Are you a digital marketing newbie?
Looking to start your career in digital marketing? First things first, heartiest congratulations! Choosing a digital marketing career is one of the best choices you will make. The field has been seeing rapid growth and is, today, one of the most sought-after domains in the field of marketing.
If you are wondering how to get started with your digital marketing career, you have landed on the right page! The field has grown by leaps and bounds, especially in the past decade. Brands and businesses (especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic) have been actively flocking towards digital marketing to promote their products and services.
With the pandemic bringing down the scope of conventional advertising and marketing practices, digital marketing boomed and became the forerunner in the field of marketing.
Customers are today spending more time browsing the internet, and it only makes sense for businesses to tap into this behaviour to reach their target audience online. Digital marketing speeds up this process, helping marketers reach their target markets easily.
Technological advancements and progress in the ongoing digital revolution have pushed digital marketing to the forefront of the marketing field. The online customer-business dynamic has led to the rise of e-commerce. Online marketplaces have replaced the traditional and physical marketplaces, and businesses are constantly looking to enhance their presence online.
Digital marketing helps businesses achieve their target sales and turnover in a much shorter span of time compared to traditional methods of marketing. With developments in the field of technology, automation has taken centre stage in the digital marketing domain. This has made digital marketing more efficient than ever.
This growth in the field of digital marketing has resulted in an increased demand for digital marketing professionals to meet the various job requirements that have cropped up. So if you are looking to build a digital marketing career, now is the right time.
This blog will discuss how to start a digital marketing career. But before we get there, let us discuss the general scope and demand for digital marketing jobs.
Digital marketing jobs – scope and demand
Today, there is a huge demand for digital marketing professionals, especially with the ongoing digital revolution and growth in the field. Even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to thrive, digital marketing has somehow managed to continue to take centre stage and lead the marketing movement.
The demand for digital marketing has resulted in an increased need for digital marketers to meet the industry’s requirements. The field offers a plethora of opportunities for both freshers and experienced professionals alike. If you are looking to lay the foundation of your career in digital marketing, now is the right time to do so! Before we go on to discuss how to get started with your digital marketing career, let us discuss a few job roles,
The demand for digital has resulted in a subsequent rise in the need for digital marketers to meet the industry’s requirements. Before we discuss how to start and build a career in digital marketing, let us discuss the various job roles that the field offers for you to take up:
- Social Media Managers: Digital marketing involves a lot of social media activities, and social media manager plays a great role in starting your career in digital marketing. They usually take care of a brand’s all-around social media marketing activities.
- Digital Marketing Specialists: This is a more intense role as digital marketing specialists handle a brand’s digital marketing campaigns that involve budgeting and financing. They are responsible for running ads across digital platforms and ensuring the brand receives solid leads and conversions.
- Content and Copywriters: Content and copywriters are the ones that define a brand’s language and style of communication. Any piece of communication that goes out on behalf of the brand will have to pass through the content team and with their approval.
- Content Strategists: They take care of building social media and digital marketing content strategies for brands. They conceptualise engaging campaigns for brands and ensure they are successfully executed.
- UI and UX Designers: They work on creating user-friendly designs and interfaces according to the needs of the brand or business. They predominantly work on translating straightforward brand communication into visually appealing messages.
- Web Developers: They build websites and are responsible for maintaining them as well as working on their functionalities.
- SEO Specialists: SEO professionals make sure that the brand has a strong presence on Google. They also ensure that the brand ranks on the first page of Google’s SERP.
The best part about a career in digital marketing is that the field welcomes both freshers and experienced professionals with open arms. If you want to equip yourself with the required digital marketing skill, you can take up an online digital marketing course before you begin your career in the field. Certification in the subject is definitely an added advantage for you and will give you a competitive edge over the rest during your job hunt.
Digital marketing professionals are high in demand, and choosing a career in digital marketing will prove to be fruitful!
Get started with your career in digital marketing
A career in digital marketing can be very rewarding, and as discussed earlier, the field is very giving for professionals as well as the clients associated with it. Being a rapidly growing field, digital marketing offers great scope for aspiring professionals. Let’s see what you can do to get a great kickstart to your digital marketing career.
- Understand the basics of digital marketing
Any field requires you to learn the basics. The field of digital marketing is much more than just social media marketing. You need to develop a flair for marketing for you to excel in your career in digital marketing. Therefore, focus on learning the basics of digital marketing, as it will help you grow effectively up the career ladder. As a digital marketer, you must have an overall idea and understanding of the many processes involved in digital marketing.
- Stay updated with the latest trends
Digital marketing is all about trends and adapting to them as and when they pop up (which is every other day!). As a digital marketer, you need to constantly watch out for trends and be proactive in adapting to every relevant trend that comes your way. Staying updated with trends will help you immensely in your career in digital marketing.
If you are enthusiastic about the latest trends, you will be considered an efficient digital marketer, which will subsequently help in the growth of your career. You will always fall behind in your career in digital marketing if you fail to hop on to trends in the field.
- Practice makes a digital marketer better!
Whatever knowledge you gain, it is the application that will actually help you improve and learn more about the field. In order to get a better understanding of the nitty-gritties of digital marketing, be actively involved in the various processes, including social media, SEO, digital advertising, web development, and more. Go after internships and freelance projects, for starters, in order to get hands-on experience in the different domains of digital marketing.
You might even get to narrow down and pick your niche. Start practicing for a better digital marketing career.
- Learn digital advertising (ads)
The advertising part in the process of digital marketing is one of the most crucial parts that you must know in order to be a successful digital marketing professional. If you are looking to build a successful career in digital marketing, you need to learn the art of planning, strategising, and setting up ad campaigns and generating quality leads and conversions.
Digital advertising is what drives actual sales for brands, helping them grow online.
- Get certified!
Although the field of digital marketing is open to freshers with qualifications in any field (preferably marketing), you will always have the edge over the others in the job hunt process with a certification in digital marketing. Most institutes offer additional certifications, including Google Ads, Google Analytics, HubSpot Content Marketing, HubSpot E-mail Marketing, HubSpot Inbound Marketing, HootSuite Social Media Marketing, and more.
If you want to earn certifications, take up a digital marketing course. Digital marketing courses help you gain an overall understanding of the field and equip yourself with the necessary skills to excel in the digital marketing industry.
- Be open to entry-level jobs
As a digital marketer who is starting out as a fresher in the field, you won’t face any issues in bagging a job. However, most job openings will be entry-level jobs, and you must willingly accept entry-level offers. Once you get into the field, even with an entry-level job, you will be able to see good growth upon proving yourself. So, don’t hesitate to take up entry-level jobs when you start building your digital marketing career.
These are a few things you can do to successfully lay the foundation of your career in digital marketing. Being a promising field with immense growth potential, digital marketing is a very lucrative field that offers a plethora of opportunities for you to take up and thrive. With a flair and passion for marketing, you will be able to build a solid digital marketing career!
Author Bio
Karthik
Karthik is a digital marketing head who leads the SEO and development team at echoVME Digital, a leading digital marketing agency in Chennai, India. In addition to this, he is also a trainer at Digital Scholar. With a decade’s experience in the field, he is a hard-core SEO professional who is the go-to person for any digital marketing and SEO-related queries.
