Here is How You Build a Career in Digital Marketing  

Digital marketing is among the fastest-growing fields today. Thanks to rapidly evolving technologies, marketers are getting amazing opportunities to tell stories and build brands. Building a career in digital marketing is a great way to discover growth and flexibility. So, what do you think? Are you ready to pursue a digital marketing career? In this blog, we’ll cover everything you need to know to get started including vital skills you need to hone to excel as a digital marketing professional. What Is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is a broad term describing the promotional online efforts that companies use to reach and engage an audience. The goal of digital marketing is to grow revenue. Consumers have evolved, and marketing strategies have had to follow suit. Digital marketing aims at reaching potential clients and customers online and in highly relatable and targeted ways. Examples of digital channels where potential clients can be found include websites, mobile apps, email, streaming commercials, and social media.

Which Type of Digital Marketing is Considered Best?

It’s difficult to say which type is best as it depends on the business, the product being sold, and the target audience. However, content marketing is a great option for a wide variety of situations. It’s affordable and provides a fantastic return on investment, making it preferred by many organizations.

Why is Digital Marketing so Popular?

Unlike outbound marketing methods that seek to push messaging far and wide, hoping it resonates with potential consumers, digital marketing has the ability to target specific audiences. It has a higher return on investment since brands can target people who are already interested in products or services.

What is the Current Scope of Digital Marketing?

A recent survey reports more than five billion internet users globally—about 64% of the global population! The scope of digital marketing is increasing as the number of active internet users is expected to grow further and hit 6.54 billion by 2025. It will go beyond social media, email, content marketing campaigns, and paid search, extending to podcasts, video marketing, and data analysis.

Why Choose a Career in Digital Marketing?

A career in digital marketing comes with several benefits, including:

Earnings

Digital marketers are in high demand and receive competitive salaries. Provided you have the skills and/or experience and can show your achievements, you can negotiate and get a great starting salary to match.

Opportunities for Career Growth

Job security is among the factors many people consider when choosing a career. Everyone wants to join a strong and evolving industry. As more and more of the world’s population moves their media habits online, there’s an extremely good chance that the field of digital marketing will continue to grow.

Versatility

Jumping into a new job in a brand-new field can be daunting. You may need to take extra courses or even earn a degree. The good news for those looking at digital marketing is that you can break into this field with very little formal training. Look online for cheap courses to give yourself an edge.

The Skills You Need to Get Hired as a Digital Marketer

Digital marketers need to have a combination of soft and technical skills. The technical ones include knowledge in affiliate marketing, content marketing, email marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, marketing analytics, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, and data analysis.

On the other hand, soft skills typically required in digital marketing include creativity, strategic thinking, strong writing and communication skills, and adaptability. If you hone these skills and are able to showcase them through a portfolio, you stand a great chance of working as a digital marketer.

You will also need to leverage the 7 Cs of digital marketing. These are scalable and reproducible frameworks aimed to help marketers achieve their objectives. The 7 Cs include:

Customer

Focus on the customer regardless of your business plan or marketing strategy. Understand their preferences, interests, and buying behavior so that they can relate to the message you send to them.

Content

Besides creating original, high-quality, and expert content, digital marketers should use inventive content formats rewarded by the current search engine algorithms.

Context

Marketers should know the wider context of their target audience to ensure the message’s effectiveness. They should consider buyer intent, compare it to current events, and create and promote content that is relevant to their audience’s needs.

Community

Implement a community marketing strategy to engage your audience in a non-intrusive, transparent, and natural way.

Convenience

Customer convenience is the ease with which consumers can use a business’s products and services. Digital marketers can use customer convenience as a creative lens through which to improve their efforts.

Cohesion

Digital marketers should deliver the same service, content quality, and brand values in any digital channel used. The goal is to bring all platforms supporting a business under a single, multi-channel marketing strategy.

Conversion

After leveraging valuable resources to develop a strong digital marketing strategy, you should measure the success of your efforts. Conversions are desired actions that help a business achieve its goals, from successful sales to signups for your newsletter. Tracking conversion helps determine whether any improvements you made in an online strategy yielded the desired outcomes.

Career Opportunities in Digital Marketing

The digital marketing industry has a broad array of career options. Examples of job profiles you can choose from include mobile marketer, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) manager, paid media specialist, digital content writer, web developer, data analyst, digital graphic designer, copywriter, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) manager, and more.

You are also not restricted to just working for an organization or agency. You can become a freelancer and work remotely as a digital nomad. These working arrangements allow you to enjoy the variety that comes with working with different clients and offer freedom in your career.

Start Your Digital Marketing Career

If you have a skill or a degree in designing and copywriting, marketing management, and web development, you already have a ton of skills you’ll need as a digital marketer. However, you may still have a lot to learn before you’re ready for your first day on the job. Consider taking a digital marketing course from a reputed institute. It’s the best way to ensure you have the tools you need to succeed in your career.

University of the People has a certificate program in marketing that offers deep insight into digital customer behavior and strategies to reach the target audience and enhance engagement. Our program provides specialized skills and knowledge in several key areas of marketing. The topics covered in the program include consumer marketing, positioning, business management, distribution, target marketing, and how to overcome the challenges of e-commerce. You can also alternately earn a certificate in business administration to learn how to deal with clients.