The Beginning: My First Weeks of Search Marketing

My name is Leland Reed and I started working for Direct Online Marketing on September 8, 2014. For this blog post, I thought it would be interesting to give an overview of what my first month and a half or so of working for DOM has been like.

First, let me give a little background about myself. I’m from Grafton, West Virginia, a small town around two hours southeast of Wheeling. I grew up in Grafton and lived there until I was 18, when I moved to Morgantown, West Virginia to attend West Virginia University. I graduated from WVU in both 2012 and 2014, first with a Bachelor’s of Science in Sport Management and then with a Master’s of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications.

In my spare time, I am a sports fanatic. I love almost any sport and will watch any type of sport on TV. My favorite teams are WVU of course, and then the Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cincinnati Bengals, and Pittsburgh Penguins. I love to play golf, even though I am horrible and I’ve been trying to make myself enjoy running, but that’s an ongoing struggle.

I ended up at Direct Online Marketing after spending almost the entire summer searching for a job. When I saw the posting online for a Search Marketing Associate, it seemed almost too good to be true. A marketing job that was actual marketing and not sales? I was amazed I could find something like that in West Virginia, especially after I had been applying to jobs all over the country for months. I filled out the application and sent my information out and the next day I had a response and a phone interview set up. After my phone interview, I had an in-person interview and here I am!

My first day at DOM was honestly uneventful. It was a day full of paperwork and meeting new people. For the most part, the entire first week was uneventful. Since I had never done any type of search engine marketing, I couldn’t just jump in and start doing actual work. There was a lot of studying to become Google AdWords Certified, but I learned a lot while studying for those tests. It was during the first or second week that I found out what my first responsibilities would be and I won’t lie, I was a little nervous about them.

I quickly found out that I had nothing to be nervous about. Everyone at DOM is so helpful and the office really has a team feeling around it. It seems like everyone is in this thing together, which is a little refreshing in what has become a mostly me-first world.

As the days went on, I found myself with more and more responsibilities which was a welcome difference from my first week or so. The days seemed to be flying by because of how busy I was. I didn’t hate it, though, I was learning so much from every task that I had been given. Even now, I learn so much from doing each task.

So far, my favorite thing to do has been search queries. It may not seem like the most necessary thing, but there is a lot to be learned from what your customers are searching for. There is always a chance of finding a funny search term, which lightens up what can be a slightly tedious task. I really don’t have a least favorite thing to do yet. Everything has its own importance and I haven’t come across anything that gets under my skin too badly.

The past two weeks have been a big change from my first month here. I have my own campaigns that I am taking care of, and even though I am still being walked through some aspects, it makes me feel like I am a trusted member of the team now. It’s nice to feel like I am needed. Not saying I didn’t feel that way to begin with, but now that I am understanding the job and everything that is involved in it, I feel like everyone trusts me to be able to get whatever they need done and in the correct manner.

When I first got hired, I wasn’t sure how all of this would work out. Like I said, it seemed too good to be true, but now I see myself staying at Direct Online Marketing for a long time. The knowledge and experience that I have gained in such a short amount of time makes me excited for the future. I’m sure I’ll be back on our digital marketing blog sooner rather than later, sharing more information about what I have learned and things that are important to me and Direct Online Marketing as a whole.