Digital marketing is emerging as one of the preferred career choices around the globe. If you take a close look, every small business and large enterprise has a website, blog, and social media accounts to further their marketing strategy and goals. So, it’s the perfect time to build an exciting and rewarding career in digital marketing when more and more people are opting for online purchases over traditional brick and mortar premises. Although it’s a million-dollar opportunity; business owners look for a few key competencies and hands-on experience before hiring digital marketers. Therefore, it’s important to prove your marketing skills to recruiters to have an edge over your counterparts.

The $146 Billion Opportunity for Digital Marketers

Yes, that’s not a typo. Research giant Forrester states that digital marketing spends are going to reach $146 billion by 2023. With the evolution of online marketing, marketers are no longer restricted to costly advertising budgets for brand awareness and lead generation. Yes, advertising is a crucial component of digital marketing campaigns, but there are multiple channels to explore. The job of a digital marketer is to identify the right channels to promote a product and attract leads. It’s called inbound marketing, where a prospect finds your business via any online channel and shows interest in buying your products and services.

The Qualities of a Qualified Digital Marketer

Any individual with an undying passion for marketing qualifies to become a digital marketer. Whether you are a college student, a professional looking to switch careers, or a business owner; digital marketing is open to all. All you need is the zeal to learn the concepts, implement, and experiment to generate results for a business. You have to be curious and data-driven to be successful at digital marketing; however, it’s important to start on the right foot. 

The Crucial Components of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is an amalgamation of different strategies that helps a business convert users into customers. The process starts from product discovery to competitor comparison and then, signing-up for a demo to explore the features and to make a purchase decision. Intelligent digital marketers understand the pain points of their prospects in detail and create detailed buyer personas for accurate targeting over different channels. Here’s a list of digital marketing skillset that recruiters look for:

SEO: SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and aims at fetching higher search engine rankings for a range of high purchase intent keywords. An SEO specialist is in charge of understanding search engine algorithms and designing strategies to dominate the first page of Google for better business credibility and lead generation. With the inception of Amazon Alexa like devices, voice SEO experts are also in huge demand.

Content Marketing: Traditional billboard advertising costs a fortune, so content marketing is the new trend to attract customers. Businesses churn a lot of content to build product awareness via blogs, videos, case studies, and whitepapers. Therefore, content writers and marketers are always in high demand to run the content engine.

Social Media Marketing: Social media is the hotspot for marketers because customers spend a lot of time on accounts like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Therefore, social media marketers practice diverse social listening skills and the knowledge of trending topics to garner likes, comments, and engagement on different social media platforms.

Email Marketing: Email marketers are responsible for designing email campaigns and nurturing leads until they become paying customers. It requires hands-on experience on different tools such as Aweber, Hubspot, and Mail Chimp to create and monitor campaign results.

PPC Advertising: Paid search is one arena where businesses allocate dedicated advertising budgets for Google adwords and display ads. Businesses leverage PPC ads to generate leads quickly before the organic engine starts kicking-in. 

Website Analytics: Marketing efforts can only survive by understanding user behavior. Website analytics helps a business understand customer preferences via page-level metrics such as average session time, bounce rate, and point of entry and exit. 

How to Build Digital Marketing Skills

You don’t require a university degree or hefty tuition fees to become a prodigious digital marketer. First and foremost, your job is to learn the fundamentals and check out how your interests are shaping. You can find plenty of online resources to kick start your digital marketing journey. Most courses are self explanatory and even instructor led with doubt removal sessions to help you gain a holistic understanding. You can hop on to the following online resources to get started:

1. Google Digital Unlocked

2. Hubspot Inbound Marketing

3. Udemy

4. Udacity

5. Coursera

Simply search for a digital marketing course and you can sort according to user reviews, instructor ratings, freshness, and more.

Online Learning vs Offline Learning: Striking the Right Learning Path

Every aspiring digital marketer has a preferred learning path. While online courses are fabulous at brushing fundamentals, industries work in a different manner. You can only land a decent role in digital marketing when you have hands on experience to testify your experience. Let’s take an example. Imagine if:

• You create a website or blog

• Implement SEO to drive real, targeted traffic with crisp numbers

• Generate a range of content to attract customers across the marketing funnel

• Run advertising campaigns to get leads and record numbers

• Run a email marketing campaign and keep the results handy

Or, you go for an interview with plain theoretical knowledge. What’s going to create a better impression? Your real-world digital marketing skills. That’s when you can go for a long term program with an offline digital marketing institute that not only teaches you the basic concepts, but also helps you practice them at a business scale. You get support across every module with enough handholding to clear any digital marketing interview with confidence. Here’re a few reasons to consider offline coaching as well:

• Better concept clarity
• Personalized attention
• On the Go Support
• Quicker Theoretical and Practical Learning
• Industry Support
• Placement Assistance

Reputed digital marketing institutes have industry tie-ups to ensure you get an opportunity in-line with your skillset. You can practice the skills under the mentorship of experienced digital marketing professionals who can guide you throughout your journey. Moreover, you can also get a professional certification to vouch for your skills. When you leverage this blended learning model, you can land the right opportunity in no time. That’s because online resources are good at paving the foundation, but it’s networking and industry exposure that secures you a high paying job. That’s when digital marketing institutes can save your day.

Hit the Digital Marketing Superhighway With Networking

Once you start networking with industry professionals via Linkedin, referrals or any other sources, start documenting the results like:

• The percentage of search traffic you increased for a client
• The number of leads you scored via paid campaigns
• The count of marketing qualified leads you delivered through email marketing
• The overall engagement your content brought in the form of shares, likes, and reshares on leading platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin

Depending on the digital marketing area you choose to excel, the results are metrics are going to be different, each having its own value. Create a strong portfolio before you appear for any interview and rehearse the exact steps you took to bring those results. If possible, prepare a powerful presentation to impreRemember that unique efforts are valuable and cherished all across the industry.

An Ocean of Opportunities are Available for Digital Marketers: Are You Ready?

According to Glassdoor, the average pay of a digital marketing expert in the USA is $57,473 and there is no dearth of opportunities in India as well. You can function as an SEO expert, content marketer, email marketer, or the all-round digital marketing consultant wearing multiple hats to supercharge lead generation. Ideally, you can start your career as a digital marketing executive to perform the groundwork and work your way up to become marketing manager, digital heads and so on. Apart from corporates, you can also land independent gigs as a qualified digital marketing consultant. Start your career in digital marketing with the right approach, and soon you can reach the pinnacle of your career.