What does a Marketing Cloud Consultant do every day?
If you're getting into the Marketing Cloud world and you want a sneak peek into the life of a Marketing Cloud Consultant... You found your place.
I'm going to share my experience as a Marketing Cloud Consultant.
The goal is to share my weekly experience with you so you can...
Know what it's like to be a Marketing Cloud Consultant.
Backstory...
Here are the Marketing Cloud jobs I've had:
2017 - 2019 - Marketing Cloud Administrator & Salesforce Admin
2019 - 2020 - Marketing Cloud Engineer (aka Implementation Consultant)
2020 - 2024 - Marketing Cloud Technical Instructor
2024 - Present - Marketing Cloud Consultant (aka Technical Architect)
In my first Marketing Cloud job, I learned Marketing Cloud by trial and error.
I had no experience.
But I learned:
Mobile Studio
Email Studio
Journey Builder
Automation Studio
Content Builder
MobilePush
Along the way
It was a great experience.
Then, I became a "Marketing Cloud Engineer" for an agency.
I got to test my skills against big projects.
After that, I became a certified instructor for Trailhead University.
I spent 4 years teaching & coaching people how to use Marketing Cloud.
I helped them pass certs and complete client projects.
It was great!
But it was time to try my hand at freelance consulting.
And that's where I'm at now.
Where I'm at now
This is the first time I've done freelance consulting as a business owner.
I've learned so much about:
LLC's
Business Insurance
Invoicing
It's actually crazy.
It's a bit scary when you run into questions.
But you figure things out quickly when there's a good project on the line.
Currently, I'm working as a Marketing Cloud consultant for a healthcare company.
This is my first week.
And I want to share what I learned with you.
The Goal
The goal of this blog post (and others) will be to:
Document my Consultant journey.
Share my learning lessons with you.
If you're interested, keep reading.
If you're still reading, it means you're still interested.
Thank you - I never take that for granted.
Let's get straight to it.
Day in the Life of a Marketing Cloud Consultant (Week 1)
Week one is all about:
Learning how the company works.
Learning how the company works is so important.
As a freelance consultant, this is a valuable time for you.
You have a finite time to learn the business.
Your goal should be:
To make an impact as fast as you can.
The first week at most companies is about onboarding and learning as much about the company as possible.
To onboard and learn about the company, here's what most companies do:
Require that you do HR Training.
Read Onboarding Documents
But here's how you can go above and beyond:
Read the company Intranet.
Study previous project requirements.
Learn the tools that the company uses (and how to use them)
HR Training is great.
My biggest advice is to take notes and see how the company uses its systems.
Research each system the company uses.
For example, I learned about something called a Quality Management System.
Here's a list of Quality Management Systems.
Pharmaceutical companies use them for quality and compliance.
If I had not actively learned new things in the HR training, I would not have learned about Quality Management Systems.
That's a whole different career path you can take.
I'm sure that there are a lot of recession-proof jobs in the Quality Management CRM space.
But I wouldn't have known about that career field if I wasn't actively learning.
Take the HR training seriously and see what you can learn.
You never know how it'll help you in the future.
People want to jump right into the technical stuff.
But they don't know how the technical stuff impacts the organization.
If you don't know how the company does business - You won't have a strong impact.
If you don't have a strong impact - You won't have a good time doing the contract.
Be the consultant who makes an impact on the entire team and organization.
Your time with the company may extend if you understand how the company works.
If you embrace their way of doing things, there's a good chance that the team you work with will see you as a contributing member.
To recap my journey this week:
My first week has been about:
Learning how the business works.
Here's how I'm learning all about the business:
Doing HR Training.
Researching things that I'm curious about in the HR Training.
Okay...
Let's go to my learning lessons this week.
Consultant Learning Lessons (Week 1)
Three lessons I learned this week:
When you work more - You learn more.
When information is relevant - you learn it faster.
You'll do a lot of Business Analysis work as a consultant.
Let's break each one down.
When you work more - You learn more.
Most people aren't working enough.
Myself included.
But this week, I was in a constant state of working.
And I learned SO much.
I learned much more than reading a book could ever teach me.
I learned about:
LLC's
Business Insurance
Invoice Management
HP Application Lifecycle Management (HP ALM)
Heck...
I created my own invoice management system in Google Sheets.
I don't like how complex QuickBooks is.
So, I created a place to store all the invoices I send to my clients.
It's like my very own custom CRM to keep track of invoices.
It helps me, as a small business owner, save on software costs.
And it shows me that when you work more - You get more ideas.
Ideas come to people who put in the work.
Your brain is constantly looking for ways to grow and expand.
If you work, your brain will naturally expand and get better over time.
You just have to let time do its thing.
It's like getting better at a sport.
The person who practices one day a week - won't be as good as the person who practices everyday (all day long).
The more you work - The more you learn.
When information is relevant - you learn it faster.
I had a guy ask me an email deliverabily question.
i didnt know the exact answer to the question.
So, I've been doing research to make sure I'm up to speed on it.
If he didn't ask me the question, I never would have researched it.
But now I have a reason to learn and understand it.
That's how information should be learned.
There should be a reason to learn new information.
It should be learned on an As-Needed basis.
Not on a nice-to-have basis.
If you read something and have no reason to learn it, you'll forget it... Fast.
That's because there's no use for the information in your brain.
But when you learn something related to a project you're working on, it sticks much faster.
You'll do Business Analysis work as a consultant.
As a consultant, you'll write a lot of user stories.
You'll work with clients who know nothing about marketing cloud
And you'll have to turn those requirements from the client into technical requirements for the team to build
That process requires you to write user stories.
Writing user stories is a skill in itself.
If you learn project management, you'll be a secret weapon for any company (including your own).
The better you get at:
Managing Projects.
Understanding Project Management Tools.
Learning from Project Managers.
The better your odds of using that knowledge for your business in the future.
And the better you'll be at consulting.
It's important to scope and manage a project for any client properly.
If you have that skill - that's RARE.
Hone that skill, and you'll be in high demand.
Learn project management.
If you combine project management with Marketing Cloud - You're a diamond that companies will pay top dollar for.
Conclusion
I hope that helped.
Those are my Marketing Cloud Consultant learning lessons for this week (Week 1).
Here's what we covered:
My Marketing Cloud Journey
Day in the Life of a Marketing Cloud Consultant (Week 1)
Consultant Learning Lessons (Week 1)
Next week, I'll be doing business requirement gathering sessions.
I'm sure I'll learn a lot more.
Stay tuned.
Let's see where this journey leads us.
Kaelan Moss - MinuteAdmin Out ✌🏽
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