Digital marketing is a growing field with a lot of new and exciting roles in which to specialise. With so much variation, it can be tough to choose an area to focus on when pursuing a career in digital marketing.
You want to ensure you cover as many angles as possible, especially where your digital marketing education is concerned.
When you have the best education in relevant, marketable skills, you can pull ahead of the competition and score your dream digital marketing job.
The earning potential of a digital marketer can vary depending on the role. The base salary starts at $40,000, with some positions earning as high as $110,000. As a digital marketing contractor or freelancer you can get between $45 and $80 per hour.
If you are looking for a fast-moving, dynamic industry where exciting developments happen every other week, then digital marketing is your holy grail.
Have a look at the incredible range of career opportunities that await:
- Content Marketing Specialist
- Search Engine Optimisation expert
- Social media marketing and managing
- Copywriting
- Branding and graphic design
- Email Marketing Specialist
As you can see, there will never be a dull moment in your digital marketing job. Unlike most other occupations, digital marketing skills are transferrable anywhere in the world. Perfect for those looking for a position that allows them to travel.
To help you achieve your career goals, we have put together this guide detailing the digital marketing skillsets in hot demand right now.
1. The Buyers Journey and Sales Funnel
As you may already know, the beginning of a buyer’s journey starts when they first hear about your company and ends with a sale. And a digital marketer’s role in the sales process is to understand where a company’s prospects spend time online, create content that will attract them into the sales funnel, and keep them engaged while they are there.
Digital marketers are also tasked with positioning the company as an authority in their industry by delivering value in the content they create. As prospects travel through the sales funnel, they move from not knowing anything about a company or its products to a position of trust where they are confident enough to make a purchase.
In short digital marketers learn the skills that will help them recognize where a customer is in the buyer’s journey and what it takes to get them to the next step.
2. Data Analysis and Analytics
Data is the lifeblood of every digital marketing campaign. Without data, a digital marketer is throwing darts blindfolded. Eventually, something might stick, but it will take a long time to get there. So creating actionable knowledge from data with analytics software is a critical role most digital marketing professionals will be expected to perform.
When you know a campaign is getting results, you can do more of the same. If it’s not performing as well as expected, the data will show you where you are going wrong. Not everyone on the team will have a firm grasp of the numbers, so it’s up to digital marketers to explain them in a way everyone can understand.
3. Content Marketing and Content Strategy
You can’t have a successful digital marketing campaign without great content. And a content marketer’s role is to understand the target audience and create the type of material they are looking for. Content adds value, builds trust, and establishes authority.
There are many forms content can take in a digital marketing campaign, and the best digital marketers will be skilled at creating value-adding content in a wide range of media.
For example, a blog post on the company website attracts a prospect through the search engines. From there, the skilled content marketer can develop the relationship by adding value through emails, guides, ebooks, videos, or podcasts.
4. Social Media Marketing
Just about everyone is on social media these days. Companies that aren’t taking advantage of it are being left dead in the water, wondering where all their customers have gone. Using social media to market effectively takes a lot of skill, training, and understanding a demographics mindset.
It’s not about the hard sell; it’s about building brand recognition and trust through consistent posting and genuine engagement. Social media marketing is also about knowing how to manage each platform to play each to their strengths.
Digital marketing experts will be involved with creating quizzes, communicating with fans, developing paid campaigns, promoting giveaways, posting company announcements, and engaging online with customers, prospects, and new leads.
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization is all about getting the company website found in the search engines. The SEO digital marketer will be expected to have an in-depth understanding of not just creating content their prospects are looking for. They will also need a firm grasp of web technologies and how they affect a website’s ranking.
So they will use their skills to promote brand awareness and attract leads through search engine traffic. Content plays a significant role in SEO. However, SEO experts also need to understand the technical aspects that create a great customer experience, such as site speed and mobile responsiveness.
6. Paid Advertisements (PPC, CPC, etc.)
Paid traffic is any traffic that does not come via the organic search results. Effectively managing a paid advertising campaign is a valuable skillset that employers are eager to bring on board. And getting the best return on investment (ROI) through paid ads is critical to a company’s bottom line. Without the necessary skills, it’s easy to spend thousands on ads for no return.
The days of free traffic from social media are all but over. So paid advertisements are everywhere you go online these days, from Facebook and Twitter to Google and Bing. Digital marketers will need to understand how to get the best results from paid ads by knowing their key demographic and creating ads that will appeal to them.
