5 things I’ve learned during my placement at Mearns & Gill

The placement has given me the opportunity to experience agency life, exposing me to a range of different clients, and giving me the chance to work on real client briefs and marketing activity. As my placement draws to an end I have been asked to share 5 things I’ve learned.

During my placement, I have gained a greater appreciation for the importance of research. Whether that is research for my own development, as was the case with learning more about the benefits of Twitter Advertising, or carrying out extensive research as part of a client brief. This has included SWOT analysis and creating target personas as well as evaluating clients existing marketing activity against their competitors.

I have had the opportunity to work with the PR lead and wider team that are creating content every day for clients. This has included copy for web and blog posts, meet the team posts and social content as well as helping with ideas for the Mearns & Gill newsletter. This experience has helped me to refine my writing skills and think more about creating content with SEO in mind.

During my placement, I wanted to learn and understand more about how businesses monitor their online engagement and how to better convert visitors into leads or to make a purchase. Google Analytics offers so much in-depth information on user activity and I was given the opportunity to further develop my knowledge and understanding by completing two courses via the Google Digital Garage.

If I’ve learnt one important skill out of working in an agency it’s that time management, organisation, and how you prioritise your workload is key. Account Managers and the creative team are extremely busy people who usually work on multiple projects and tasks across any one day. At university, my modules last around a few weeks to a few months whereas in the real world, working within a creative agency, you might have just days to deliver a project. Everything from the initial meetings, to creating ideas, planning the campaign, and then delivering the finished pitch is condensed and you need to work fast.

It’s often the simple things that have the most impact! The team gave me brownie points and a lot of love on the day I brought cookies from Costco into the office. Note to self, team treats always go down well.