Should You Become a Digital Marketer? Read this article to find out.

The digital marketing industry is expanding by leaps and bounds. This is evidenced by the billions upon billions of searches that are done every day on Google. The search engine giant has become the 21^st century’s solution to the Yellow Pages. Even the Yellow Pages has capitulated and has gone online.

With this dearth of people looking up information on the Internet, there is a pressing need for companies to have an online presence so that their website has a chance of being found in these searches.  This means that every single company will need to have someone who is skilled in digital marketing in order for their website to stand out.

If being a digital marketer is something that tickles your fancy, read on to find out what this type of person does on a daily basis as well as what characteristics make a successful digital marketer.

What does a digital marketer do?

Generally speaking, a digital marketer is accountable for making use of digital channels in order to generate leads for the business as well as build brand awareness. Digital channels include the following:

• Company websites
• Social media
• Search engine rankings
• Email marketing
• Online display ads
• Corporate blogs

In addition to this, the digital marketer must make use of analytics in order to identify weaknesses and discover ways of improving performance across these channels.

Digital marketers are responsible for all facets of a company’s digital marketing strategy. Alternatively, they could just focus on one. The delegation of responsibilities depends on the size of the company:

• Companies which are smaller tend to have one general digital marketing specialist or manager,
• While, with corporations and larger companies, it is possible to share the responsibilities among an entire team or even across a number of different departments.

Desirable personality traits of a digital marketer

There are a number of personality traits that make a successful digital marketer. Here are some of them:

Creativity

Being innovative and creative is what may help you stand out. Creative thinking makes sure that you can recognise opportunities as well as test concepts. This goes hand-in-hand with a logical and methodical approach when speaking about problem-solving.

Adaptability

Today, life would be exceptionally difficult you weren’t able to adapt quickly. Specifically, this is ]true in a digital working environment where data and search engine algorithms trends constantly change and flexibility is key. If don’t adapt, don’t be shocked if you’re left behind.

Collaborative

Working together as well as building and maintaining relationships is important in any job. This is especially true in the digital marketing world as it can lead to great ideas being developed and internal teams which are stronger.

Engaged and enthusiastic

It’s vital that, as a digital marketer, you are active on social networks. You should have an active presence on at least two social profiles. Your engagement online might also expand to having your own blog. This may be seen as a huge plus factor in the digital world because this can highlight your writing, creative as well as technical skills.

Growing Number of Internet Users

Thanks to mobile and social media, the number of Internet users is growing exponentially especially in emerging countries. India, China, Brazil as well as other emerging markets are home to a lot of people who rely on the Internet either to make or to guide their purchases:

• As of 2017, upwards of 2.1 billion Internet users resided in emerging markets.
• By 2022, that number will likely increase to approximately 3 billion, and
• Three times as many Internet users will be living in emerging markets as opposed to countries which are developed.

With respect to growth, digital consumers in emerging markets represent a huge opportunity. Even when these types of consumers don’t buy directly on the Internet, information that they find online — typically while using their smartphone — often influences their decisions to purchase certain items. According to estimates, the total value of digitally influenced spending in emerging markets will approach $4 trillion (which is around R15 trillion).

The Growth in Demand for Digital Marketers

A report into global hiring trends reveals that there is a growing demand for digital marketing skills. It is stated that 69% of companies planned to hire more digital marketers. The most in-demand skill sets were:

• Digital advertising (45%),
• Content creation and curation (42%), as well as
• Content strategy (39%).

This upsurge reflects the growing importance of digital marketing to a company’s bottom line. It is especially valid in this age of digital marketing where it’s very possible to measure the impact that marketing has. In the space of two years, digital marketing hires increased by 32%. In addition, 34% of those people who were hired were in permanent positions.

These figures show that digital marketing is maturing. Five years ago, some organisations saw there were wins to made by being good at digital. However, at the current point in time, very business must have digital marketing skills in their business, whether this be a dedicated person who runs with this system or if the business owner is tasked with this portfolio. Digital skillsets are needed as is an ongoing digital marketing strategy that is regularly being optimised.

Become a Digital Marketer with the Digital School of Marketing

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

If you feel that the character traits that we’ve described above fit you to a T, then the next step is for you to become a digital marketer. The best place for you to do this is at the Digital School of Marketing with our Digital Marketing Course. For more information about this course, please follow this link.