How to Become an Online Marketing Professional: An Overview

Do you want to learn how to become an online marketer? Do you want to know what are the essentials for a successful career in digital marketing? Do you want to know what distinguishes stellar performers from those who are just hanging on by their fingertips?

If so, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll teach you the foundations of becoming an online marketer, including the essentials for a successful career in digital marketing.

The Essentials Of A Successful Career In Digital Marketing

So, what is a successful career in digital marketing? Answering this question requires us to dive into the role of a digital marketer and examine the skills needed to succeed in this role. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a digital marketer creates and implements marketing strategies and tactics for digital products. This role has plenty of intricacies that make it distinct from other fields in marketing. Therefore, let’s examine the essential skills needed for a successful career in digital marketing.

Analytics

The practice of analyzing past performance and anticipating future results is a critical ingredient in any successful endeavor. As a digital marketer, you’ll inevitably be asked to crunch numbers and develop analytical models to predict the most effective strategies and tactics for your client’s success. Your role will demand that you learn how to properly use Google Analytics, a free tool offered by Google that allows you to analyze traffic on your website. You’ll also need to learn how to interpret data from various analytics tools, such as Mixpanel, which provides you with advanced analytics for your mobile apps or HubSpot’s analytics tool, which helps you track conversion across all of your marketing channels.

Web Research And Content Creation

As we’ve established, a successful career in digital marketing requires a mastery of analytics, so let’s dive into the next most significant skill set. Web research and content creation are crucial to the role of a digital marketer. Web research involves gathering information from different platforms, including the web, social media, and mobile phones. Through web research, you’ll discover key performance indicators (KPIs) such as visit duration, pageviews, and conversion rates. In addition to analyzing the past performance of an existing product or offering, you’ll be expected to come up with ideas for new products or offerings and develop the content required to promote these products or offerings. Content creation involves the process of generating original articles, video scripts, and social media posts to promote your client’s products or services. To illustrate the vital importance of content creation in a digital marketer’s role, let’s examine a typical day in the life of a digital marketer.

Upon accepting a new hire at a top digital agency, you’ll discover that their employees spend a considerable amount of time creating content for various platforms. The employees may work on creating engaging blogs and articles for digital marketing campaigns, or they may create podcasts, video scripts, or infographics for marketing programs. Regardless of the content type, the goal is to draw in as much traffic as possible to the website or channel.

So, what kinds of platforms do digital marketers use to attract and retain customers? To start with, you’ll need to learn how to appropriately use social media. The most relevant platforms for marketers today are — you guessed it — social media, email marketing, and mobile marketing. Social media, in particular, has become an essential platform for most businesses and brands. According to HubSpot Blogs research, 84% of consumers have used social media to research products or services, and 79% have used the platform to research brands or businesses. In today’s world, customers are consuming content at a rate of 3.2 billion hours a day, on average. With the right content, you can target potential customers where they are — whether that’s LinkedIn or Twitter — and get in front of them with a message that will stick.

Mobile marketing is another crucial area of focus for marketers. Smartphone users have surpassed desktop users for the first time, now representing 49% of total consumer traffic. Due to the fact that virtually everyone has a smartphone, mobile marketing is an ideal place to target consumers. Apps for mobile phones range from mapping services to e-commerce and social media platforms, so you’ll have plenty to choose from.

Copywriting

As we mentioned above, content is critical to the role of a digital marketer, so let’s examine the next most significant skill set. Copywriting is the process of creating compelling text for online and offline consumption. In the world of digital marketing, copywriters often develop content for websites and social media accounts, but they also create sales and marketing material, such as advertisements, brochures, and letters. As a copywriter, you’ll need to be able to craft engaging narratives for digital marketing projects.

Advertising

Speaking of advertisements, let’s not forget about them. Digital marketers usually work with advertising agencies to develop effective campaigns for online and offline platforms. The goal of these campaigns is to generate as much traffic as possible to a specific website or channel. After the campaign is completed, the digital marketer will need to analyze the results to determine the effectiveness of the campaign.

An important distinction to make here is between digital marketing and online advertising. While both terms may be used interchangeably, online advertising is generally used to describe the process of generating website traffic through various digital marketing strategies, such as paid ads on search engines, or through social media campaigns.

So, what are the best careers for a digital marketer? To start with, you’ll need to make sure that you’re staying abreast of the constantly evolving trends in digital marketing. Through education and training, as well as networking, you’ll be able to secure a position that is perfectly suited to your skills and interests. In addition to that, you may decide to pursue a master’s degree in business or marketing if you’re looking to rise in the corporate world.