If you’re considering venturing into the world of online marketing, it’s important to have an idea of how big the industry is.

Since the birth of the internet, digital marketing has grown exponentially. In 2020, over 2.9 billion people used the internet, and approximately 790 million of them used mobile phones regularly.

According to the 2020 Marketing Charts from PwC, over 495 million American consumers shopped online at least once a week, and nearly 11 million of them bought something while in their pajamas.

With the explosive growth of digital marketing, it’s important to keep in mind the various methodologies, platforms, and tools that are available. Using niche platforms such as HubSpot, you can create highly targeted, personalized experiences for your customers. By understanding the current digital marketing landscape, you’ll be able to choose the right path for your business.

The Current State of Digital Marketing

To determine the current state of digital marketing, we need to look at several different metrics.

In 2020, digital marketing as a whole earned a 76.2% share in overall marketing revenue, compared to 23.8% for social media and 5.4% for email marketing.

On the other hand, digital marketing as a whole employed 4.1 million people in 2020, compared to 1.9 million in 2019 and 2.3 million in 2018.

The size of the industry hasn’t always been this large, however. In 2020, before the pandemic, digital marketing as a whole only employed 2.9 million Americans.

Even during the pandemic, when most businesses shut down, digital marketing kept the momentum going. According to HubSpot, during the pandemic, digital marketing revenue increased by 36.5% compared to the same period a year earlier.

With so much uncertainty about the future, it’s always a great idea to follow the lead of other industries and use proven methodologies. If you want to be sure of achieving profitable growth in the near future, dive into the world of digital marketing with a clear purpose: to understand as much as possible about the industry.

Market Size And Forecast

One of the first things you’ll need to determine is how to deal with the industry’s massive size.

While most businesses have closed their doors due to the pandemic, the market for digital marketing as a whole has actually grown during the pandemic. In fact, in 2021 alone, Market Reach, an organization that measures digital marketing performance, forecasts that the market will grow to $16.73 billion.

According to Statista, there will be approximately 4.1 million new jobs available in 2021 for social media marketers.

If you’re looking for high-quality and well-paying job opportunities, now is the perfect time to enter the industry.

Growth Opportunities

Having a clear idea of the industry’s current size allows you to determine the opportunities available for new businesses. If you’re looking for sustainable growth, consider a niche that is still open for business, such as display advertising or SEO.

As a general rule, larger market sizes tend to lead to more innovation and increased profits. If you want to succeed as a business owner, consider starting a trend rather than playing it safe by following the pack.

Current Layers Of Digital Marketing

The industry is made up of several different layers that you need to know about. Some of these layers are rather old and mature, while others are still in their early stages of development.

When it comes to digital marketing, a lot has changed since the dawn of the internet. When most people think of digital marketing, they typically think of SEO, content strategy, and social media. While these strategies are extremely important, it’s also important to know about the hidden layers that make up the industry.

The following are the currently known layers of digital marketing and what they are made of.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of optimizing your website so that it shows up in the organic (non-paid) results of a search engine, such as Google.

Often, entrepreneurs and businesses don’t pay enough attention to this crucial step, thinking that since they’re not paying for the results, they don’t need to put in the effort. This is a big mistake. Without high-quality SEO, you’ll never get the exposure you deserve, and with all the competition, it’s crucial that you stand out.

SEO is different from paid search, where you pay to have your business or product name shown alongside other advertisers’ products. For example, if you’re selling shoes, but you’d like to target individuals who are searching for accessories, you can set up shoe searches with Google Ads to appear alongside other merchants’ ads.

Organic search results are important because they’re free and they imply a high degree of credibility. When a potential customer is searching for a product or service, they want to make sure that they’re getting the information that is most useful to them. If your product or service matches what they’re looking for, they’re more likely to purchase it from you than from any other advertiser.

Content Strategy

When it comes to content strategy, many businesses think about creating content to increase website traffic or social media engagement. While these are both very important, you also need to be sure that your content is providing the right information to the right audience at the right time.

What makes a good content strategist is their knowledge of how people interact with content online. A content strategist will often involve themselves in every step of a business’ content marketing strategy, from creating the content to analyzing performance and driving insight from the data.

Analytics

With analytics, you’ll be able to track the success of your content strategy and determine whether or not your efforts are paying off. Using tools like Google Analytics, you can track the effectiveness of your campaigns, determine the content that is performing best, and, most importantly, find out what’s keeping people coming back for more.

As a business owner, if you want to know how much revenue you’re bringing in and what’s performing well, you can set up automated analytics reports so that you always know when there’s new data available. With the right tools and a little bit of effort on your part, you can ensure that your content always has the best chance of being successful.

The Evolution Of Digital Marketing

Since the dawn of the internet, the field of digital marketing has evolved, and so has its approach. Once upon a time, SEO was enough to secure a spot in the top three results of a search. Since then, social media, email marketing, and other platforms have taken over. Creating engaging content for your customers and finding ways to get the word out about your brand isn’t easy, but with the right tools and a little bit of knowledge, you’ll be able to dominate your industry.