Digital Marketing Job Opportunities For IT Professionals in 2020 – Updated on 7th January

The world is undergoing a digital transformation in every aspect and there is a lot of buzz around digital marketing as an inevitable need for businesses in the current digital era. If you are an IT professional who is into development, are you wondering why would you even care about digital marketing or what has digital marketing to do with coding? Well, essentially nothing. You can definitely be a great developer with your coding skills and knowledge of different programming languages. But, in today’s job market, you may often stumble upon several job profiles that require you to have a hybrid of skills.  If you would like to know what are the odds of building a career in digital marketing for IT professionals or how can you as an IT professional make a good career by learning digital marketing, read on. We have put together the skills you should focus on and the career paths you can target.

After all, changing career paths are quite normal these days and in fact sometimes very essential to build a more prospective career. If you start as an associate developer in your career, you definitely want to stay there forever. You often have to explore other paths to grow your career. And most of us don’t end up in a career related to our college major these days and when you get to know about digital marketing you may even find yourself more interested in a marketing career. But it’s not only about changing or switching your career to digital marketing we are telling here, but there are also many job profiles in the IT industry as which could benefit from having a hybrid of IT and digital marketing skills and help you build a better career. 

In this blog, we discuss some excellent opportunities that you can pitch into if you have a good understanding of digital marketing and combine it with your experience in IT domain and coding skills.

If you want to transition yourself as a digital marketer, coding, in fact, can become a valuable attribute. Although most of the digital marketing roles essentially not demand coding skills, knowing more about coding means you will be able to run your digital marketing projects smoothly and helps you plan them better as you really know what can be done at the code level. The other way around, if you want to become a successful front end web developer, digital marketing is one of the skills which can be beneficial to understand things better on how to code for websites that work.

With major IT companies and tech giants moving to digital products and services, there are immense opportunities that require candidates with a mix of digital marketing and IT skills. Here are some of the career options that you may consider if you are interested in digital marketing.

Career Options for IT professionals with Digital marketing skills

1. Digital Marketing Professional with coding– A digital marketing professional with coding skills is a highly desirable combination of skills to have and can help you become a better digital marketer than those who don’t have coding skills. You will be more aware of the technology you work with and understand its capabilities, placing you at a huge advantage. You clearly know what can be done and what you are asking the technical teams to do and can lead to better communication with the team.
2. Web developers with digital marketing and SEO skills– Web developers who have digital marketing knowledge can become attractive to businesses and employers because you would better know to build websites that work. An awareness of SEO, content marketing, Paid Ads, design, etc all can be beneficial.
3. Product Manager of digital products– This is one of the most prestigious roles you can aim for. A product manager is often called the ‘CEO’ of a product. As a product manager, you would be wearing multiple hats and should collaborate with cross-functional teams to decide what to build, build the product and finally take it to market. And digital marketing is considered to be one of the most essential areas a product manager should know.
4. Become an entrepreneur– Launch your own start-up (product or services) – If you ever had a dream of launching your own start-up and build your own product or app or even offer your services without working under anyone, you ought to be a good marketer. Digital marketing skills can really help launch your business, establish an online presence for it and become successful.
5. Become a freelancer– If you are bored with the 9 to 6 office schedules and wish to work at your pace and convenience from anywhere, freelancing is the best bet. There are numerous opportunities for freelance web developers. And especially if you have other digital marketing skills, you can offer your services in a bundle as whole package including website development, SEO, content marketing, social media, Paid Ads, etc. You can always get a handful of clients if you can provide quality services for all these together.

Skills Required

You become a more ‘in-demand’ candidate by adding more valuable skills to your skillset.  Here are some of the additional skills you may have to brush up on for that and build a successful career in any of the above paths:

1. Creativity- This is a must-have skill if you want to be a web developer, digital marketer, product owner or manager. Only genuine creativity can help you stand apart in the crowd these days. You should be able to create websites that are really unique.
2. Networking and collaboration- This is one of the most important skills professionals should have in this century. Always stay connected with experts and peers in your niche to stay updated on what is happening in the industry. Networking is an important aspect of ‘marketing yourself’ as well. You should also be able to collaborate effectively with teams to improve productivity.
3. Ability to understand the customer needs and target market- If you want to be a product manager, entrepreneur, digital marketer or a web developer, only if you can identify what target audience needs and understand their pain points, you can build products or come up with experiences that excite and satisfies them.
4. Good understanding of web platforms and social media networks- It is always to keep a close watch on the latest trends in the online world and pulse in social media when you are working in the digital marketing domain.

Conclusion

Taking up digital marketing courses and digital marketing certifications can be a great way to upskill yourself. Mastering many different skills puts you in the advantage of exploring different career opportunities that best suits your interests and become successful and stay competent.