Looking for a new job under normal circumstances can be a daunting prospect. Add a global pandemic and the worst economic crisis the UK has seen in over a decade, and job seekers face a perfect storm.

Sarah Minto caught up with one of our marketing candidates to find out about her recent experience of looking for a job, and the importance of digital marketing for businesses right now.

​How have you found looking for a new job during the pandemic?

​Personally, for me, the job search was no different than pre-pandemic. I feel I'm quite lucky in that sense because over the past 5 years I've been lucky enough to have had jobs that have given me experience in all aspects of digital marketing. Working with recruiters during this time round has been great, especially with NRG. Recruiters seem to be going above and beyond right now in order to secure roles for job seekers. Actively asking all their connections within the industry of jobs they might consider hiring for instead of waiting for those jobs to become available. It really does make you feel like they have your back and want to get you back into full-time employment quickly.

​What advice would you give to people looking for a new role in marketing at the moment?

​For new graduates or people wanting to move into marketing, demonstrate your passion and enthusiasm by doing free courses online, such as Google Digital Garage. Volunteer for magazines, online publications, charitable organisations and prove how much you could bring to a company.

What I found worked in my favour was not only sending my CV and cover letter but also my portfolio. This swayed a lot of hiring managers to select me for interviews. Itgave them a look at the roles I'd done previously, campaigns I'd worked on, and case studies of my work. This proof of my ability to deliver results as a digital marketer is what won me those interviews and landed me a new job.

​What is the importance of social media and content marketing right now?

​They are absolutely crucial right now. Digital marketing should be at the forefront of every marketing strategy. More and more businesses are committing to remote work and we're spending more time online now. Businesses need to make their mark online and be seen and heard. The post-COVID world will move on without those that don't. Social media sites such as Twitter and Tik Tok are growing at such a fast rate right now. Embrace the early opportunities to grow your audience or be left behind. Now is the time to experiment with that digital strategy. By doing so, you'll have the best digital engagement and online brand building strategy for your business.

​What are your favourite social media campaigns and why?

​Personally, Innocent Drinks has always been incredible at understanding their audience and creating fun campaigns around that. Their Twitter account is filled with hilarious tweets. Engagement rates are fantastic. Their 'It's Blue' campaign proved how much fun they were as a brand and made you want to search out the drink in stores itself to see if it actually was blue or green as some people argued! It was also a creative way to encourage engagement by having everyone argue over the colour. It worked on a lot of levels.

Lidl's parody of the John Lewis' Elton John Christmas Ad is another favourite of mine. It did three things really well. Understand their audience. Send out a hopeful message. And piggyback off an already established successful campaign by a competitor.

Lidl also had a Christmas campaign called #LidlSocialPriceDrop that promised to drop the price of their more expensive items such as Lobsters if people shared their social media posts. This worked so well and increased their in-store visits, and items usually sold out within a day or two.