What if you could get into digital marketing? Is digital marketing a good option for you?

Before we start, let’s take a look at what a digital marketer is. Then, we’ll discuss how to work in digital marketing.

marketers

The job description of a digital marketer

Let’s first talk about marketing. Marketing refers to the whole process behind promoting and selling products or services. From market research to advertising, marketing is basically finding original and creative ways to market a product.

A digital marketer would then find ways to promote and sell a product using digital channels.

How to get into digital marketing?

If you already have a marketing background, of course, it would be a lot easier to get into the digital marketing world, as you could either apply for remote jobs or try to get started as a freelancer.

Having skills or expertise regarding certain fields in the digital marketing world would, of course, be a big advantage when it comes to landing your first client.

Anything from understanding social media to email marketing, from understanding the tools that can help you get more leads or even knowing about SEO would be great knowledge to have!

Basically, if you want to be able to market products for other people, you should be able to market yourself and sell your skills to the right people.

If you can’t do that, then, you might have to work on your marketing skills more. In the marketing world, you should be able to provide results – there’s a lot of competition out there, so people won’t keep you around if you can’t deliver.

Websites such as Upwork (and I would add Fiverr) are quite popular in the freelancing world. It might not be the most well-paid opportunities, but it’s a great way to get more experience as a digital marketer.

At first, you’re going to have to build a portfolio and show results, which means we all have to start somewhere!

You could also build your network using Facebook groups or Linkedin.

How to get into digital marketing with no experience?

If you have no experience as a digital marketer and you are wondering how to work in digital marketing, the journey could be a bit longer.  

You could decide to focus on one skill first. You might want to check out the job opportunities and try to find the gap or the demand. You might want to learn a skill that most people don’t have.

Focussing on one thing first can help you become an expert in that field and then, once you start having clients, then you might want to expand your knowledge, services, and skills.

That being said, you might have to start with the basics of marketing and sales. The good news is there are a lot of FREE resources to help you get better at understanding marketing. Let’s see how you can get started in digital marketing.

Learn to be a digital marketer using these FREE resources

  • DigitalMarketer: There’s a blog section including a lot of things regarding content creation, email marketing and social media strategies.
  • Social Media Examiner: There’s a blog, but also a very good podcast! You will learn a lot of marketing strategies regarding social media.
  • Meera Kothland: She also hat a lot of content about marketing, but she also talks a lot about email marketing.

Invest a bit of money in a book

The good books to learn about digital marketing

What are the skills required for digital marketing?

As mentioned a few times already, there are different fields in the digital marketing world.  Let’s take a look at the options and skills you should be working on.

Content marketing: Being able to create content or even being able to copywrite is an amazing skill to know when it comes to digital marketing.  A lot of small businesses have no idea how can a blog be beneficial to a company. It’s a brilliant way to increase brand awareness. Content marketing also refers to videos and social media posts. The goal is to capture the attention of your potential customers.

Social media marketing: Social media marketing is a great way to drive traffic to a website using the different channels used by potential customers. Once you create engaging content, you should be able to use social networks to increase brand awareness. Knowing the different networks and how to use them efficiently is an excellent skill to have.  You should also be able to understand the insights and analyze the data to be able to increase results. If you also know how to advertise on these social networks, it would be even better! A lot of people don’t know the required skills to do so and that’s why they are ready to pay someone to handle the advertising on social media.

Email marketing: Once a business has a subscriber list, they will likely use the list to send commercial emails.  The goal is to eventually make more sales. Understanding how to create an efficient funnel is a skill you should have when it comes to digital marketing.

SEO & SEM: We talked about content marketing earlier. When creating content, you should be able to optimize it for search engines. SEO refers to Search Engine Optimization. A few people understand the basics of SEO. If you want to learn about it, you should know that I am personally an SEO nerd (yep).

You can learn more about SEO here.

SEM refers to Search Engine Marketing. This would refer to the advertising that can be done via search engines.  Ever heard of Google Adwords? Well, the SEM experts know what to do when it comes to advertising on Google (or Bing).

Data-driven marketing: Having a data-driven approach in marketing means that you will base your strategy based on your analytics.

Design: Being able to design a website or basic graphics is another excellent skill to have. It would help you create better visuals for potential customers but also might make a difference in the hiring process. It’s a 2 for 1 if you don’t have to hire a graphic designer.

How much does a digital marketer make?

Depending on your level of experience, your wage could be changing.  A lot of freelancers offer packages or ask for an hourly rate.

Once you get your experience, you could also consider starting your own digital marketing company.