Digital Marketing Career 2019- Its Scope and Career Paths

Are you a fresh graduate looking for a trending career option to make your dreams come true? Or just thinking of switching your career to a more interesting and promising career? Whichever be your situation Digital Marketing Career is one of the best choices you can make in this Digital Era. Want more proof?

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“The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.”

                                                                                                                          ~Bill Gates

The Internet has become a part of our day to day life. Anything that we need today is available online and it’s just a matter of few clicks- communicating with each other, shopping, watching movies, paying your bills, planning a vacation, ordering your favorite food from your favorite restaurant and much more. To understand the scope of Digital marketing career, let’s first take a look at how the internet has influenced the market.

While the internet started off as a place for communication, today it has grown to be a huge marketplace that gives innumerable opportunities for businesses. It’s not just about starting an online business or an online store, it brings endless opportunities for all businesses to acquire new customers, engage better with existing customers and reduce the cost of operations. Selling products, marketing techniques, consumer behavior, preferences, every aspect of the business is quite different in the digital world compared to traditional business methods. 

The digital transformation has brought in considerable changes in job opportunities and talent required for fulfilling the digital needs as well. A digital marketer is one of the key roles every company needs to sustain in the digital era. Hence, undoubtedly a digital marketing career is one of the most promising career paths for technology enthusiastic candidates in this ‘Internet dominated’ age.

Who is a Digital Marketing Professional?

A digital marketing professional has a similar role to play as a traditional marketer- attract a potential group of customers to the company or products and thus contribute to the increase in revenue of the company. Just the medium used for attracting the target audience is different in digital marketing. 

Rather than flyers, banners and advertisement hoardings, digital channels like social media, emails, mobile apps, search engines, etc need to be effectively used to drive the target group to the company or products. Thus, tasks of a digital marketing professional can range from creating effective online advertising campaigns, writing informative community blogs, designing well informed and appealing websites, connecting with target audience in social media by posting regular social media updates or working on email campaigns – anything than can be used to effectively communicate with the users ‘online’ looking for information about products or services related to your company.

Future of Digital Marketing

As we already discussed, the increase in the number of internet users has brought in huge demand for digitizing businesses- be it marketing or sales.  Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends 2019 report shows some interesting facts about internet usage and digital marketing. According to this report, the number of global internet users is 3.8 billion which is half of the world’s population.

As you know, there has been a sharp increase in the number of smartphone users, which is a major reason for increased internet users around the globe. It is the right time for businesses to take advantage of this large number of people ‘online’ out there, to grow their business. The report also has some interesting numbers on the online marketing trends and how companies are adapting their marketing techniques to suit the customers.

Given below is a slide from the report showing how the internet has become the major advertising platform in the past years.

It clearly shows that there has been a shift in focus to advertising on the internet compared to other mediums like print, radio or TV. And particularly there is a huge increase in mobile advertising owing to the increasing number of smartphone users. The number of smartphone users is expected to be 3.5 billion by 2020 and 3.8 billion by 2021.

Digital Marketing in India

Interestingly, India has the second-largest internet user base, contributing to 12% of the total number of global users. It is more than the percentage of internet users in the US.

But if you look at the average time spent on social media, it is an average of 17 hours a week, which more than China and US social media users. Digital India: Technology to transform a connected nation report by McKinsey says that the number of internet users in India is projected to reach 860 million by 2023. Even the government of India is pushing the move towards digitization through its “Digital India” initiative.

This definitely shows that companies would target more digitization in the coming years. Digital marketing is going to be one of the first digitizing areas even for small businesses as the digital marketing channels like social media are easily accessible and there is little to stop any business owner from taking advantage of them.

Having seen the numbers on how the digital world is growing day by day, there is a huge demand for professionals with digital skills capable to use emerging technologies. Most of the businesses today realize the potential of digital marketing compared to traditional marketing methods and are already using it. Even small and medium-sized companies rely mostly on digital marketing strategies because of its low cost and high return on investment. More and more companies are adopting digital marketing every day, some are still in infancy, while many are yet to set up a digital marketing strategy. Even those who are already practicing digital marketing are finding ways and strategies to improve their current strategies and keep up in the rat race. 

Hence, digital marketing professionals who can target the audience and come up with innovative and creative campaigns to attract the audience effectively to build any business are in serious demand. Ultimately, every organization is on the lookout for top-notch talent in the area. In fact, there is a huge gap between the demand and supply in terms of skilled professionals and the gap is set to widen in the coming years.

Types of Digital Marketing Jobs

The digital marketing job market is, in fact, booming with brands putting more focus on digital marketing than ever before. There are multiple digital marketing niches bringing in a lot of career paths you could choose from. This wide variety lets you be picky about the type of work you prefer and also the type of company or business you would like to work for. 

Digital Marketing Career Paths

You can become a specialist in any sub-area or handle multiple areas. Some companies would hire a single digital marketing consultant who can help with building and executing their overall digital marketing plan while others may have specialists for each segment. It all depends on the company’s size and their budget.

The major job types in the digital marketing domain are Search Engine Optimization career, Search Engine Marketing (SEM)/PPC career, Social media marketing, Email Marketing, Digital Analytics, Design, Content Marketing, Digital marketing strategist and so on.

Here is a list of career paths in the digital marketing field you can choose from.

General Digital Marketing Career

This career path implies wearing multiple hats, and you often have to oversee all digital processes of a company. Your responsibilities would cover all the digital marketing areas like email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, etc.

You can start your career as a Digital Marketing Assistant, Digital Marketing Associate or Digital Marketing Executive. The next level would be as a Digital Marketing Strategist, Digital Marketing Specialist, etc. And finally can lead the project or company as Digital Marketing Manager, Digital Marketing Director, Director for e-Marketing, VP of Marketing or Chief Marketing Officer.

Digital Creative Career (Web/UX designer)

The website is an essential element of a company’s digital marketing plan. A website is a visiting card for any business, giving the first impression to the customers most of the time. Hence, website design and its user experience are considered to be very important aspects of increasing conversions as well as building the brand reputation. UX designers have to be detail-oriented and help the company create applications and websites that allow users to engage easily and perform the intended actions.

You start as a Web/UX Designer, then a Senior Web/UX Designer, then a Web/UX Manager, then Web Design/UX Director and finally VP of User Experience/Chief Experience Officer

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SEO specialists

More than 90% of the online activity starts from a search engine when a user is searching for any information, service or product that he needs. Every website owner today wants their website to be listed in the search results when users search for products/services related to theirs in Google. This is what Search Engine Optimization is all about. In the SEO career path, you will be solely working on SEO with the aim of ranking your company’s website top in Google and other search engines. SEO is all about organic traffic (unpaid results displayed based on the significance of topics) and will have to work on SEO best practices(like keywords) to rank high on the Search Engines Result Page(SERP) and thus drive traffic to your website.

In the beginning, you will start as an SEO Coordinator, SEO Assistant, Search Coordinator, Search Assistant or SEO Executive. Advancing further as an SEO Analyst, SEO Specialist, SEO Planner, SEO Manager, Search Specialist or Search Strategist.And ending as a Director of SEO or Head of SEO.

SEM/PPC Marketing specialist

Search engine marketing specialists help businesses increase their rankings on search engines like Yahoo, Google, or Bing. SEM is the paid traffic you get to websites from Pay Per click advertisements like Google Ads.

Your SEM/PPC Marketing Career can start as a PPC Coordinator or PPC Assistant.

Moving ahead in line as a PPC Manager, PPC Specialist, Paid Search Specialist or Paid Search Strategist.And finally as a Head of PPC / Paid Search Media or Paid Search Director.

Content Marketing

“Content is the king.

                            ~Bill Gates

This quote by Bill Gates in 1996, is still the most relevant quote in digital marketing. Content marketing is a prime area to be focussed on in the digital marketing strategy for any organization. It deals with creating and publishing relevant content to engage the audience. The content may be anything from a social media post, website content, blog posts, press releases, a youtube video, .an infographic, etc.

You may start your career as a copywriter/Content editor/creator. Advancing further in the ladder as a Content Marketing Specialist/Content strategist. And finally as Chief Content Officer or Content Marketing Director.

Social Media Marketer

If you opt for this path, you would be working on engaging the target audience utilizing social media. It includes running social media campaigns, managing social media accounts, making social media posts regularly, etc 

At an entry-level, you are likely to join an organization as a Social Media Coordinator, Social Media Assistant, Blogger, Community Manager, Social Media Associate or Engagement Coordinator. After you gain a certain experience you can move forward as a Social Media Manager, Content Manager, Content Strategist, Social Media Strategist, Social Media Analyst or Social Media Specialist. The next level would be as a Social Media Director, Director of Digital Communications, etc.

Analytics

Digital analytics is an exciting and promising career path in the digital marketing domain. Digital analytics is all about analyzing the effectiveness of any digital marketing channels such as social media, mobile, website or even email campaigns. Analytics helps the marketing teams make smarter decisions and understand what works or does not work in their marketing efforts.

An analytics professional has to be good in numbers and master tools like Google Analytics, Yahoo analytics, Google tag manager, etc to do the job. Developments in technologies like Big data and AI offers more opportunities for analytics and there is a huge scope for this domain in the years to come.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is all about sending attractive emails to a targeted group to create awareness of your products/services and convert them to your customers. Running email campaigns are a great and effective way to reach your target audience. It allows you to communicate anything with a more personal touch.

Email marketing is one of the first digital marketing activities that any business can think of from the first day of launching your business. It is the simplest but powerful digital marketing activity.

Business/Marketing Strategist

A career in strategic planning involves helping a company design a path to growth and profitability. Creating a solid marketing strategy is essential for companies to survive in the digital world amidst all the competition. The strategic planner’s role consists of helping the company analyze data and make decisions based on insights from the data. They track industry and competitive trends, develop forecasting models and do scenario analysis. The strategic planner also examines strategic performance, spot emerging market opportunities and identifies business threats. Coming up with strategic solutions and creative action plans is their prime responsibility. Strategic planning involves understanding what the organization’s current strategy is, what has been tried in the past and also what it will be in the future. Strategic planners analyze and evaluate internal business plans as well.

Mobile marketing

Mobile marketing is expected to overtake other digital marketing channels in the coming years owing to the increase in the number of smartphone users year by year. The majority of online activity these days is from a hand device rather than from desktops. Hence there is more concentration on mobile marketing and a lot of job opportunities in this area.

Responsibilities of a Mobile marketing professional will include mobile app design and marketing, mobile website management, managing mobile SEO, mobile PPC, and mobile display campaigns, etc. Various career options available in the mobile marketing domain are Mobile app designer, Mobile app marketing manager, Mobile advertisement manager, Mobile campaign manager and so on.

Skills needed for pursuing a Digital Marketing Career

A digital marketing professional should ideally have a mix of soft skills and technical skills. Here is a list of must-have skills for a digital marketer.

Creativity: Be it content creation, designing or working on social media campaigns, creativity is the most critical element to make a brand stand out in a competitive society. 

Communication: Most of the profiles in the digital marketing domain require you to have good command on English and excellent written communication skills to effectively communicate your ideas to the target audience.

Technical knowledge: A digital marketing professional needs to be well equipped with the latest tools and technology for successful online marketing and keep at the pace of tight competition prevailing in Industries.

Experimentation: Digital marketing does not have any fixed rules. You need to keep experimenting on what works and what does not for your business.

A research mindset: A digital marketing professional should essentially have a research mindset and an eye looking for details and dig in deeper. In order to create effective marketing campaigns, a digital marketing professional would have to do intensive research at multiple instances- like research on customer behavior, competitor analysis, research on trends in the business domain, and so on.

How to kickstart your digital marketing career

Kickstarting your digital marketing career is quite easy if you have the skill sets and a positive mindset. If you have a background in any related fields like designing, copywriting, marketing management, etc, you already possess some of the required skills.

Taking up a digital marketing course would be really helpful to fine-tune your skills and be ready for the competition in the industry. In addition to completing the course, an internship, or getting official certifications from Google ( for example, Google Ads certification), Hubspot, etc can make your resume stronger and help you stand out in the crowd.

Pro Tip to kickstart your career: Once you master the skills, your first project would be marketing yourself and your skills to the employers. In the digital marketing world making a digital presence is a key factor. Hence, building your own portfolio like a blog, or a making a strong social media presence to showcase your skills is really helpful in starting your digital marketing career. It also helps to demonstrate how good influencer you are and of course influencing people is one of the key desirable skills for a marketing professional.

To conclude digital marketing career is a promising career path you can opt for today and has a bright future in the coming years. If you have any queries on kickstarting your digital marketing career leave a comment and we will be happy to help. and if you are looking to switch from sales to digital marketing you can read our blog for better guidance. I case if you feel I have missed any points leave a comment as well.