Specializing in digital marketing can be an engaging and rewarding career. It is also a career that continues to be in demand across all markets and industries due to the heavy reliance on digital marketing to generate business in today’s online world. However, before you jump into a career in digital marketing with both feet you must have a good idea of what you will be getting yourself into.

The good news is you can read all about the most vital things you need to know about digital marketing before beginning a career in the field. Just keep reading to find out more.

Vital Things You Need To Know Before Embarking On A Digital Marketing Career

Prepare to be a lifelong learner

If you are under the impression that studying to become a digital marketing expert is a one-time thing, then you are sorely mistaken. Yes, you can attend all sorts of academic (BA, MA, PhD courses, as well as get qualifications in marketing from professional bodies like the American Marketing Association. However, you will also need to commit to being a self-driven lifelong learner. This is because staying abreast of digital marketing is crucial to your success, and such trends change and develop very rapidly.

You’ll need a robust online presence

When your job is to make sure the right people find the right products and services online, having your own clear and robust online presence is a vital element of any successful marketing career. After all, you’ll want to be able to show that you can do what you promise and the first step in proving that is to make sure people who would want your services can easily find you online, and hear of your services.

Of course, the additional benefit of creating an effective online presence and using your marketing skills is that you will generate customers for your freelance work. Additionally, you will have clear evidence of your skills and can use the data you create from your own website to show how you can launch effective marketing campaigns for any potential employer.

With this in mind, in addition to having active profiles on social media platforms including Linked In and Medium, setting up your own website, and blog is a very good idea.

Roles and salaries of digital marketing jobs

Another thing you need to be aware of before entering into the digital marketing field is the types of jobs that will be available to you, as well as how much they pay.  It’s important to note here that even with a degree in marketing, you can expect to start in a more junior role, such as an assistant.

Just as this digital marketing salary guide shows, such a post will come with a lower salary compared to some of the more senior marketing roles out there. However, it is a crucial part of your career journey as you will get to learn the ropes of how digital marketing works and interacts with other parts of the business you are in.

Resumes matter

Marketing is a creative and competitive industry, and that means you will need to ensure your resume stands out when applying for roles. Unfortunately, a lot of people get this step of their career wrong, and fall back on the the more traditional ways of creating a CV.

Instead, when applying for a digital marketing role it’s best to keep your resume to a single page. Keep sections about education to a minimum and focus on tangible examples of success within the digital marketing field. Provide statistics where you can, and make the benefit of your work clear. Also, add a short section about your values and motivation and how they relate to your desire to work in digital marketing.

Make sure your resume looks just as good digitally as it does print and that you save it in the right format. Add a link to your portfolio of previous work if you can.

Develop an understanding of analytics

Digital marketing is data-driven, which means marketers use data that they collect online to influence the decisions they make. This data is known as analytics, and to be successful and effective in a digital marketing career you will need to know not only how to read and understand, but also how to collect this type of information.

The good news is that it’s not as difficult as it may seem at first, as there are plenty of tools that can provide you will the data you need in an easy-to-understand dashboard form including Google Analytics, Hubspot, SEMRUSH etc.

You will need strong soft skills

Many people focus all their time and attention on digital marketing trends and techniques when entering the field. However, it is also important to remember that you will also need well-developed soft skills to thrive in the field. Indeed, good communication, being able to work in a team, being able to do presentations, and managing your time are all things that will help enhance your performance.

To help you develop your soft skills, you may wish to attend courses designed for this purpose. They are often interactive, and provide you with the opportunity to work in a team with others, so assess your current skill level, and provide you with tips and strategies on how to improve on your weaker areas such as active listening for communication, batching for time management, and so on.

Constructive criticism can be beneficial

Last of all, before you embark on a career in digital marketing you will need to learn how to take criticism of your work in a constructive way. This is because a vital part of getting better at what you are doing is to embrace feedback and make changes in accordance with this.

Of course, getting used to accepting constructive criticism, and working on criticism can be tough at first, because there will be some negative things in there along with the positive stuff. However, learning to not take such feedback personally, and to start regarding it as valuable to your career is vital if you want to continue to success.

Ciao,
Miss Kemya