How to Start a Career in Digital Marketing

This is a guest post by Jess Cooper.

Digital marketing is one of the fastest-growing fields in today’s modern world. A good thing about it is the fact that you don’t necessarily have to finish college for it. Nevertheless, taking some digital marketing courses makes the process much easier, by providing you with an essential base of knowledge.

Another great thing about it is the fact that you are not limited to working with people in your city or country. You can work with anyone in the world. And you can do your job from any place on the planet. In addition, the salary is competitive, making this profession favourable for many people worldwide.

However, people often don’t know where to start to pursue a career in digital marketing. We’ve written this guide to help clarify the necessary steps for a career in digital marketing. Keep reading to learn more about it.

1.   Learn and take courses in digital marketing

Having very little or no knowledge of the field whatsoever, you should start with the basics. That means that you first need to understand what digital marketing is and what components it encompasses.

Generally speaking, what everybody knows is that digital marketing is a powerful tool for marketing online. However, contrary to popular belief, it is not a single discipline, but rather a multi-faceted one. There are online and offline marketing channels. Online marketing channels include SEO, email marketing, website advertising, PPC advertising, social media advertising as well as affiliate, online, video and content advertising. On the other hand, offline marketing includes TV, SMS, radio and billboard marketing.

You should make a plan and start learning the basics with one of the best digital marketing courses you can find. Then, you will also be able to create and sell online courses from your own website.

2.   Build your own website

The next step is about making your own website. This is a great way to practice what you learn by taking different courses. Remember to start small and go step by step. When you learn something new in your course, apply it on your website.

Digital marketing as a field requires you to be practical, in addition to the theoretical background. It’s essential to practice what you learn as it’s not enough to just know the theory. You need to know how to put that theory into practice using different techniques.

Hiring an SEO agency or an SEO expert, as a matter of fact, means hiring an agency or a person who already has some experience in the field. Increasing rankings of your own website counts as that experience as well.

3.   Develop your knowledge of SEO

We already mentioned taking a course in digital marketing. However, as it is a huge field, it’s best to take one course to get the general idea of the field, for starters and then to focus on specific parts of it in more detail.

So, you could start with expanding your knowledge of SEO, for instance. This is a basic skill in digital marketing and without it, you cannot really call yourself a digital marketer. You need not only to learn it but to be really good at it. After mastering this skill, you can move on to other skills. 

4.   Master Google and Facebook ads

Google and Facebook are an integral part of digital marketing. After you’ve mastered SEO, you can move on to Google and Facebook ads. One of your responsibilities as a digital marketer includes using Google Ads to promote products or services. In order to do that, you can get a Google Ads certification, using the numerous resources Google offers. This is the best way to show potential clients that you have the necessary skills.

The next key segment is social media, starting with Facebook and its ads opportunities. You should be familiar with how some of the most popular social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest work. In fact, Facebook is considered to be one of the most essential tools in digital marketing.

5.   Become good in Google Analytics

The alternatives we’ve mentioned so far are all used to generate traffic. However, that’s not enough. A digital marketer also needs to know analytics. The biggest difference between digital marketing and traditional forms of marketing is the fact that the former is fully measurable.

These metrics tell you all about the number of people who viewed your ad, and the number of clicks and conversions they made. You can use all of this information to improve your marketing campaign and eventually, increase revenue. Knowing how to measure and analyse data is of crucial importance. Start with Google Analytics.

6.   Learn how to use different tools

Being a digital marketer requires you to use certain tools to help you do your job. The first tool you learn how to use is what we mentioned in the previous paragraph: Google Analytics. However, there are other tools you need to learn how to use both as a beginner and as a manager. The only way to monitor the team of specialists is through some helpful dashboards, employing distinct channels and reports. Have in mind that you need to pay for the tools that are useful and good. But consider it as an investment in your career.

7.   Stay up to date

A key thing to remember is the fact that digital marketing is a field where constant changes happen. Your job is to keep up to date with these happenings. It is a fast-changing industry and you should always keep this in mind. It is so dynamic as Google and Facebook are constantly updating their algorithms in order to generate better organic search and avoid black hat SEO.

As far as the digital marketing field is concerned, learning is a daily thing. There are constantly new developments, updates and tools.

Starting and building a career in digital marketing is promising. More and more industries are not only moving their businesses online, but customers are more focused on fulfilling their needs online. 

About the author

Jess Cooper is a part-time journalist and blogger based in Sydney, Australia. She is an energetic and highly motivated person with plenty of interests. The most prominent areas of interest include makeup and cosmetics, fashion, style, event organisation and decoration, healthy food, fitness, learning languages, pursuing a career as well as home improvement.

Jess loves learning about new things and having the chance to combine those insights with her ideas and spread them to the world. She enjoys having a mindful and well-organised, healthy life, filled with all kinds of different activities and interwoven with close friendships.