The internet has opened up a whole world of possible employment opportunities for marketing and communications professionals, allowing them to work remotely and be their own boss. In particular, the shift towards online marketing and social media has created a whole new set of job titles, with every specialist occupation imaginable having an online incarnation.

If you’re looking to dip your toe into the world of online marketing and are curious as to how to get started, you’ve come to the right place. We’ll teach you the ropes and help you find your perfect fit as an online marketer.

The Specialties Available

If you’re looking to make the transition and are curious as to what types of jobs are available, here’s a short list to get you started.

• marketing strategy
• market research
• planning
• communication
• digital marketing
• analytics
• content creation
• growth marketing
• pay-per-click campaigns
• SEO
• social media
• marketing automation

Each of these areas covers a specialized skill-set that is useful for an online marketer. Let’s take a closer look at each one.

marketing strategy

Strategic marketing is all about creating growth and opportunity for your brand through advertising and communications. Much like traditional marketing, online marketing is all about generating thought-leadership and driving sales. The main difference is that instead of relying on traditional marketing methods like radio and TV ads, you’re relying on paid social media campaigns, content marketing, and email marketing to grow your business.

The goal of a digital marketing strategy is to put in place a plan that will allow you to grow and sustain your business through online marketing. In particular, you’ll want to look into developing and implementing a content marketing strategy that will attract, engage and convert visitors into leads, and eventually into customers for your products or services. You can also use SEO (search engine optimization) to get your products or services listed on the top of search engines like Google.

market research

If you’re looking to get into the world of online marketing, you’ll probably want to know what sort of products or services are in demand. Market research is the process of discovering this information through various methods, such as surveying customers, monitoring social media, or looking at search engine traffic. 

By gathering this data, you can use it to pinpoint the sorts of products that people are looking for and need, as well as gain valuable knowledge about how and where your target audience is spending their time online. This allows you to craft the perfect campaign for them.

One of the most popular forms of market research is customer survey, where you ask respondents questions about your products or services, and then use the information to refine your marketing strategy. Another method is web analysis, which involves using software to track the behavior of visitors to your website. This information can be extremely useful for determining what campaigns and offers work best for your business, and which customers are most likely to behave in a certain way.

planning

An important part of any strategic marketing plan is the development of a strategy for reaching the desired audience. This is where you’ll want to use tools like Google Analytics to get a clear picture of your audience’s demographics, psychographics, and digital behavior. 

From here, you can craft tailor-made strategies for different digital platforms, like email, social media, and SEO. For example, you might want to try a paid social media campaign for raising your brand’s profile among a certain group of consumers, or target a specific niche for bringing in more sales using SEO.

Once you have these strategies in place, you can measure their effectiveness to track your progress, identify areas for improvement, and refine your plan for the following month. 

communication

No one factor, like SEO or social media, will guarantee your place in the organic search results. Instead, it’s about using a combination of tactics to improve your odds of being found when users search for your brand or product. The same goes for email marketing. You might want to consider trying out a marketing automation platform to streamline your communications and automate the follow-up process.

In addition to SEO, email marketing, and social media, you’ll also want to consider paid advertising, which involves placing ads on various platforms (usually owned by Google) to promote your products or services. While this seems like an obvious choice, it’s important to remember that every platform has its quirks and unique billing structures, so you’ll want to do a bit of research before diving in.

digital marketing

With so much information at our fingertips, nearly all industries have turned to digital marketing as a way to get their message out to the right audience. This sort of marketing takes place online, and can involve creating content to attract, engage, and convert website visitors into leads, and eventually into customers.

Like traditional marketing, digital marketing is about spreading information about your product or service to the right audience. However, this sort of marketing is focused on and delivered through various digital platforms like websites and blogs, social media, and mobile phones. If you’re looking for a one-stop shop for learning more about digital marketing, try searching for “digital marketing bootcamp [your city name]”, where city name is the name of your city.]

analytics

While it’s imperative to have a strategy for generating traffic and converting that traffic into leads and eventually into customers, it’s also important to know what happens once you’ve had that initial breakthrough. This is where analytics and conversion optimization come in. Analytics give you a clear picture of how, when, and where your target audience is spending their time online. Conversion optimization is the process of finding the right mix of offers and promotions to get these visitors to take the desired action (make a purchase, fill out a form, subscribe to a newsletter, etc).

The point of all this is to have a clear picture of you and your target audience’s behavior on various platforms so that you can continue to refine your strategy for generating the most business.

content creation

Whether you’re creating blogs or social media posts, product descriptions or whitepapers, or engaging with potential customers through email marketing, regular content generation is a key part of any marketing plan. Just because your target audience is online doesn’t mean they want to consume only white papers and executive blog posts. 

Instead, you want to have a steady flow of content that is educational, entertaining, or engaging enough to keep your audience coming back for more. The content you create will depend on your target audience’s needs and interests. For instance, if you have a specific group of consumers in mind and are looking to create content that will help them solve a problem, you’ll want to look at the sorts of platforms and methods they use most frequently. 

Once you have this data, you can use it to find your niche, build a content schedule, and start creating valuable content that will eventually become part of your marketing plan.

growth marketing

While it’s important to develop a solid base of customers, it’s also important to know how to grow and sustain your business through word of mouth marketing and customer referrals. This is where growth marketing comes in. 

Growth marketing is all about attracting, engaging, and turning fans into paying customers. The primary tactic is email marketing, where you try to convince existing customers to try your product or service, or offer them special deals and discounts. However, in exchange for your free products or special offers, you’re hoping they’ll tell their friends, family members, and other social media followers about your business. You can also use social media to establish yourself as an expert in your field and to engage with your audience.

These tactics won’t bring in the big bucks immediately, but they will create a foundation for future growth. And remember, all of this can be done from a remote location, so you don’t have to be constrained by office hours or location.