How to Become a Digital Marketing Specialist? [ In-Demand ]

Last updated on 11th Jul 2020, Blog, General

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is the combination of all the marketing efforts a company uses via digital media to connect with potential customers, such as websites, email, search engines, and social media. Marketers connect with consumers on devices like phones, tablets, and laptops. It involves understanding where your potential customers will be online, what device they will use to connect, and meeting them there.

Digital marketing differs from its traditional counterpart in that traditional marketing campaigns focus on selling the customer a product. Digital marketing focuses on providing value to potential customers where and when they need it. The goal of digital marketing efforts is to put what a person wants or needs in front of them when and where they are looking for it.

Digital marketing is an umbrella term, and there are many specialized jobs involved in the industry, including SEO, social media management, content marketing, data and analytics, and PPC to name a few.

Traditional advertising is no longer as effective as it used to be. Companies must now provide meaningful content to consumers and allow themselves to be found quickly and easily online. A digital marketing specialist is someone who works alongside a company’s marketing team to identify a target market, create a brand image, and create and maintain a marketing campaign for the internet and for digital technologies.

Marketing specialists can choose to specialize in certain areas, such as search engine optimization (SEO), paid search (PPC), display media, social media and shopping feeds. Additionally, they can have a more general digital marketing expertise and can still be referred to as a digital marketing specialist.

How to Become a Digital Marketer

Aside from the professional skills and the education you possess, digital marketers bring a certain attitude to the table. They are go-getters and thought leaders. If you want to be one, you will need to think like one. The best way to do that is to learn from them.

Take an Internship

If you are just starting out, an internship can help you gain experience and expand your portfolio. Being around other industry professionals will give you exposure to the different aspects of digital marketing and help you determine which is your preference.

Digital marketers today understand that the field is growing at such a rate that sharing industry secrets isn’t creating competition or taking business away. Many digital marketers will not only tell you what they did, but they will share with you case studies showing you how they did it. Watch them, listen to them, sign up for their emails.

Network, Network, Network

You want to be a digital marketer, so go where digital marketers are and talk to them. Attend networking conferences or sign up for online groups. Often, it’s from these places that unexpected opportunities are born, and they can be great learning experiences.

Always Be Upgrading

Whatever you are good at, you should strive to be better. And if there is something you need to work on, there’s nothing stopping you from mastering it. As a digital marketer, you will always be upgrading your skills, and there is no shortage of courses, eBooks, and webinars both free and paid to help you keep your skills fresh.

7 WAYS TO BECOME THE BEST DIGITAL MARKETER

In the modern world, our lives are much more intertwined with the digital world than they were even ten years ago. In fact, over half – 53% – of the world’s population can currently access the internet from various mobile devices, with 42% of people having access to the internet.

With so many people playing, working, and shopping online, it’s no wonder that digital has moved to the forefront of the marketing department’s priorities. From maintaining relevance in their customer’s mind to building a profitable brand, companies, organizations, and businesses are starting to invest a lot in digital marketing.

Whether you’ve set your sights for a future career as a digital marketer or want to level-up your skills, certain tactics and steps can be taken to find success in any position. Between working for yourself as a freelancer and landing a high-level digital marketing position in an organization, there are a variety of jobs available to those with relevant and up-to-date skills.

So what can you do to become the adaptable, in-demand digital marketer that companies are seeking? Here are 7 key tips that will help you specialize, strategize, and streamline your career as a digital marketer.

1. Attend Networking Events

Although knowledge and information on digital marketing are widely available from sources such as podcasts and online articles, investing in a trip to a professional conference offers you benefits that other informational sources just can’t.

At these conferences or networking events, you have the opportunity to listen to global industry experts, take advice from best-in-class digital marketing professionals and get a glimpse of the direction that the digital marketing industry is heading in. They are often full of interesting events, workshops, and lessons, all geared to help you enhance your skillset and expand your understanding of why you do what you do.

Not only can these local or international conferences revamp your professional skills, but they give you the opportunity to build better professional interpersonal relationships.

2. Learn from Digital Marketing Brands and Entrepreneurs

If you’re considering or just starting out in a career in digital marketing, making the investment in a professional digital marketing conference may sound like too big of a leap. Luckily, there is a variety of progressive and informative content online geared towards making your career in digital marketing a success.

These digital marketing ‘thought leaders’ have the experience, expertise, and knowledge needed to create digital content that is extremely accessible for beginners. And since most of these thought leaders are digital marketers themselves, they know exactly how to make their informative content easy to find on search engines and across social media platforms.

Chances are you’ve already seen articles from digital marketing experts like Neil Patel and Service as a Software (SaaS) providers such as HubSpot. These professionals have created content directed towards industry newcomers and high-level marketers alike, helping you reach your goals as a digital marketer in a field that can sometimes feel like it is continually changing.

3. Connect with Like-Minded Individuals

As a digital marketer, a large part of what you do is developing communities online. Whether it’s around your personal brand or for a global organisation, an active community can make or break your business. So why wouldn’t you want to be actively involved in a like-minded community of digital marketers?

Active digital marketing communities either online or offline can help you recognise the importance of what you do and how it fits within the ‘big picture’ of your business and your life.

When you’re able to communicate your frustrations openly or simply ask a question about an area of digital marketing you’re unfamiliar with, you can gain confidence in your abilities and push yourself to both learn and try new strategies and processes.

4. Find a Digital Marketing Internship

Like with any internship position, many individuals take them for the opportunity to be exposed to a professional environment that pushes their capabilities forward. An internship is often challenging, but when you’re surrounded by the right team of professional marketers, you can learn from both the mistakes and successes they’ve experienced over the years.

Not only an internship can help you expand your digital marketing portfolio and experience, but it can help you determine what you appreciate in a work environment.

As there are so many facets of digital marketing, you may find that you appreciate solitude when trying to write creative content, or instead that you thrive completing a collaborative content strategy to push a new product or service.

Although you can take the time to learn and experience facets of digital marketing for yourself, an internship will put you face to face with the real-world roadblocks that marketers must overcome and the processes that help them become the renowned marketing team that they are.

5. Become a Member of a Professional Body

Did you know that becoming a certified member of a professional body isn’t just for service-based careers like architects, solicitors, or doctors?

Digital marketing is a necessary and growing industry around the world, meaning that being a member of a professional digital marketing representative body can help you stand out from the competition when trying to land your dream job.

Often, becoming a part of a professional body can only be achieved after completing a certificate program. For digital marketers, a Digital Marketing Professional Certification training course can qualify you to be a certified digital marketing professional. These courses often cover essential facets of digital marketing, including:

• SEO
• PPC marketing
• Email marketing
• Social media management

6. Stay Up to Date on the State of Digital Marketing

In the same way that programs, apps, and social media platforms are ever-evolving, so is the way in which digital marketers must interact with audiences. From keeping up with popular online acronyms to knowing how artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting the way people use technology, the world of digital marketing is ever-changing, and it takes adaptable digital marketers to keep up.

To become a best-in-class digital marketer, make sure that you are staying up to date with industry issues, valuable content, and various updates.

The good news? Keeping up with the digital marketing industry isn’t hard. Incredibly informative podcasts on the subject are widely available, and websites such as Buffer and the Content Marketing Institute write clear and well-researched pieces on basically anything you’d want to know about digital marketing.

Whether you subscribe to these publications to receive regular notifications of new content in your mailbox or prefer to tune into a podcast on your morning commute, this newfound understanding of your industry and its inner workings can help you become a digital marketing expert.

7. Practice Continuous Learning

Although education can be a valuable asset to any career in digital marketing, learning shouldn’t stop when school is done. Investing in training throughout your digital marketing career can help you become a stand-out digital marketer with a varied, in-demand skill set.

As we mentioned above, the digital marketing industry is continually evolving, meaning that your knowledge of the industry should be, too. A career in digital marketing allows you to follow your curiosities by taking advantage of available training sessions.