Amy Thompson, Digital Marketer, Mattress Online
Amy Thompson,
Digital Marketing Apprentice,
Mattress Online
How did you come to join the Digital Marketing Academy?
I was doing social media for the business, but my knowledge of digital marketing was limited. So I definitely wanted to look at what was out there. I’ve not done any other training around this so thought it would be interesting to see if there is anything else that makes me think ‘Oh I really like doing this actually, I could do that going forward’. I basically jumped at the chance!
When did you know you made the right choice?
During the first few months it felt like there was a lot of stuff to take in, but once we started doing the assignments and applying them to the business, I felt like this is not just helping the business that I am in, this is really useful for me to apply to things I'm learning. That's how I learn best is by listening, taking information in and going ‘Right, this is my version of what I think you said.‘
Just giving it a go has been really helpful. I’ve just run a social media campaign that was last month's assignment and that did really well. I have been able to take my learning from that and apply it to the business so that has been really useful.
What has been your biggest achievement so far?
The social media campaign I did was really successful. It’s what I had been doing for the business, but I had never had the opportunity to do an actual campaign. It had always been ‘Oh here's a social post that's gone out’.
So I aligned everything I had with similar images, similar content going across the different channels. That's the first time I’ve done a really big thing like that. We had 50,000 people watch the video that we put out, which is a 25,000% increase on what we usually do in a two-week period. The engagement rate itself was up 500% to a 10% engagement rate which is really good for us. Our targets are 2-3% engagement rates and they are generous for us as they were hard targets for me to reach.
Doing this campaign and seeing that the engagement rate had smashed the target was really exciting. It was also helpful analysing all of that data in the past week and looking at how we can then apply that moving forward to get that same outcome again.
Where do you see your career going after the apprenticeship?
I’m still learning so much. I think it reinforced that I do like the social side of marketing so doing a bit more with that and looking at how I can take the business forward with different social channels, trialing different content across the social channels.
The aim is that if there is anything else I really feel passionate about after doing the course, I can create a niche job that really focuses on these one or two areas. So fine-tuning my skills and ensuring I have as much knowledge as I can of what I am working on.
What would you say to anyone unsure about joining the apprenticeship?
When you think about an apprenticeship you think, it's going to be a lot of work and you’ll be doing all this training every day, but I set myself a day each week to do my coursework, which is the recommended time. Having that day of learning really helps you manage your time and juggle your work and the apprenticeship.
The exams aren't terrifying exams, they were pretty decent to do. It was obviously a bit strange for us as we are doing them online, but I don't feel like I’ve lost anything by doing things online either.
I think the Working Knowledge setup has been a really good cohesive setup. Everything is very relaxed and if you have the time to do your work this week then that's great, if not then do a bit more next week. You have a lot of time to do the projects that they ask you to do and I think they are really useful for the business, you as a person and your learning.
Find out what other Apprentices think: Click Here