What is Digital Marketing?
Majorly, Digital Marketing is the use of digital mediums and tactics to connect with and influence actual and potential customers at the place where they spend considerable time- the Internet.
With technology pacing at a speed unlike ever before and businesses getting more and more dynamic with every passing day, a professional in digital marketing field is likely to be involved in mutiple aspects of marketing. Here are the general areas a digital marketing professional will get involved in during their career in digital marketing:
- Marketing Automation
- Blogging
- Brand Management
- Web Designing and Web Development
- Social Media Marketing
- Content Curation and Content Management
- Marketing Strategy
- Editing and Copywriting
- Data Analytics
- E-Commerce
- SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
- SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
- Email Marketing
- Mobile Marketing
- Interactive Technology (such as ML, AI etc)
Don’t worry. You don’t have to be an expert in all these areas. However, for a successful career in digital marketing, it is advisable to get training in two to three of the above mentioned areas.
What are the Various Components of Digital Marketing?
Imagine Digital Marketing to be a big fat umbrella. No, a little bigger than that. Yeah, perfect. Now, you would find the following people standing under this umbrella and discussing a brand in the same tone and with the same enthusiasm:
- The muscular Search Engine Optimisation
- The philosophical Content Marketing
- The amiable Social Media Marketing
- The calculative Pay-Per-Click
- The wise Affiliate Marketing
- The sophisticated Native Advertising
- The fashionable Marketing Automation
- The straightforward Email Marketing
- The image-conscious Online PR
- The entertaining Inbound Marketing
You want to be friends with all or few of these people so you can enjoy rainbows of your career and also stand strong through the rains of constant advancements in the economy? Well, stay tuned then. In the next 5 minutes, you will know everything about pursuing a career in digital marketing.
What is a Digital Marketing Professional?
A successful digital marketing professional is the one who is self-motivated to learn about the latest trends in the respective industry, enthusiastic about building a favorable brand image, and passionate about building meaningful relationships with the customers. A digital marketing professional possesses the knowledge and skills to exploit the power of the Internet for posting blogs, creating social media posts, conduct advertising campaigns, creating web pages, etc. Digital Marketing includes the following positions:
- Brand Manager
- Social Media Marketer
- Online Content Developer
- Business Analytics Specialist
- Search Engine Optimisation Specialist
- Web Designer
- Professional Blogger
- Mobile Marketing Specialist
- Email Marketer
- Search Expert
Career in Digital Marketing
With the consistently increasing popularity and usage of the Internet, businesses today have the extensive opportunity to reach out to the world 24/7, influence people through various digital mediums and earn revenues at the convenience of a few clicks. The prevailing need and trend of digitalising businesses have created an enormous demand for professionals acquainted with the art of digital marketing- people who have the knowledge and skills required to creatively utilize the power of the Internet for drawing the attention of prospective customers, engaging the audience and drawing sales and rewards.
What are the Benefits of Pursuing a Career in Digital Marketing?
- You can kickstart your career for FREE
This is probably the best part of a career in digital marketing- you don’t necessarily have to get yourself enrolled in a university, sit for lectures, write exams and score a certain degree to successfully pursue a career in Digital Marketing. Of course, a professional full-time degree in Marketing or Digital Marketing will open more doors for you but online Digital Marketing certification and courses too will open enough doors to travel on a rewarding career path.
- Evolving industry with promising scope
With Internet usage by consumers surging and digitalization of businesses becoming a necessity, digital marketing has become unavoidable. Every company- small or big is constantly seeking professionals who can creatively represent its brand across various social media platforms and engage its potential and actual customers over the Internet and other digital means.
- Rewarding job prospects
Can I be direct? The demand for digital marketing professionals is exceeding its supply. Simple. The multiple career options in the field of digital marketing come with opportunities for promotion and growth. By acquiring knowledge about the latest trends and updating skills accordingly, one can travel a long and rewarding distance in Digital Marketing.
- Your creativity gets wings to fly
Any job in the field of Digital Marketing offers one enough flexibility to try and experiment with different techniques and methods to see what’s working positively for the brand and what’s not. Be it a Content Creator or a Brand Manager, an SEO specialist or an Email Marketer, when you enter the land of Digital Marketing, you are handed over imaginativeness to respond current trends in the industry in respect to the marketing goals of the company.
What are the Disadvantages of Pursuing a Career in Digital Marketing?
- You have to be flexible and be continually learning
If you thought learning the basics and completing some online courses would make you swim adroitly through the pool of your career digital marketing, I am sorry it isn’t that easy. Since Digital Marketing is mostly all about the Internet, a Digital Marketing professional has to constantly learn about the frequently changing trends on social media, updates in the Google Search Algorithm and Ranking System and other relevant trends and changes.
- Extensive competition in the industry
It would have been quite convenient if Digital Marketing was a club only adults with certain dressing sense and attitude could enter but it’s more like a flash mob where anyone can clap around and chill. If you think with certain certification and experience is under your belt and no one can stop you for being Number 1, well, there is a teenager out there write 3 blogs a day, managing social media for a small company and completing 2 online digital marketing courses a day- making himself skillful and employable.
What are the Different Career Paths in Digital Marketing?
There is no rigid career path for entering the domain of Digital Marketing and creating your mark. Thanks to numerous short-term professional online and offline courses, this field is open to students and professionals from different backgrounds. However, here are a few popular career paths:
Free Books, Blogs and Online Courses for Kickstarting your Career in Digital Marketing
Free Books on Digital Marketing:
- How to Use Data Visualization to Win Over Your Audience by HubSpot
- Top 25 Social Media Strategies by Buffer
- The Marketer’s Guide to Facebook by Contently
- Data-Driven Content Marketing by Uberflip
- Building Online Brand Awareness with Digital PR by SEMrush
- Social Media Data Cookbook by Hootsuite
- Conversations, Not Campaigns by Marketo
- The Conversion Marketer’s Guide to Landing Page Copywriting by Unbounce
- Beginner’s Guide to SEO by Moz
- Practical Guide to Data-Driven Content Marketing by SEMrush
Free Blogs on Digital Marketing:
- The Moz Blog
- The HubSpot Blog
- The Content Marketing Institute Blog
- The Copyblogger Blog
- The Search Engine Journal Blog
- The CopyHackers Blog
- The Social Media Examiner Blog
- The Convince and Convert Blog
- The Grow Blog
- The Buffer Blog
Free Courses to Learn Digital Marketing:
- Content Marketing Certification Course by Hubspot Academy
- Introduction to Social Media Advertising by Buffer
- Email Marketing Certification Course by Hubspot Academy
- Online Marketing Certification by eMarketing Institute
- Inbound Certification Course by Hubspot Academy
- Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content by Coursera
- Engaging Storytelling with Instant Articles by Facebook Blueprint
- Marketing with Ahrefs
- Digital Skills: Digital Marketing by Future Learn
- SEO Training Course by Moz
