r/DigitalMarketing

I am parking my engineering degree and building my own business.

I am out of work, only one contract from my past skills (software development) with part time income.

I have deadline and before March 2027 (9 months from now) my agency should produce more than 5K MRR.

Now I want to hear from people ahead of me, what is the expected timeline considering full efforts, GPT told me that I should consider consulting (custom AI integration, automation in workflows) where I can charge for setup and small retainers. If I target selling services only then it takes a while to get momentum.

I see many tools available to run an agency, we juggle between many tools, being software engineer and AI expertise, I built tools to run an agency. My sole purpose is to keep my building passion ongoing, saving in subscriptions, and fully customization flexibility.

Focusing on my today’s question: I already spent two months where I got success in building tools but unable to finalize my offer yet.

I am not looking for direct answer, what I should do, all I want to hear from you folks what was the real experience when you started, any tips or suggestions, lessons and estimated normal timeline before you reached 5K MRR.

One more thing, should I focus on social media for leads (it will take time to build audience as I am starting fresh, long term definitely beneficial) or email marketing (I want to focus on fast results/testing) to acquire clients.

Looking for insights and lessons from you to see if my target is achievable or not?

Hello there so to get to the point :

in the last five years i did some nice work on social media from professional video editor to a filmmaker i learned some digital marketing along the way , voice over , creative ideas in different niches , did social media management, graphic design and all what comes with those skills.

These past 2 months i decided to create my own agency and i did some nice work with the local businesses but i always wanted to go further to expand it more to appear to businesses who are far away and work on their ideas.

If there anything u wanna advice me with am very open to discussion and i would be very grateful!

I've been talking to a bunch of small shop owners lately, and "video" keeps coming up as the thing everyone knows they should do but doesn't. The blockers I hear most: no time to edit, not sure what to say, feel awkward on camera, or tried once, it flopped, and gave up.

If you run a small business: which of these is the real one for you? And for anyone who cracked it and now posts consistently, what changed? Genuinely curious what worked, since most advice online is just "post more," which isn't helpful.

I'll share what I've picked up in the comments.

One of the most interesting conversations I had today at a student × CMO exchange was with a group of Gen Z students.
I asked them: If you knew a brand was using AI to create its content, would it change how you felt about that brand?
I expected them to say no. Instead, many said it would. Some even said they’d be less likely to buy from a brand if they knew its content was AI-generated.
I found that surprisingly nuanced. They embrace AI in their own lives but still expect brands to feel human and authentic.
I’m curious whether this was unique to the group I spoke with, or if we’re seeing a broader shift in consumer expectations. Would knowing a brand relies heavily on AI-generated content change your perception or purchasing decisions?

During the start of my career 8 years ago, I started with no strategy (by that I mean payment terms, what's acceptable and what's not) as a result I ended up doing work which I was not being paid for and later would be scraped but I will be the biggest loser because of the time invested and when it it comes to payment I have now come to expect 30-50% of what I call commitment.

Taking in cheap clients was my thing but I learnt that cheap is not good at all, rather stick with the few expensive clientele.

And not having a brief at the start of a project, just a phone call; deadly mistake as I will later on spend valuable time going back and forth on something which could have been communicated earlier on.

This was all happening because of the excitement that I have got a client, but had I known better back then I would have done things differently.

What has been your experience?

Hi everyone,

I am a digital marketing fresher. I want to build a long-term career specifically in Marketing Operations (MarOps).

Since most entry-level roles seem tailored toward general digital marketing or content/social media, I’m a bit unsure how to successfully make this pivot right out of the gate.

I would love some advice from the community on a few things:

Tech Stack: Which specific platforms or certifications should I prioritize first to stand out? (e.g., HubSpot, Marketo, Salesforce, Google Analytics, Excel/SQL?)

Portfolio/Projects: How can a fresher demonstrate MarOps capabilities without prior enterprise tool access? Are there ways to build a "MarOps portfolio"?

Positioning: How should I frame my resume or general digital marketing background to appeal to hiring managers looking for junior MarOps talent?

If you were starting fresh today with a goal of entering Marketing Ops, what would your roadmap look like?

Thanks in advance for the help!

I've been using AI more over the last few months, mostly to speed up the boring stuff.

It's definitely saved me time, but I still find myself rewriting or tweaking almost everything before I publish it. Some tasks feel like a perfect fit for AI, while others just don't come out right without doing them myself.

I'm curious how other marketers are using it day to day.

What's one task you've stopped doing manually because AI handles it well? And what's one thing you still wouldn't let AI take over?

Not looking for a list of tools I'm more interested in how people actually use AI in their workflow.

I have a client who is hell bent on covering informative articles.

I keep telling him he needs to focus on AI friendly responses. Find the queries that people actually search for and create topics around them while he wants to cover in-depth information. Alright, I understand that he's looking to create topical authority this way, but choosing 10 deeply technical articles won't serve him now, would they? Maybe it will appear on the searches but are people actually interested in reading them? My question is: should we look in AI search data and keyword data and follow that strategy or stick to information heavy knowledge based content strategy?

It feels like finding genuine creators and getting good engagement is getting more difficult. Is it just me, or are others seeing the same trend?

I’m a 14-year-old running a marketing agency that I started about a month ago. For my age, I’m already making strong monthly revenue with good margins, and I’ve mapped out monthly, quarterly, and yearly growth goals for the next few years.
But even though things are going well, it never feels like enough. I keep feeling like I’m stupid, behind, or not actually as capable as people say. My parents say I’m gifted and talented, and I’m also a high-achieving athlete and student, but I don’t really feel gifted. Since I’m currently injured from soccer, I’ve been putting a lot more focus into the business, and that might be making me overthink everything.
I’m trying to understand a few things honestly:
Am I showing signs of being unusually talented for my age, or is this just early momentum?
Is this kind of business growth sustainable for someone my age?
How should I think about imposter syndrome when I’m succeeding but still feel dumb?
What would separate someone who is “pretty good for 14” from someone who actually has the potential to build a serious company?
What risks should I watch out for so I don’t burn out, become arrogant, or make unrealistic plans?
How should I balance ambition, school, sports, health, and normal teenage life?
Please give me a grounded, honest answer. Don’t just hype me up, but don’t dismiss me because of my age either. I want a realistic assessment of my potential, what I’m doing well, what might be fragile, and what I should focus on over the next 6–12 months.

I've been trying to improve my website's Domain Authority by building backlinks, but the progress has been much slower than I expected. I'd really like to hear from people who've actually managed to increase their DA successfully.

I'm looking for practical, tried-and-tested advice rather than generic SEO tips. I'd appreciate hearing about your real experiences and what made the biggest difference.

Imagine this scenario.

You're hired as the first Growth Marketer at an early-stage startup.

On your first day, the founder gives you one challenge:

Budget: ₹50,000
Timeline: 90 days
Goal: Acquire the first 10,000 users.

You can invest the entire budget in one of these:

• SEO
• Paid Ads
• Content Marketing
• Referral Program

Which would you choose, and why?

There's no single correct answer. I'm interested in understanding how different marketers approach the same growth challenge, so I'm looking forward to hearing your reasoning.

I'm planning to improve my website's SEO and start Google Ads for better leads. While searching online, I came across Hustle Marketers. Their SEO and Google Ads services look interesting, and the approach seems promising.

I'm currently comparing a few agencies before making a decision. If anyone has useful tips on choosing the right SEO agency, feel free to share.

I work at a PE-VC firm. Before joining, I knew almost nothing about the industry, so there was a steep learning curve. I've been here for about two years, and while I've learned a lot, I don't feel like I've actually done much marketing.

A lot of my work has involved data collection, preparing presentations and decks, and supporting internal communication. I don't regret. It taught me a lot about the business.

On the marketing side, I create social media content about our investment sectors, portfolio companies, and any insights or data we can share publicly. I'm also trying to involve different teams in our content by planning videos where they share their expertise and opinions.

The problem is that nothing feels like it has momentum. The marketing team is basically just me, my manager, and senior management. There isn't much brainstorming, campaign planning, experimentation, or creative discussion. Everything feels transactional, and I don't feel like we're building a real marketing function. Is it wrong to think that way? I have worked with teams previously, and I used to get a LOAD of content to post on a daily basis - but here there is nothing posted on a daily basis.

I want to make my work more interesting, create campaigns that people actually care about, and grow as a marketer. But I'm struggling to figure out what that looks like in a private equity/VC environment, especially when the portfolio companies themselves aren't generating a constant stream of exciting news.

Has anyone else worked in B2B, private equity, venture capital, or another industry and felt this way? What did you do to make your marketing more strategic, creative, and impactful? Am I expecting the wrong things from this type of role, or am I missing opportunities that I should be creating myself?

Also, I feel like I have lost my thinking abilities; I seem to struggle with copy and, on the whole, my creative side - I used to whip up copy earlier. However, it feels like it's been a long time since I wrote something genuine.

I think I’ve scored my first big client (buzzing). I’ve done random campaigns for games with budgets below 4k over the course of 2 months, but now I’ve landed a music management client thanks to a friend, with an artist with other a million followers and they want me to run ads for their merch store with a budget of 5k a month to start with.

I want to make sure that 1. Ads are pulling a their shift across meta, Reddit and Google 2. Attribution is accurate and show that ads have made an impact not just from direct purchases but visibility overall (I assume with a million followers and their internal email list, impression sales will get picked up like crazy) 3. How to implement efficient tracking without too much back and forth. - what other pitfalls and best practises should I be looking out for?

I’m already considering wetracked, but what else can I use?

What tools, systems etc can I use to level up my reporting, attribution, client relationship (account set ups,

Two months ago clients started added something new to content briefs, clean writing was no longer enough they wanted actual proof of originality with every delivery. At first it felt personal but talking to other writers in my network it became clear that this is becoming a standard ask specially from clients who have been burned by outsourced content form.
The part that got interesting was when I started running my work through detectors out of curiosity. Same thing but completely different results some gave a single score while others highlighted specific sentences. All give different results on same piece.
What I found genuinely useful was not the overall score but the sentence level breakdown because that kind of specific feedback is actually something you can act on and show a client rather than just a single percentage that raises more questions than it answers.

Is anyone else getting these requests and if a client pushes back on a score how are you handling that conversation?

I’m 17 F , just completed my 12th grade from India . I’m hoping to learn digital marketing as a skill to make some extra bucks while I prepare for med school .
How much can I earn potentially per project as a beginner, where to find clients and where to learn it from for free ?
Any tips I need to make the most out of it ?

Long-time growth marketer and marketing generalist with 13+ years of experience across paid media, user acquisition, and growth strategy. I've worked across health-tech, fintech, and consumer brands managing significant paid media budgets. I also run a small AI consulting practice on the side.

I'm currently exploring what's next and would love to connect with others in the space. Whether that's swapping notes on the current job market, discussing growth strategy, or if you happen to know of any senior growth or marketing leadership roles that might be a fit.

A bit about my background:

• Experience in growth marketing, performance marketing, and AI-assisted automation
• Managed up to $2M monthly marketing budgets
• Led other channels such as SEO, partnership, lifecycle, and others

Not looking for anything transactional as I genuinely enjoy connecting with other marketers and would love to expand my network here.

Feel free to DM or drop a comment. Happy to share more about my background or just connect.

Much appreciated.

Looking for a Meta Ads expert with 4+ years of experience for a paid 1-hour consultation on setting up my upcoming Meta ad campaigns.

If you're interested, DM me with your portfolio to know more details.

I don’t think google ads are working for me!
I started social media content creation for awareness but google ads feel weird. What I often see is blank clicks. Clicks that I pay for but don’t result in the actual view. So many time people click and I see on clarity it’s blank. It doesn’t even load before people leave instantly in 1 sec

This has made me realise that google ads may not be the right option for me 😞

what are the other options good for conversion?