Association for the Development of Digital Agencies tells us
Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2024 6:34 am
Dmitry Frolov is the President of the Association of Development of Digital Agencies (ARDA), Managing Partner at Webolution, and a certified Yandex expert in training. Those who can do everything themselves teach at Calltouch Academy , and Dmitry is one of them. We learned from him how to make a career in digital, what skills are required, and what else you can do with such a background.
Is it possible to become a digital strategist right away or do you have to start as a junior?
Becoming a digital strategist from scratch is very difficult – you need to have a background. First of all, this is experience working with various tools and good knowledge of advertising channels, such as SEO, contextual and media advertising. In particular, you need to know about the features of channels and directions in order to build multichannel or omnichannel marketing.
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The second is systemic, critical and creative thinking albania phone number resource the ability to understand the product and goals. A digital strategist knows how to set and find new tasks that are not obvious to the customer. All this can be learned. Most often, a digital strategist becomes a marketer who has mastered the tools and works well with them. Then he learns systemic thinking, learns to study products, conduct analytics, form hypotheses and strategy and manage a team to implement it.
How did you start your career, what was your first day at work like?
I hardly worked for hire from the very beginning – I had my own projects or friends and colleagues offered me something to do. But I remember how I came to an internship with my boss – he was a teacher from my institute. He had an advertising agency. I thought then that they would teach me how to make websites, program or something else. But on the first day we didn’t talk about the Internet at all, but discussed business philosophy. My boss had a broad mindset and immediately tried to teach me this.
I started my first day with a dive into strategic and critical thinking, business analysis, goals, needs, and marketing analytics. I learned the tools later. It was surprising to me, but I believe it laid a good foundation around which my career is built.
Please tell us what you are doing now?
I am the head of the Association of Digital Agencies Development ARDA, which has been raising the quality standards of small and medium-sized digital agencies since 2019. We are developing the agency market, improving work technologies and exchanging experience. The association includes more than 150 members, we have many areas of activity.
First, we do everything to ensure that digital market participants communicate with each other as often and constructively as possible, resolve issues, and help each other develop. There are many formats for this: online and offline events, small and large conferences. Just recently, we had a large conference with Yandex, which can be called the event of the year in the agency industry. Every day, 300+ heads of digital agencies gathered offline. There was a rich program of reports, the impact of which we will see later, an informal part after the speeches, and a live broadcast. According to the participants, it was one of the largest and most heartfelt events in the industry.
We also create working groups that describe business processes in the industry. This is a large and complex job, but many agencies are involved in it and are happy to do it. There are already results from the implementation of these processes - in the growth of profits and in the number of employees.
The second direction is structuring the communications industry. Within the framework of the Public Chamber, there is the Coordination Council of the Communications Industry of the Russian Federation, where ARDA is a member along with other associations. We represent the digital cluster and try to build a dialogue with the state in order to synchronize on goals. Together with colleagues, we are developing a classifier: what is included in the communications industry, and what is in digital.
You have serious experience in teaching – your own courses and master classes, you became a teacher at Calltouch Academy. Please tell us what you have learned recently?
I love learning and I do it constantly. I learn a lot, mainly marketing, I study a little philosophy, psychology, mathematics, music and, of course, management. I do all this in parallel. From the latest, I learned an etude on the guitar and for the third time I listen to the management book by Alexander Friedman "You or You". I choose a specific chapter and listen to it for a month, reflect on this topic, and then together with the top management of the team we get together and discuss it. I enjoy watching Skillbox courses to refresh my knowledge of Internet marketing, because the tools and technologies are constantly changing.
Right now I am updating my certification for Yandex.Direct and Yandex.Metrica. As a Yandex training expert, I need to be aware of all the changes. That is why I am constantly learning – there is no other way.
It is probably impossible for a digital specialist to exist in a different rhythm. What other skills are at the top?
Of course, a specialist should understand digital. But I would like to remind you that digital is a tool that serves to improve communications. It is important to understand well what communication is. For this, soft skills must be well developed - to be able to communicate and build interactions using Internet marketing tools.
SEO, context and other areas of digital work are often perceived as some numbers, but in fact we do everything for people and about people. We must not forget how they perceive all this, and make it comfortable.
Therefore, a digital specialist must have a good understanding of behavioral psychology, have developed empathy and strategic thinking.
Is it possible to become a digital strategist right away or do you have to start as a junior?
Becoming a digital strategist from scratch is very difficult – you need to have a background. First of all, this is experience working with various tools and good knowledge of advertising channels, such as SEO, contextual and media advertising. In particular, you need to know about the features of channels and directions in order to build multichannel or omnichannel marketing.
Calltouch
Attract, convert and analyze your customers
Omnichannel Marketing Platform
Read more
The second is systemic, critical and creative thinking albania phone number resource the ability to understand the product and goals. A digital strategist knows how to set and find new tasks that are not obvious to the customer. All this can be learned. Most often, a digital strategist becomes a marketer who has mastered the tools and works well with them. Then he learns systemic thinking, learns to study products, conduct analytics, form hypotheses and strategy and manage a team to implement it.
How did you start your career, what was your first day at work like?
I hardly worked for hire from the very beginning – I had my own projects or friends and colleagues offered me something to do. But I remember how I came to an internship with my boss – he was a teacher from my institute. He had an advertising agency. I thought then that they would teach me how to make websites, program or something else. But on the first day we didn’t talk about the Internet at all, but discussed business philosophy. My boss had a broad mindset and immediately tried to teach me this.
I started my first day with a dive into strategic and critical thinking, business analysis, goals, needs, and marketing analytics. I learned the tools later. It was surprising to me, but I believe it laid a good foundation around which my career is built.
Please tell us what you are doing now?
I am the head of the Association of Digital Agencies Development ARDA, which has been raising the quality standards of small and medium-sized digital agencies since 2019. We are developing the agency market, improving work technologies and exchanging experience. The association includes more than 150 members, we have many areas of activity.
First, we do everything to ensure that digital market participants communicate with each other as often and constructively as possible, resolve issues, and help each other develop. There are many formats for this: online and offline events, small and large conferences. Just recently, we had a large conference with Yandex, which can be called the event of the year in the agency industry. Every day, 300+ heads of digital agencies gathered offline. There was a rich program of reports, the impact of which we will see later, an informal part after the speeches, and a live broadcast. According to the participants, it was one of the largest and most heartfelt events in the industry.
We also create working groups that describe business processes in the industry. This is a large and complex job, but many agencies are involved in it and are happy to do it. There are already results from the implementation of these processes - in the growth of profits and in the number of employees.
The second direction is structuring the communications industry. Within the framework of the Public Chamber, there is the Coordination Council of the Communications Industry of the Russian Federation, where ARDA is a member along with other associations. We represent the digital cluster and try to build a dialogue with the state in order to synchronize on goals. Together with colleagues, we are developing a classifier: what is included in the communications industry, and what is in digital.
You have serious experience in teaching – your own courses and master classes, you became a teacher at Calltouch Academy. Please tell us what you have learned recently?
I love learning and I do it constantly. I learn a lot, mainly marketing, I study a little philosophy, psychology, mathematics, music and, of course, management. I do all this in parallel. From the latest, I learned an etude on the guitar and for the third time I listen to the management book by Alexander Friedman "You or You". I choose a specific chapter and listen to it for a month, reflect on this topic, and then together with the top management of the team we get together and discuss it. I enjoy watching Skillbox courses to refresh my knowledge of Internet marketing, because the tools and technologies are constantly changing.
Right now I am updating my certification for Yandex.Direct and Yandex.Metrica. As a Yandex training expert, I need to be aware of all the changes. That is why I am constantly learning – there is no other way.
It is probably impossible for a digital specialist to exist in a different rhythm. What other skills are at the top?
Of course, a specialist should understand digital. But I would like to remind you that digital is a tool that serves to improve communications. It is important to understand well what communication is. For this, soft skills must be well developed - to be able to communicate and build interactions using Internet marketing tools.
SEO, context and other areas of digital work are often perceived as some numbers, but in fact we do everything for people and about people. We must not forget how they perceive all this, and make it comfortable.
Therefore, a digital specialist must have a good understanding of behavioral psychology, have developed empathy and strategic thinking.