Digital Marketing Guide

Digital Marketing (Digital marketers) are responsible for using multiple media channels to build awkwardness, generate leads for companies and brands, and connect with current and potential customers. These media channels can include blogs, social media, email marketing, online display ads, and many more. Any marketing involving digital communication is digital marketing.

Digital marketing is a thriving industry and is essential for helping businesses thrive. It is crucial to take full advantage of almost everyone who uses technology. Digital marketing is also affordable compared to other marketing strategies; prices depend on what you are doing, but costs tend to be lower. It is found that smartphones are present in 84% of households, while 78% of households own a desktop or laptop. Easy mobile access makes digital marketing essential to reach an audience while users use their mobiles daily. Digital marketing is flexible, as there are many forms that you can use, such as banner ads, content marketing, email marketing, and social media posts.

This marketing can allow creativity and opens many possibilities to build awareness and have more customers. More benefits from digital marketing are speaking with authority on topics related to your industry and product. You can engage with influencers to endorse your company/product. Have the opportunity to incorporate different forms of media into your marketing and be able to track customers’ purchases.

Areas of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing can be broken into eight different main categories.

Search Engine Optimization (aka SEO).

SEO is used to get businesses to a higher rank in Google search results, increasing traffic to the business’s websites. SEO marketers search for words and phrases consumers use for information online. There are many things to consider, and some things that SEO strategists need to understand: content indexing, good link structure, and keywords and keyword targeting.

PPC (pay-per-click).

Pay-per-click (PPC) is paid advertisements and promoting search engine results; this form of digital marketing is best for the short term. PPC is similar to SEO in that both try to increase search traffic to a business. When setting up a pay-per-click campaign, you must determine to whom you want your ads or promoted results to show, either precisely geographically or worldwide. The cost depends on how much competition there is for the keywords. High-competition keywords are more expensive, but they are keywords people search for. 

Social Media Marketing.

This involves all the social media channels with which everyone is familiar. This area requires coordination and consistency, and analytics is a crucial market. It analyzes the performance of posts and creates strategies based on data to help with overall exposure. In 2021, 88% of industry professionals stated that the increase in exposure was due to the benefits of social media marketing.

Content Marketing.

Content marketing involves building a relationship with customers and potentially leading them to sales and, hopefully, more than one transaction. It uses storytelling and sharing information to ultimately have the reader become a customer, such as requesting more information, signing up for emails, or purchasing. Content marketing works well with other types of digital marketing, such as SEO. This area of marketing is an excellent place for people who enjoy writing, video, and audio production.

Email Marketing.

This is an effective marketing technique and provides value to consumers. Email marketers are skilled at analyzing customer interactions and data and making strategic decisions. These marketers always try to improve the open and click-through rates. Some ways email marketers do to make it more appealing for users are by creating a sense of urgency, personalizing your email, and letting recipients set their preferences.

Mobile Marketing.

Focuses on reaching a target audience through smartphones. Text messages, social media, websites, emails, and applications do this. They tailor the content based on different things such as geographic location, time, etc. In February 2022, a survey showed that 46% claimed to spend 5-6 hours a day on their smartphones for personal use. Marketing analytics tracks user behaviors at a detailed level, like how much time is spent on a web page, how many emails users open, and so much more. This analysis allows marketers to adapt their messages moving forward, and understanding the vast information is an integral part of a digital marketer’s responsibility.

Affiliate Marketing.

This works with third-party influencers to collaborate with an organization to promote products or services. Third-party influencers must engage their audience with posts, blogs, and videos to increase business. Affiliate marketing has become a popular form of digital marketing, showing the industry to be $12 billion in 2022.

You have all probably heard the term “influencer” on social media. Influencers are people on social media who can persuade and promote businesses and brands. Influencers on social media are essential in successful digital marketing. It was written on influencer marketing roles: “Influencer marketing has changed the digital marketing landscape over the past decade. If your business hasn’t capitalized on this opportunity, the time is now.” Depending on your marketing goals, working with influencers allows you to use their massive reach to increase brand exposure and awareness. Identifying the right audience is essential in every marketing strategy. Finding the right influencers for your niche allows your brand’s public image to align with your brand and helps you find the right target audience. Influencer marketing helps to create buzz about your brand, strengthens your reputation, and improves audience engagement and conversions.

Paths to Digital Marketers

There are many paths to becoming a digital marketer. A common way is to complete a bachelor’s degree. Depending on your goals, this degree can help you become a (digital) marketing manager, covering many aspects and topics. Learning the skills needed to become a digital marketer is an essential element which will be covered in the next section.

You can consider certifications, boot camps, and courses if a bachelor’s degree is not the right fit. Bootcamps are fast-paced and cover loads of information in a short amount of time. Boot Camps usually focus on a specialized skill and cover specific topics. They are great for practical and hands-on learning, allowing you to gain learning experience. These boot camps can cost between $300 – $15,000.

Getting an entry-level job in digital marketing or related fields is also a great idea. You can set yourself apart from potential employers by having valuable skills or completing internships or boot camps.

Digital marketing professionals are slightly better than the average profession. The overall field should increase by 10% by 2026.

Important Skills Required

To become a successful digital marketer, you must set yourself apart from the competition and do your best. The first and most valuable skill anyone can have is communication skills. Communion is needed for this career since you are part of spreading messages that impact many users, and it’s essential to deliver clear and concise messages.

Content creation is a valuable skill because it attracts users. Digital marketers who utilize Chat GPT will see many benefits. It is the foundation of digital marketing efforts because it involves researching, creating strategic ideas, and promoting them to a targeted audience. Data analysis is essential to improving digital marketing campaigns; understanding that information helps make a more personalized connection with users and better understand how to lead potential users to customers.

Career Paths and Opportunities

Regardless of the introduction of AI, becoming a digital marketer opens many doors. You can take many paths, like joining a marketing agency, working in a marketing department for a business, consulting, or doing freelance work. Choosing the specialty that appeals to you is essential to picking the right direction. From there, you can begin.

The benefits of working for a (digital) marketing agency are that it offers an ever-expanding skill set and lots of creative freedom. You must be self-motivated, a strong communicator, driven by creativity, and enjoy collaborating on campaigns and projects with diverse personalities. These types of work environments are fast-paced and will work with tight deadlines.

Working as a freelance digital marketer has many positive and negative aspects. You have the independence to choose when, where, and what you work on, and there is a level of flexibility that no other job can offer you, like freelancing. There are a variety of projects and clients, and you do not have to stick to just one specialty. But, there is a lack of community, competition, and learning to grow and build experience.

Salary Expectations

According to the BLS, media communication professionals earned an average of $62,340 in 2021. The median salary can vary depending on the position. For example, marketing managers earned a median salary of $153,440. The salary can also depend on your specialty. Entry-level salaries are an average of $41,828. Mid-level earns an average of $72,043. Senior-level students can earn an average of $82,483 per year. The location also plays a role in the salary average.

Most freelancers range between $46,000 (25th percentile) to $83,500 (75th percentile), and the top earners in the 90th percentile can make $106,500 annually in the US. ZipRecruiter has found the annual salary can be as high as $128,500 and as low as $24,000.