What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing refers to the process through which you promote a brand, product, or service using digital channels. Though it sounds simple, digital marketing is a much more complicated process that involves many moving parts and takes time to learn.  

Many companies spend millions of dollars employing teams of marketing professionals who focus their time and energy into ensuring that their company’s digital presence is well-established.  

It’s a growing field that is constantly developing, with new discoveries being made every day. The strategies and techniques that work today may not be as effective tomorrow. As such, effective digital marketers need to maintain a learner’s mindset, conducting research and reading studies about what works best for today’s audiences.  

No one digital marketer can do it all, and the career opportunities in this field tend to break down according to the specific channels used in digital marketing efforts.  


Digital Marketing Channels 

When we discuss digital marketing channels, we're referring to the mediums or platforms marketers can use to find their target audience and promote their business. 

This is different from the types of digital marketing techniques you can use, which we'll discuss soon. Essentially, a digital marketing channel is the place where you can apply different marketing techniques.

The digital marketing channels are: 

Search Engines 

Search engines are the single most important element of a digital marketing strategy. If your site isn't optimized for search, new customers may not be able to find you and will turn to a competitor instead. Search engines are the vehicle your target audience uses to find what you offer. For this reason, every marketing effort you make needs to be tailored to the current search engine guidelines.

This channel comes with various digital marketing techniques such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and paid search. These and other types of digital marketing are most effective when you, as the digital marketer, provide true value to your target audience. 

Search engines serve users, providing them with only the most relevant information. Being an ethical digital marketer means creating quality content that helps search engines match you up with your target audience.

Your Website

The success of your business will depend greatly on your company website. 

Your customers need a place to find all the information they need about your business. Without a website, it'll be difficult to implement any digital marketing strategy, as there is no real foundation to your online presence. 

Social Media 

Whether you love social media or hate it, it’s important to note that having a social media presence directly impacts the success of a business. No matter your industry, your target audience uses social media, and it’s important for your business to go directly to them.

Having a social media presence allows you to engage with your target audience and create brand awareness. This can have a direct effect on your revenue and sales, which will then determine the health and growth of your business. Your digital marketing strategy simply must have a social media marketing plan. 

Other Websites

Like social media, email is one digital marketing channel you just can’t ignore. Your target audience uses email for almost everything. This offers you a big opportunity to reach and engage with them directly. 

You will need to be careful when using this channel to market your business. Using the right email marketing techniques will help you personalize your messages to each potential customer. Email is a channel that is very personal to your audience, and the key to using this channel effectively is respecting your audience’s timeand attention. 

Why is Digital Marketing Important?

Digital marketing is important for one main reason: it works. Seriously. In a world that is turning more and more digital every day, digital marketing is becoming the most effective way to reach your target audience and promote your business. 

Because of this, establishing a strong online presence is more important than ever before. 

A solid digital marketing strategy can give you access to a wider audience of potential customers. It can also increase sales by guiding your customer across the entire sales funnel. Underestimating the effectiveness of digital marketing can have a negative impact on the success of your business. 

Benefits of Digital Marketing 

If you’re still not convinced on the importance of digital marketing, here are just a few of the benefits of having a digital marketing strategy for your business: 

A solid digital marketing strategy will help your business reach its full potential in a cost-effective and efficient way. It’s no wonder more and more businesses invest their time and money in improving their digital marketing efforts.


Careers in Digital Marketing

At this moment, there is a high demand for digital marketing jobs. Most businesses understand the importance of digital marketing, so there is a great variety of roles within the digital marketing field. If a specific part of the digital marketing process stands out to you, you’ll likely find a role related to it.

Some common roles include: 

There are just some of the digital marketing-related roles out there. When it comes to this field, you can always find a role that fits the part of the digital marketing process that you enjoy most. All you have to do is look. 

Are Digital Marketing Jobs in Demand? 

The short answer is yes. 

Market research analysts and marketing specialist are one of the occupations that have the most job growth in the United States. This makes sense, as the importance of digital marketing will only increase as the role of technology in society grows. 

You can definitely expect this career path to continue growing and offering aspiring digital marketers like you more opportunities. 

What Does a Digital Marketer Do? 

If you’re wondering what a digital marketer does, just know that it’s a lot. In essence, digital marketers do everything necessary to create brand awareness, generate leads, and covert leads into customers. 

This sounds much simpler than it is, and many businesses employ multiple marketing specialists to take care of different sections of the digital marketing process. You can usually expect a business to have at least an email marketer, social media marketer, content writer or copywriter, SEO specialist, and a brand manager. 

Of course, it varies from business to business. 

How Much Do Digital Marketers Make? 

The median annual wage of a digital marketing specialist is $50,362. However, the digital marketer’s salary can change depending on your specific role within the field of digital marketing.

According to Salary.com, this is the median annual salary of these various roles: 

What Skills Does a Digital Marketer Need? 

Like with any job, a digital marketer needs a solid combination of hard and soft skills. Each will help digital marketers fulfill their role efficiently and collaborate with other members of their digital marketing team.

Hard Skills: These are job-specific skills that you can measure. Some hard skills that digital marketers need to have include: 

Soft Skills: These are personality-based skills that determine the way you work by yourself and with others. Some soft skills that digital marketers need to have include: 


 

Social Media MArketing

There are many benefits to having a social media strategy. It will help you:

Expand your other marketing efforts, so your content has the chance to be seen by a wide audience, and hopefully, the right audience.

Build brand awareness. Gone are the days when your only way to build that same awareness was through billboards or magazine and television ads. With social media, you have the ability to bring your brand content directly to your customers, partners, and prospects. Now you can be where your audience already is.

Social media is one of the most powerful ways to connect with your audiences. Sprout Social reports that “When consumers follow a brand on social, 67% of consumers are more likely to spend more with that brand, and 78% say they will visit that brand’s physical retail store. This is especially true among millennials: 84% said they were more likely to buy from a brand they follow on social media compared to a brand they don’t follow on social.”

Social media helps you attract buyers to your products and services, and
it gives you the ability to directly have conversations with those individuals at the time and place of their choosing.

It sounds like a lot of opportunity, doesn’t it? In fact, social media is, in many ways, the ultimate way to do inbound marketing. That’s because it’s a one-to-one medium, which gives you and your company the chance to market in a direct, but very human way.