Mastering the Art of Digital Marketing: A Path to Career Success

Such a daunting task it is, deciding upon a career that is both enjoyable and offers stability. You may not have dreamt of a digital marketing career when you were younger. However, here we are in 2023, and digital marketing is one of the most promising careers to master in the years to come.

Ever since the dawn of the internet, we have digitalized ourselves over the years. The digital world has taken over our daily activities and optimized them for good. From ordering food to going to the movies, we are full-on digital, and marketing is a core part of it.

Let’s learn about the digital marketing landscape a bit.

The use of the term digital marketing first occurred in the year 1990. Since then, its landscape has evolved manifold and broadened its horizons. Today, digital marketing has become the linchpin of online success and an impressive career option.

So, if you are planning to start your digital marketer journey, you have reached the perfect read. This blog is a complete guide to a digital marketing career and understanding the scope of it in 2024.

We will explore the various career opportunities in this domain, the skills necessary, and much more.

The Components of Digital Marketing

The internet is a massive labyrinth of information with innumerable number of websites. Likely, some websites are just lost. Remember: what is lost is not sold. So, how does your website skill up? Well, of course, Digital marketing.

What is Digital Marketing?

The process of promotion of goods and services, to the target audience by utilizing multiple digital channels. It could be marketing through various websites or search engines, social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram, popular podcast channels, and more.

Referred to as Online Marketing, the goal is to connect potential customers to the brand via the Internet. Digital marketing is a broad discipline, and as mentioned, it leverages emails, social media, messaging, and more to bring together potential buyers and businesses through advertisements. It helps online business expand their reach and promotes targeted engagement.

Here are some of the core components of digital marketing

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Pay-per-click (PPC)
• Email Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Mobile Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing

Core Digital Marketing Skills

When choosing digital marketing as a career, learning the above core components is a must-have. Each component is meant to complement one another and bring about the ultimate digital success.

However, some specific skills set apart a good marketer and a great one. As a newcomer in the digital marketing field, you must pick up some core marketing skills, both hard and soft, to set yourself apart in the field of opportunities.

Here’s a list of hard and soft skills to hone and stay ahead of other marketers, especially in 2024:

1. Data Analysis – Ability to utilize a wide range of data collected from target market interactions. The interactions could vary from content viewed to products added to the cart; any footprint left at your business is data to be studied.
2. Content – the heart of digital marketing. Excelling in digital marketing is almost impossible without understanding how the audience consumes data. The further goal is to create engaging and evergreen content that is relevant.
3. CRM – Customer relations management by implementing strategies to boost customer experience. In simpler terms, it catches hold of your potential customer’s emotional trigger.
4. Video Marketing – As concluded by The State of Video Marketing Research 8 out of 10 visitors purchase after watching a brand video. 93% of marketers hold video marketing high on their strategies. Why learn it? Because it is engaging and a personal approach.
5. Design Thinking – Approaching problems with a user-centric approach and delivering improved user experience strategies. (Designers & developers already possess this skill to improve their workflow)
6. Design Skills – Since visual content is ruling the digital domain this year, it is highly beneficial for marketers to skill up in design software like the Abode Creative Suite.
7. Communication Skills – A digital marketer with good communication skills is a winning set. They send the right message to the target audience while assessing better engagement strategies.
8. Zeal for Curiosity – For digital marketing proficiency, curiosity is not a ‘good to have’ skill but rather a necessity. Marketing is a constantly evolving discipline, with little to no room for ‘learn once and relax’. One must have a curious brain to gather all the newest upgrades and trends.
9. Persuasion – For a career in digital marketing, the skill of persuasion is a valuable quality. After all, the primary goal of a marketer is his ability to persuade the audience to become a customer.

You may not be able to learn some of these skills immediately but, perfect it with time and practice. Once skilled, these skills are a strong foundation for career success in digital marketing.

The Role of Education and Training in a Digital Marketing Career

There are more than 19000+ e-commerce businesses in India alone. Each brand competes with one another and strengthens its online presence through marketing strategies. As a new digital marketer, it is fitting to get properly trained and equipped in this career to bag the best opportunities.

Advanced digital marketing education and training allow fresh marketers to gain the knowledge and skills to leverage the digital world. There is so much to explore and strategize in digital marketing – search engines, websites, emails, and more. With the right digital marketer by their side, businesses can reach a wider audience base attract them, and improve the brand’s visibility in the long run.

At Webskitters Academy, you can avail of the best digital marketing course with the latest curriculum. This online course is designed to train candidates for the real-world digital industry.

Being the best digital marketing institute in Kolkata, we will help you learn the crucial details that go into building an amazing digital marketing strategy. During the course, you will be trained by industry experts who will train you with practical-based projects and the know-how of online marketing.

Digital Marketing Strategies for Career Success

We are going through a digital revolution; enrolling in a digital marketing course will pay off in 2024. However, apart from learning the course and gaining skills, here are a few strategies to make it big in the digital industry –

1. Learn to network in your relevant field – this will broaden your scope of opportunities as a digital marketing professional. While you can learn from a training program, networking with people in the same field will help you grow.
2. Upgrade and learn more every day – This isn’t a course you learn once and you are good to go. Digital marketing is a rapidly advancing field with trends and algorithms evolving every fortnight. Skill up every day to stay ahead.
3. Adapt yourself to the marketing lingo – It can turn out to be overwhelming in the beginning. However, the digital marketing world has a vocabulary style you must learn to survive in the industry.
4. Gain some basic technical skills – Having communication skills is impressive for a marketer, however, having basic technical skills adds that finishing touch. Basic HTML and some designing skills are all you need.
5. Get certified – As already mentioned, the industry experts at Webskitters Academy diligently train you to master the art of digital marketing and offer certification. This helps you land a reputable digital marketing job.

The Many Facets of Digital Marketing

Multiple components of digital marketing cumulatively make marketing strategies fruitful in the digital world. Each facet complements the other and helps you interact with your potential customers.

While you have already heard of SEO, email marketing, and paid ads (these are the popular ones), there is more to explore in digital marketing.

Here are the many facets explained, and how learning each is a successful objective in a digital marketing career.

SEO: The Foundation of Online Visibility

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a digital roadmap for enhancing a brand’s online visibility. Why learning SEO is a must in your digital marketing course? Because online success does not happen overnight.

SEO is a thorough process of data-driven optimization that allows a brand to make it to the top of the search engine results with relevant keywords.

The optimization flow begins at the initial development stage – starting with SEO-friendly architecture and user-centric web design followed by Meta content optimization with keywords.

In a digital marketing course, you will be thoroughly trained in how to perform keyword research – it is a massive part of SEO and holds the success of the marketing campaign. Other things that go into the SEO wagon are –

• Technical SEO – for the technical aspects of the website.
• On-Page SEO – Optimizing content for search engines and users.
• Off-Page SEO – Enhancing the website’s awareness and improving expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.

The Power of Social Media Marketing

With 4.72 billion active social media users, social media marketing is a treasure trove to boost sales. More and more businesses are turning to social media marketers to enhance brand awareness. This is where a digital marketer’s skills come into play.

69% of marketers are utilizing the power of social media marketing to create a loyal base for their brand. With the right digital marketing course, you can do it too.

Here’s what Social media marketing allows you to do the following:

• Target social media posts for potential customers and interact with them on a real-time basis.
• Strengthen sales and create influential points across the social media interaction flow.
• Engage the audience with new product offerings, discount codes, and questionnaires.
• Genuinely attract customers with relevant information devoid of a sales pitch.
• Study customers’ behaviour and create social media ads accordingly.

Content Is King: Content Marketing Essentials

Years have passed, and marketing strategies have evolved multiple times; Content still is king.

For a business, the purpose of content is to deliver a relevant and valuable message to the target audience and engage organically. The content created is meant to educate your prospects about the brand, the products or services, and the challenges it can solve.

Content comes in various forms – blogs, newsletters, videos, podcasts, infographics, paid ads, and more. This content needs to be compelling and have an effective conversion funnel.

There are three steps of the funnel:

• TOFU – Top-of-the-funnel content highlights the main pain points or challenges a customer might be facing.
• MOFU – Middle-of-the-funnel content highlights the specifics of the solutions and how the product or service caters to the need.
• BOFU – Bottom-of-the-funnel content guides a user into making a decision, most importantly a conversion.

Here are some content marketing essentials to keep handy when opting for digital marketing as a career:

• Understand your target audience properly – what are they looking for from you, what are the challenges, why they need your product or service, and so on.
• Set smart and realistic goals and KPIs – measure traffic change, daily sales, returning customers, social media engagement, and likewise.
• Perform a content audit to understand what type of content is performing better and which content channel needs more attention.
• Maintain a content calendar to avoid getting overwhelmed.

Email Marketing: A Personalized Approach

Email Marketing is a part of Digital Marketing that attracts audiences through email campaigns. There are several types of strategically curated email campaigns. However, what holds a special place is ‘Personalized Emails’.

When asked by top digital marketers, what’s the one quality of a great email marketing campaign? – 33% of them went with ‘personalization.’

The act of targeting emails with specific data for a specific subscriber – it could be their first name, their location, the number of times they visited their website, or how long they have been subscribed to the email.

As Campaign Monitor’s study claims, personalized emails have a 26% open rate and Rich Revenue claims 5.7 times higher revenue of personalized emails.

Paid Advertising: Navigating the Digital Ad Space

A marketing strategy, that involves displaying ads to the target audience – mainly social ads, search engine ads, and display ads. These ads are performed on an auction system, where the advertiser can set a budget and a target amount they would spend and bid per action. In your digital marketing course, you will be taught how to bid the right amount and the various targeting opportunities.

Paid ads platforms have robust analytical tools to study the real-time ROIs of the running ads. Compared to organic marketing, paid marketing is expensive but shows faster results.

Analytics and Data-Driven Decision Making

For career success in digital marketing, a firm grip on analytics and a data mindset is absolute; something you will be taught diligently. One must understand, that the digital landscape is a data-driven domain, and decisions so made can make or break digital success.

With the exponential growth of customer-generated data, analysis armours digital marketers with the right insights for developing and altering marketing strategies.

Mastering Digital Marketing Tools for Career Success

An aspiring digital marketer is like to face multiple challenges when handling real-time marketing projects. Fret not, for there are multiple tools that make the process easier and improve performance.

Here are some amazing tools to master and the best practices in each digital marketing component –

• SEO – Tools that never disappoint are Google Search Console and Google Analytics. The console helps you perform the initial audit and analyze technical issues like indexing, crawling, canonicalization, and more. Analytics is perfect for measuring traffic, conversion rate, and traffic source. Both of these are free tools.

• Social Media Management – Buffer and Hootsuite and mention-worthy tools for social media. Both are meant to manage social media marketing – multichannel post scheduling, engagement measurement, analytics, and more.

• Content – While content is ideas, you will need tools to bring them to life. AnswerThePublic is an amazing platform to gather ideas about what people are asking. Apart from that there is Canva for graphics, Descript for video content, Buzzsprout for podcasts, Grammarly for content check, and Semrush for Content marketing.

• Email Marketing – Several email marketing platforms cater to a variety of needs. Two great ones are Mailchimp and Omnisend. Mailchimp is user-friendly and comes with tips, Omnisend, on the other hand, is built for e-commerce businesses and has a multi-channel approach.

• Paid Advertising – In whichever section you wish to run an ad, they have the ads dashboard inbuilt. For instance, Google has its own Ads dashboard, and so does Facebook.

• Analytics – Apart from Google Analytics, there are two amazing tools behind data-driven decisions – Semrush and Ahrefs. Ahrefs has a detailed toolset for analysis and so does Semrush, both offer comprehensive reports.

Career Opportunities in Digital Marketing

The role ‘Digital Marketing’ is one of the most demanding job roles at present, claims LinkedIn. There are plenty of opportunities wide open under the digital marketing wing. Whether you are a fresher who just completed your digital marketing course, or seasoned, the scope of an amazing is positive.

Here are 7 Career Opportunities to Explore after a Digital Marketing Career –

1. Digital Marketing Manager – Responsible for strategizing brand marketing and handling the end-to-end digital marketing presence. For this, one needs to possess somewhat experience and is meant to lead the marketing team.

2. Search Engine Optimizer – Responsible for optimizing keywords websites for search engine ranking and improving the overall ranking of websites. They are supposed to stay updated about trends and search engine algorithms.

3. Social Media Marketer – Responsible for managing the social presence of brands across platforms, like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. They analyze the performance metrics of each social platform and strategize accordingly.

7. Content Marketer – Responsible for creating content for the brands in any format required – blogs, articles, email newsletters, social media posts, and more. Creating relevant content that engages the audience is the objective.
8. Email Marketer – Responsible for maintaining an email list for brands and interacting with personalized emails to promote products or services, create brand awareness, and announce discounts, offers, and news.
9. Paid Media Specialist – Responsible for maintaining a brand’s paid ads on multiple channels – Google, Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, etc. They strategize the campaigns, target, and bid accordingly to reach the right audience.
10. Data Analyst – Responsible for breaking down data gathered across all platforms and turning it into intelligible information. The information is then used to modify or upgrade a brand’s marketing strategy.

In-House vs. Agency Digital Marketing Jobs

A recent study showed, that about 69% of mid-level digital marketers turn to in-house marketing jobs for improved salaries and greater scope. The grass might be greener on the other side, however, here’s the key difference between an In-house vs. Agency digital marketing job.

In-House Marketing teams manage the marketing aspect of the organization, whereas, Agency Marketing team manages the same for clients and external organizations.

Both have their pros and cons. However, as a fresher with a digital marketing career, it is advisable to begin with an agency job for a broader stretch of marketing knowledge and skills.

Digital Marketing Success Stories to Look Up

1. LensKart’s campaign on ‘Factory Wale Prices, No Middleman’ with Karan Johar and Peyush Bansal.

2. Mahindra Group’s #TogetherWeRise

3. Reliance Digital’s ‘Technology Se Rishta Jodo’

4. Dream 11’s campaign with Kaby Lame

5. McDonald’s #EatEqual

Top Digital Marketers in India to Follow and Learn From

Several notable people in digital marketing have walked the same path as you. And they too started as a fresher.

Here are 3 notable digital marketers in India that you must follow:

1. Sorav Jain – Founder of Digital Scholar. He started his journey into digital marketing at the very young age of 17. He has contributed much to the marketing domain and has trained more than 100,000 marketing students.
2. Prateek Shah – Founder of DigitalDefynd. One of the finest marketers to follow; he trains with Google India, Digital Vidya, and more. His webinars and seminars are highly spoken of.
3. Pradeep Chopra – Founder of Digital Vidya. He is one of the pioneers in the digital marketing industry. He is one of the key contributors to Wall Street Journal and Inc. magazines.

Some other noteworthy names are Deepak Kanakraju, Jitendra Vaswani, Himanshu Arora, and Anoop Mishra.

These marketers are a brand in themselves and they have built it with years of hard work and practice. If you are someone with similar aspirations after completing a digital marketing course, here are a few points to note:

1. Become an expert in whichever field of digital marketing you pick and learn problem-solving.

2. Create an online presence where people get to see your skills. Networking matters.

3. Keep yourself updated, the biggest key to success.

4. Learn from the experts; they have a story to tell.

5. Use digital marketing to promote yourself as a brand.

6. Be consistent.

On a Parting Note

Digital Marketing is a well-paid pursuit – one that offers stability, is enjoyable, and since it is constantly evolving, it is interesting to stay updated.

The year 2024 has more to add to the digital marketing field with AI and Metaverse and other advancements coming into action. Keeping in mind the numbers in terms of growth and the rapidly growing digital world, digital marketing indeed is a promising career to pick.

At Webskitters Academy, we are happy to help you take the first step towards a digital marketing career. Our in-depth marketing course takes you through all the essential components of the domain with real-time project practice. Feel free to check out the course structure. Join today!