The Mindler website has a pretty good explanation about what digital marketing is and what a digital marketer does, so I will just copy-paste it here:
Digital Marketing is a form of marketing, which helps businesses or organizations promote their products or services and target the masses with the help of digital devices such as laptops, desktops and cell phones. It utilizes various digital channels for this purpose, including emails, social media, google search, and so on.
Now, to be more specific (and to do some actual work myself), a digital marketer uses stuff like Search Engine Optimization, Google Ads, email-marketing, advertising (both paid and organic) on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to generate more leads and revenue for her employer.
Digital marketers can work with brands as in-house salaried employees, and they can also work as freelancers. Some digital marketers do both together to earn tons of money.
Job Profile (A Day in the life of a Digital Marketer)
Since this job is remote in nature, the timings can be quite flexible for most companies. While some companies would require you to come to office, most would be happy if you work from home.
At a junior level, you would be responsible for implementing the strategies of the marketing head. In most companies, ideas from junior digital marketers are also more than welcome. This implementation can be anything from improving the SEO of a client’s website to optimizing their Google Ads so that they can get the most return with the least amount of money spent.
Growth prospects are good as marketing is a profession that never dies. After a few years, you will be promoted to Marketing Head (hopefully), where you will have to personally manage and look over the strategies for client’s or the company’s own web properties. At this level, you will also have a team under you, and their supervision would be your responsibility.
Apart from the management, you would have to actively take part in the strategies and fix things that go wrong along the way. This job needs utmost attention in everything as even one wrong optimization can waste a lot of time and money, even lakhs or crores. Also, data is a very important component in this field. Most of your decisions will be backed by supporting data, so some data management and data analysis skills are also required.
Salary of a Digital Marketer in India
Starting salary is 25,000 to 30,000 rupees per month, but it all depends upon how good your skills are, really. Since digital advertising is on the boom (Doesn’t it feel like we are watching more ads than content on YouTube these days?), the growth opportunities are great, with the potential to become Marketing Head after only a few years of experience, and take your salary up to roughly 1,00,00 per month.
Degree
A degree is not really needed in this profession, but certification from online courses is definitely looked at as a positive. Also, most companies only hire graduates.
One thing to love about being a Digital Marketer
“It’s about being creative. You and others will have the same tools but your ideas could be different. Also, the job isn’t repetitive. Every new project has its own challenges and solutions.”
One thing to hate about being a Digital Marketer
“Requires inhumane amount of time. Things are everchanging. Example – The Facebook vs Apple fiasco due to the upcoming tracking restrictions on iOS 14.5. It’s a huge deal in this industry. There will be a lot of optimization data points that will be lost. But then again, they will be lost for everyone. Privilege doesn’t work here. Your mind does.”
Resources and Tips
- r/digital_marketing on Reddit is a great place if you want to ask questions or engage with the community. In particular, do go through this thread, but ignore the stuff that has been said regarding pay; that’s not the case in India.
- Take a couple of online courses from websites like Coursera and Skillshare to get your basics right.
- Listen to Seth Godin’s podcast – “This is marketing”. You will get great recommendations for other resources you might need from there.
- Here’s a great website to make yourself familiar with if you are a digital marketer.
- YouTube channels! Beginner level: Neil Patel. Advanced level: Simplilearn.
- There are many other resources apart from this, but do keep in mind that a lot of these digital marketing ‘gurus’ are scamsters in disguise. Bonus resource: This website teaches you SEO from the beginner level and provides you with a clear roadmap for getting better. Highly recommended!
Step-by-step guide to becoming a Digital Marketer:
- Start with learning the basics of digital marketing and work through your own projects. Take a look at the recommended resources. Make sure you know your SEO first.
- Working on your own projects will give you first-hand experience of how things work in this industry. Make a website and try to rank it.
- Also, don’t limit yourself to one aspect of digital marketing. If you get good at SEO, start working on Facebook Ads. If you get good at FB ads, try your hand at copywriting.
- Networking with industry leaders is also very important. There’s always someone out there who’s doing something really unique with the same tools and resources you have. So, reach out to people and companies in a humane way on platforms such as LinkedIn and Twitter to get an internship. Internships are very important in this career. They are your foot in the door.
- Here, if the projects you did actually brought you results, show them off in your CV.
- The job market is booming for digital marketers. One look at LinkedIn and you will realise that there’s a lot of potential in this sector. It’s all about creativity and ideas using these same tools. This industry is never going to go down because internet is where it’s at and with consumerism moving online, there’s space for good people in the industry.
- Your first job will probably be at a small firm. Work your way up from there. Trust me, you got this!
- After a few years of working, you should consider doing an MBA in marketing if you want to be in more leadership positions. But there are no exact rules regarding this.
Similar Occupations
Manager, Data Analyst, Salesperson, Web Developer