Digital marketing is all the buzz nowadays. Many businesses are actively looking for marketers who execute fruitful marketing strategies in a world that’s becoming increasingly digital every dawn.
However, are you the digital marketer who helps companies reach more users and generate sales? If you want to land the digital marketing job of your dreams, we offer you the tips you need to prepare beforehand.
But first things first, what is digital marketing in case you are the perfect beginner?
What is Digital Marketing?
According to Hubspot, digital marketing is “all marketing efforts that use an electronic device or the internet. Businesses leverage digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, and other websites to connect with current and prospective customers”
Where traditional marketing involves offline methods such as billboards, print ads, tv commercials et cetera, digital marketing involves the use of online assets such as websites, email, social media networks, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads, and so on.
Popular examples of digital marketing include search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, affiliate marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, inbound marketing, and native advertising among others.
How Much Do Digital Marketers Make?
You’ll be delighted to learn that digital marketing is a rapidly growing multi-billion-dollar industry. Digital marketers in whichever vertical make big bucks depending on company size, field, job type, location, skills and experience.
According to findings by Glassdoor, digital marketers make an average base pay of $70,000 per annum excluding cash compensation that ranges between $1,400 and $22,500.
The same report shows that salaries vary greatly depending on the company. For instance, the report indicates that a digital marketing manager at Well Fargo bags an average total salary of $148,000 per year.
That out of the way, let us learn how you can prepare for your dream digital marketing job.
Best Tips to Land Your Dream Digital Marketing Job
The following tips will come in handy whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to advance your budding digital marketing career. Without further ado, let us get down to business.
Build a Successful Website
A website is a big part of digital marketing. It’s the perfect platform to deploy digital marketing strategies, test them, rinse and repeat.
Whether you want to pursue digital marketing as a content marketer, SEO expert, social media marketer, or conversion optimizer among others, your best learning will come from building a successful and SEO-ready website.
Take a platform such as WordPress, and learn how to build a website and drive traffic. Go a mile further, and learn all you can about optimizing that traffic for conversions. Then make sure you can replicate your success by deploying more websites quickly.
You’ll learn a lot in no time, which also helps you to gain relevant experience firsthand. Before I could cash in my first check as a content marketer, I worked on a number of sites. Today, I can whip up a great WordPress site in the time it takes to down a bottle of your favorite snifter. Now, people hire me to build websites, which brings in extra income.
I also learned (and tested) a lot of SEO and social media marketing since I had to promote my websites on Google, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Afterwards, I learned more about traffic analysis after integrating my websites with Google Analytics. The point is you’ll learn a lot through practice.
On top of that, you can take the opportunity to start a blog and share your passions. While you can choose any topic under the sun, I recommend starting well-maintained digital marketing blog. Over time, fill the blog with relevant content that demonstrates your expertise while making you an authority in the field.
Don’t stop there, you can use the blog as your portfolio – your own little corner of the internet where hiring managers can find you. If you’re going into digital marketing, you want potential employers to find you on the internet.
Get the Right Education
While you can enter into the world of digital marketing without the benefit of formal education, employers actively ask for a university degree during interviews. Besides nailing the job, a university degree offers you a strong foundation that makes you a great fit for the job.
Earning a degree in marketing, digital media, communication, web development and related fields allows you to learn the fundamental principles of digital marketing in a controlled environment. These principles, technical knowledge, skills and connections you’ll find at the university give you an upper hand over the competition.
If you cannot attend university due to time or financial constraints, you can always spring for digital marketing courses offered by many learning websites. A couple of good examples include Google, Digital Marketing Institute, Alison and Udemy, among others.
Learn the ins & outs of Digital Advertising
After successful course completion, never stop learning since the digital marketing industry changes at the speed of light. Even if formal schools wanted, they can’t keep up with the changes, or even offer the relevant courses to keep you updated.
For starters, take the time to learn more about social media marketing. Read blogs, take courses or watch YouTube videos that show you how to hack Facebook Ads. Then create your own Facebook Ads and test the waters. Don’t forget Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and other social networks of interest.
Secondly, take a short course or read a guide that helps you to learn the ropes of email marketing. The experts say the real money is in the email list, so it pays to know your way around email marketing. Many email marketing providers such as MailChimp, GetResponse and AWeber, among others, offer you incredible guides to get you through the door.
Go a step further ahead and learn more about native ads, content marketing, inbound marketing, SEO and all other forms of digital marketing. To improve your chances, invest in some digital marketing certifications, so you can hone your skills and wow hirers during the interviews.
Bonus Points:
- Follow digital marketing trends by subscribing and following your favorite experts and blogs. It’s pays to keep up with the latest trends. It shows your passion in the field and helps you to stay ahead of the competition.
- Hunt jobs in the right places. There are many online job boards for digital marketers you’ll be spoilt for choice. A simple Google search should suffice.
- Network, network and network some more. Attend events, conferences and leverage the power of social media to connect with peers in the industry.
- Be awesome. A confident demeanor and a bright smile will go a long way. So does humility, great interpersonal skills, respect and time management skills.
Now You…
How are you preparing for your dream job in digital marketing? Please share in the comments to help the next guy too ?