Starting a career in digital marketing is a great choice because the world is going digital all around. Conventional marketing techniques are still very much practiced but if you want a successful career, you should go for digital marketing because of its high demand. You don’t really need a degree from a professional college or university although that would be a plus point. You can learn it from any online course or by learning the required skills to serve your clients. Digital marketing is a necessity for any business at this time.
WHAT IS DIGITAL MARKETING?
Digital marketing refers to the use of the internet or digital platforms to market goods and services to reach out to potential customers. This form of marketing can use social media platforms, mobile phones, websites, search engines, and many other forums. It can be employed in many forms including online video, display advertising, search engine marketing, paid social advertising, and social media posts. It is also combined with “traditional marketing” to help reach out to a broader audience base.
If you want to start your career in digital marketing, now is a good time because the use of the internet is increasing and so is the demand for digital marketers worldwide. The businesses want to improve their online presence and are shifting from traditional ways to newer and modern ones.
Here are 10 suggestions to start your career in digital marketing:
LEARN THE BASICS OF DIGITAL MARKETING
The first step is to learn all the basic terminologies and components of the digital marketing world. You need to learn the very basic and minute details at the start to understand the more complex and detailed processes later on.
Digital marketing is a very broad term that covers all the areas of online promotion. In digital marketing, there is no single channel, but multiple platforms that make up any campaign. Email marketing, Social media marketing, Website marketing, Content marketing, and Search Engine Optimization are all digital marketing channels.
You need to learn to work on all of these channels for a successful career and not just stick to one channel. When you’ll start working with different techniques and tools, you’ll progress through your career, and after some time will gain command.
DEVELOP ESSENTIAL SOFT SKILLS
Soft skills are a great way to differentiate yourself from the rest of the marketers. Certifications, diplomas, and training are really important but polishing your soft skills are equally important too.
Some of the soft skills which you can develop over time are creativity, analytical skills, persuasion skills, social skills, curiosity, adaptation, and multitasking. Additionally, it is also important to be an avid listener and a problem solver. There will be many things depending on you, so find creative solutions to problems and as quickly as possible.
In a constantly changing digital world, and with new trends emerging all the time a digital marketer should be open to learning and upskilling.
CREATE YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE
The next step would be to start practicing digital marketing by creating your own website and starting up a blog. You need to practice in the real world what you had learned earlier. It is not just a theory but it is highly measurable and practical.
You have to practically apply everything you had learned so that it comes into shape. You will have to promote different websites to increase their incoming traffic with SEO or social media advertising or PPC.
When you will have your own website you can practice all the necessary techniques and clients and hiring managers can see your work and get convinced to trust your work. Start your blog and try to increase your rankings or make a product and try to sell it.
Your skills will be the first thing employers or clients will see not the certifications or diplomas. The ranking and traffic will do the talking for you, so make your website today.
LEARN THE SCIENCE BEHIND SEO
The first and most important skill that can make your career success is to learn SEO because without it you cannot pursue digital marketing. With the knowledge of SEO, You will get to know how to make your website or product loved by search engines. Then you can apply the same techniques in your social media campaigns and Google Ads.
In the beginning, you can also take the help of SEO service providers to do search engine optimization. But it’s better to learn it yourself because it will get you natural, organic, and free traffic on your website. SEO’s basic purpose is to enhance your website’s ranking in search results. The higher the ranking of the website will be the more people will be able to see it.
Use lots of tactics and strategies to improve your SEO and make your website more visible to users.
KEEP UP WITH NEW UPDATES
The career path of digital marketing is so dynamic and is always changing. Something that was effective a year ago, may not be effective in today’s time. Someone else can easily take your place if you are not staying up to date with the recent advances.
Facebook and Google are continuously changing their alg0rithims for more organic traffic. Some part of your day should be dedicated to reading about the latest trends and developments so you can stay at the top of your game. It’s a fact that digital marketing is a continuously evolving industry.
You can follow websites like Google Blog or Search Engine Journal to keep an eye on changing trends.
GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK AD CERTIFICATION
When you’ll be doing a job as a digital marketer you’ll have to promote your client’s services and products on different platforms and websites. Google provides plenty of resources on how to become a Google AdWords expert and acquire the skills for certification.
When you have Google Ad certification it makes the clients and hiring managers see that you have got what is required for this job.
After Google Ads, you need to learn social media marketing. There are plenty of different platforms available but the most commonly used are Facebook Ads and Instagram. Facebook is a great social networking platform, but it can also be used to market your product or services and your marketing campaigns.
Getting organic traffic on Facebook Ads is not difficult if you completely understood SEO and Google Ads. You need to learn the basic Facebook policies to use them to their full potential and take your career to new heights.
KNOW YOUR NICHE
It can take a lot of time and resources at the start when working with an unfamiliar business. After working with different businesses you’ll get to know your niche and develop the required skillset. You need to be specialized in a particular industry to be on top of it.
When you don’t have a specific niche and are ready to work with anyone as a client you need to become aware of so many different variables. It’s easier to work with an ideal client because you have faced the problems before and are ready to handle them.
Being specialized in a particular client type makes your onboarding process easier and expands your skill set significantly.
USE YOUR CREATIVITY
Thinking outside the box can make you get noticed in the eyes of clients and recruiters. Thinking creatively can be a very powerful tool in your digital marketing career. Technology is getting advanced with each passing day, and sticking to old methods will not yield the desired results.
Your approach to digital marketing should also be creative so that you can stand out from others offering the same services as you. Businesses nowadays are all about being different from others. No customer will want to spend his money on your company if it is not different from others. Connect with customers on a deeper level and try to learn their psyche over time. So, get those creative juices flowing and get to work.
LEARN GOOGLE ANALYTICS THOROUGHLY
The field of digital marketing is just not theoretical, but measurable. A digital marketing expert should also know Analytics along with other tools that generate traffic.
When you post a campaign you can infer the data and analyze it to see how effective it was. Every aspect of a campaign can be measured, like how many people viewed it, how many users clicked on it, and how many conversions it started.
Google Analytics is one tool that helps to scale the success of a campaign. With the results, you can improve the performance of your website so you can make more reasonable decisions in the future.
It’ll help you mark out the campaigns which are not doing well and channel the resources somewhere else. When used properly it can even optimize your least performing campaigns and increase conversions.
DON’T LET REJECTION DRAIN YOU
Rejection is an emotionally and physically draining process and in the field of digital marketing, you will have to face it a lot. It is a creative field and you’ll have to make several revisions before the final product is ready. It is an unavoidable part of anyone’s job.
Be open to criticism, and don’t take it personally. Be ready to learn and polish your skills where you are lacking. Try to find out the reasons for rejection and devise an effective strategy for next time. Modern technology is continuously evolving and so are the techniques and skills. Try to keep up with the latest trends so your chances of rejection are lower.
KEY POINTS
Starting a career in digital marketing is a really great choice because there is an increased demand for digital marketers overall. You can either make an agency or start freelancing. Start by learning and polishing your skills. There are many parts of digital marketing in which you can expertise because digital marketing is just a single thing that can be learned through a single course or diploma.
The most successful way is to create your own website and start writing your content. Learn the art of SEO and then gradually move up to Google and Facebook Ads. Start working as a freelancer and gradually build your repertoire among clients. If you get to work with any established firm don’t let that opportunity go because it can be an amazing work experience for you that will help you in your career. Start your digital marketing career today with these impressive suggestions.
