio saying you're familiar with those tools. I'm not saying you should become a pro in any of them in a short amount of time, but you can definitely familiarize yourself with the basics of how automation works for different tools.
This is also important because sometimes, clients want to hire someone with experience with a specific tool. Which leads me to the next tip.
Choose and specialize in one tool
After exploring different tools, specialize in one. Clients usually seek experts in specific platforms. Check freelance platforms like Upwork, for example. Search for “Mailchimp specialist”, “Convertkit specialist”, or “Hubspot specialist” and you’ll notice many businesses seeking specialized help.
I haven't seen many businesses looking for Marketing Automation generalists... And the reason why is quite straightforward. Marketing Automation is always implemented inside a Marketing Automation tool, so businesses need your help in using that specific tool they subscribed to.
Specializing increases your chances of finding opportunities. Once you've honed your skills, make sure to showcase your expertise on professional networks and spread the word about your services. Best of luck!