Digital Marketing is the process of marketing products or services using Digital Platforms like websites, social media, blogs, video sites, mobile applications etc.
Read Digital Marketing – Why do you need this to stay in business to know more.
Reasons to choose Digital Marketing Career
Digital adoption is increasing at a very fast pace all over the world. See the trends below for Digital Marketing over the years.
More and more people are using digital platforms to read, watch videos, search flight tickets, purchasing products or services and much more.
Digital Marketing professionals are in demand and growing regularly and it will continue to grow for many years.
Both for e-commerce and traditional business, digital platforms provide a great channel to market and influence customers, hence there is a strong demand for digital marketing professionals all over.
More than 51% of the purchase is now influenced by digital marketing. It’s a good time to see what are the Digital Marketing career paths and what is required to enter and be successful.
Is Digital Marketing Right for You?
You can take up Digital Marketing career as fresher or switch from another field and if you want to change your career path to Digital Marketing for better salary or income.
Before taking up any Digital Marketing career path, you need to answer a few questions as below
- Do you have an interest in creative or technical skills that are required in the Digital Marketing role?
- Are you good in understanding customer needs and search intent and map to effective marketing strategies and content?
- Do you like to continuously learn new and exciting things?
Then Digital Marketing is for you and with the right level of guidance and effort, you can succeed in this field.
What are the different Digital Marketing career paths
There are various Digital Marketing career paths, one can choose from depending upon interest and background, they are as follows
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Consultant
- Pay Per Click (PPC) Consultant
- Content Marketing Expert, Blogger
- Social Media Marketing (SMM) Expert
- E-Mail Marketer
- Data Analyst
- Digital Marketing Author, Trainer
- Web,Blog & App Developer
- Digital Marketing Manager
- Digital Marketing Agency
Either one can choose to expertise in the above areas and start his own agency or join any company and start working for them as a Digital Marketing Consultant.
Most of the cases you need to know a combination of above skills if not all to succeed. Depending on your interest you can select the right combination.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Consultant
This is the most interesting and exciting work in Digital Marketing. With SEO skills you are going to help websites come at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) organically.
This needs a good understanding of various areas including some technical skills as well.
There are 3 main areas in SEO to focus, Onpage SEO, Offpage SEO and Technical SEO.
You don’t need to spend a huge amount of money to learn this as there are lots of good content available for free on the internet. But for gaining experience you need to work on these techniques.
Best way to join an agency or start your own blog or provide free service to any NGOs, bloggers or website owners and start doing SEO.
Online Learning Guides
There are various high-quality study materials available on the internet for free and also to buy from video learning platforms like udemy, Lynda.
Some of the links are provided below
- SEO Starter Guide from Google
- SEO Basics from WordStream
- SEO Guide from Search Engine Land
- SEO from Quicksprout
- Technical SEO Guide
- SEO Guide for Bloggers from SEOBook
Tools to Use
You need to use and master several tools to succeed in SEO. There are many free and premium tools available for use.
Apart from key free tools, I suggest using a few good premium tools which will help immensely and expedite the process.
Read 17 Free & Must Have SEO Tools for every blogger for more on SEO Tools
Success Factors
To become successful in the field of SEO you should
- Good knowledge in all 3 areas of SEO
- Regularly update skills on SEO changes
- Improve on Data & Keyword Research Skills
- Select the right set of tools
Pay Per Click (PPC) Consultant
While SEO focusses on organic Search Results PPC Consultants uses paid ad platforms to show advertisements in various type of digital platforms like SERP, Websites, Maps etc.
Google Ads, Google AdSense and other search engine ad platforms provide features to create and manage Advertisements.
Online Learning Guides
Many aspects of SEO will help to work on PPC. Specifically, keyword research is central to make a PPC ad campaign successful.
You can learn more about PPC from below links
- Basics of PPC from WordStream
- PPC Guide from Search Engine Journal
- Ultimate Google Ads by Issac Rudansky
Tools to Use
- Google Ads
- Bing Ads
- Google Marketing Platform
- Wordstream
Success Factors
- Market & Competitor Research
- Keyword Research
- Data Analytics
Content Marketing Expert, Blogger
The centre of Digital Marketing is content. If the content is not appropriate, interesting and engaging then little can other marketing efforts help in order to maximise on the Digital Marketing.
There are high demands for good and creative content writers. If you have a passion for reading, writing and online research then you can take up this exciting career option.
Online Learning Guides
- Beginners Guide to Content Marketing by Moz
- How to do Content Marketing by HubSpot
- Step by Step Guide by Niel Patel
Tools to Use
You need different types of tools to create content, for example
- Content Management Systems (CMS) – WordPress, Joomla, Drupal
- Word Processors – Google Docs, MS Word
- Note Taking Tools – Evernote, One Note
- Sentence Correction Tool – Grammarly
- Content Discovery Tool – Buzzsumo, AnswerThePublic
- Image Editing Tool – Canva, Adobe Photoshop
You also need other tools mentioned ain SEO section such as Keyword research tools, Competitor research tools etc.
Success Factors
- Keyword, Topic Research
- Creating high quality and unique content
- Creating relevant graphs, images
Social Media Marketing (SMM) Expert
Social Medias like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube has opened up a new and engaging channel for Marketers.
All big social media platforms have come up with ad platforms to promote advertisements.
Online Learning Guides
- How to Learn Social Media Marketing by HubSpot
- Social Media Free Beginners Guide by Moz
- Step by Step Guide by Neil Patel
- Facebook Ad and Facebook Marketing
- Pinterest Marketing
- Social Media 101: The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Business with Social Media Marketing
Ad Platforms
- Facebook Ad Platform
- LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
- YouTube
- Twitter for Business
Success Factors
In order to be successful in Social Media Marketing, you need to
- Understand the likes and dislikes of the audience
- Master in creating accurate segmentation for your ad campaign.
- Need to be creative in creating landing pages and ad content
- Analyse and remarket with improvements
E-Mail Marketer
Here you have to create a great e-mail marketing campaigns, landing pages, come up with accurate segmentation by collecting data from customers. This is a rewarding area for both marketers and business if done properly.
Online Learning Guides
Tools to Use
There are several e-mail marketing tools and depending on budget and requirement you can start using the one best for your work. Few top tools are as below
Success Factors
Similar to other areas here also the content and segmentation is very important. Apart from that testing of email campaigns, frequency of e-mail campaigns etc is also very key to success.
Read Is E-Mail Marketing dead? Not if you do these things right to know the best practices for e-mail marketing.
Data Analyst
Digital Marketing produces a huge volume of data which helps Marketers to come up with a proper strategy and refine thereafter. These data give insights about the behaviour, pattern and much more about the customers.
There is a huge demand for Digital Analysts who can analyse these huge data sets and come up with appropriate insights to target customers. Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics and many other Analytics platforms available for this.
Online Learning Guides
Tools to Use
Success Factors
Data Analysis is key for every area of Digital Marketing. If done properly then the outcome of the digital marketing effort will be optimum else you need to refine for better results.
- Understanding of how to use Tool
- Good in Data Interpretation
- Analytics Skills
Digital Marketing Author, Trainer
As more and more business adopt digital channels like website and blogs, more people started selling online there is a demand to train on the digital aspects to all those who want to do Digital Marketing in-house.
Digital Marketing Trainer is also a good Digital Marketing career path if you are good at creating tutorials and have good teaching skills.
You can plan for classroom training as well as creating video materials and use digital platforms like udemy and make money.
Software and Platforms to Use
Success Factors
To become a trainer you need to know a lot on each of the topics of Digital Marketing or at least major topics. For this, you need to read a lot regularly and create study materials using powerpoint presentations and pdf files.
If you are good at blogging and writing books then this career path is for you. There is an overlap between this and Content Marketing Expert. You can do all together if you want to as all needs creating content writing.
Web, Blog & App Developer
Digital Marketing needs digital platforms and for that, we need websites, blogs, Mobile Applications etc.
Creating these sites or applications are easier these days but for an optimised website or blog you need more effort and skill.
Especially when your blog or website becomes bigger in size and content then you need dedicated effort and skills to manage this.
You can take up a career in this area as WordPress or Web developer with good skills in HTML, CSS, JavaScript and related technologies.
Online Learning Guides
Software & Languages to learn
- WordPress, WiX
- HTML, CSS, JavaScript
- Python
Success Factors
Mastering skills on WordPress, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and related web design and development skills are essential to become a good website developer.
Digital Marketing Manager and Specialists
Many corporates have their own digital marketing team and need a manager with the right skills to manage the team for the right outcome.
An all-around knowledge of Digital Marketing areas is required to take up these jobs. If you are a digital marketing specialist then this is for you.
Online Learning Guides
All-round knowledge and experience are required as well as management skills for this. Below content will be helpful but there is plenty of content and certifications available over the internet.
- Google Skillshop
- Google Digital Garage
- Smart Insights
- HubSpot Blog
- Moz Inbound Marketing
- Search Engine Journal
Digital Marketing Agency
If you possess entrepreneurial skills and want to be your own boss and make an impact in the Digital Marketing field then it’s the right time to start your own Digital Marketing Agency.
There is a demand for good and local agencies and you can help local business grow their sales using Digital Marketing techniques.
Online Learning Guides
Success Factors
Planning and execution are very important to start and run a successful Agency.
It’s always good to work as a consultant in any of the above areas and gain proper knowledge before starting your own agency however this is not always true.
Digital marketing jobs & salaries
Digital Marketing jobs are in high demand and also there is a shortage of skills and people in this field.
Finally…
Its time to learn or reskill yourselves and get into this for a bright future. For a details report on Digital Marketing Job scenario please read this.
Once you decide the right digital marketing career path for you then you need to hone your skills and acquire related skills to succeed. Selecting the right certification and courses are important as next step