Kalon Nelson explains how his BA (Hons) Marketing with Advertising and Digital Communications course has helped him land work experience as a Campaign Manager with B2B company, Your Allies, and gain confidence as a marketeer.
It’s quite a funny story. I was working at my part time job in Marks and Spencer's and during my time there I got to know the regular customers, one being Linsay Duncan. One day she asked me what I had been studying at university and, after mentioning Marketing with Advertising and Digital Communications, Linsay mentioned she is the founder of Your Allies, the Award-winning B2B marketing firm formerly known as Marke2ing. I was amazed and Linsay told me that if I have any questions about marketing to ask away, so I gave Linsay my LinkedIn.
We arranged a meeting and Linsay informed me of an upcoming project that she thought I might be interested in. She gave me an informal interview and was happy to have me on board as a Campaign Manager at Your Allies.
As a campaign manager, I was assigned to first do keyword research and find the most suitable keywords for an upcoming release. I was also assigned to find the most suitable locations; I was given a brief defining the target audience and what was required from this project. After the campaign had gone live, I had looked at results and narrowed down the window to retarget the audience that showed the most interest.
At first, I thought the role would be challenging for me to keep up with as I had quite a few other commitments; university deadlines to reach, my job at Marks and Spencer's as a Customer Assistant, and my work as the founder of Go Cars Rental Service, a small business I started a few years ago. However, it all came down to time management and scheduling. I have always found that working in a fast-paced environment and having a drive to succeed provides me with the experience and pressure I needed to encounter to blossom and show my true potential in any given situation. I feel as if lockdown had its pros and cons - one pro being that we had to work from home and have remote contact, which allowed me to navigate my time wisely.
As I am in my first year at university, I still have a long way to go, but the lessons I have learned from the university played a huge role in me being able to provide effective results in work. Using the skills learned from tutor Nicola Hayes’ Marketing in a Digital World module I was familiar with tools I’d be coming in to contact with such as Google AdWords and put theory in to practice, like building a buyer persona to know how to engage the target audience. Eventually, I would love to open a Marketing firm and add value to upcoming businesses that struggle with recognition and maintaining effective relationships, so I feel this experience has had a particularly great impact on me getting one step closer to my future goals.
I’ve learned that in marketing, consistency is key and keeping engagement high causes effective conversions. I am also more time efficient as this role. I gained the understanding of working in B2B marketing from a real-life perspective, rather than in-class activity; where in class a mistake is not costly in class, a mistake in the real world can be damaging.
Having gained experience in B2B marketing and being able to add value to Your Allies I feel a lot more comfortable in my marketing abilities, and I can now show future employers I have experience in this field.
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