The business world has undergone a massive change ever since people began spending more time on their internet-connected devices like smartphones, smart TVs and laptops. Unlike earlier when the brands reached out to people in public spaces or through TV and newspapers, they now reach out to them at their homes itself. Marketers and advertisers, we know, have been competing for people’s attention since the very beginning. Now, with everyone going digital, marketers are engaging with the audiences through rigorous digital marketing.
Every individual today, irrespective of their geographic location, has a strong digital footprint. Audiences digital presence has made it easier and important for businesses to reach out to them via all the possible digital platforms. This has led to the rise in the importance of digital marketing and digital marketers, making it the coolest and most sought after profession today, out of the many others.
What is digital marketing?
Simply put, it is marketing using digital platforms. Digital marketing is an activity of engaging with audiences on digital platforms with the purpose of selling a brand and its products/services or building brand awareness using multimedia.
Digital marketing makes use of websites, social media apps, SMS, email, SEO, and more such digital communication mediums that help marketers and brands connect with the customer and a wider audience.
Digital marketing is a huge umbrella within which fall a lot of diverse career options that you can choose from.
Let’s have a look at some of the prominent ones, and understand what each of them entails
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
This job involves handling all the social media handles of the brand, planning social media content, graphics, videos as well as the schedule to upload content. It also involves planning creative activities to engage with the fans/subscribers and followers of the brand’s handle. Social Media Marketing is a huge and important responsibility to handle as a majority of the customers are active on social media platforms and thus interact the most with the brand on it.
Search Engine Optimization
This involves planning a strategy to increase traffic of the internet users to the brand’s/company’s website with focus on link building, keyword formations, bettering search results, improving search rankings on web browsers like Google and analysing the browsing patterns and habits of internet users.
Content Writing/Creation/Curation
Communicating the right messages with the audience is the key to building brand awareness and customer relationships. Thus, there is a high demand for content writers and creators to creatively formulate messages for the audiences. The content writers and creators also need to formulate different messages for different platforms and audiences, hence a sound understanding of both is also necessary.
Web Developer/Designer
A strong sense of graphic designing coupled with web programming skills and qualifications, a web developer or designer is someone who is responsible for building websites and web pages for the company. They need to be easy to navigate and pleasing to the eyes. A website is the most important and the only formal platform of conveying company information to the audiences. Thus building a website and maintaining its smooth operation is the major role of a web designer.
Client Servicing
Client servicing, as the name goes, is a middleman job that makes sure the digital marketing agency and its client stay connected. A client servicing executive or client account manager acts as a representative of the clients to his/her agency. They are the ones who cater to every requirement of the client and get the job done. Under this, account managers work closely with the client and help them strategise their digital communications to the audiences. They also make sure that the planned strategy gets implemented well.
While these are some of the prominent digital marketing jobs you can pursue, others include email marketing, mobile marketing, search engine marketing, analytics, pay-per-click, etc.
If this has excited you to try your hands at Digital Marketing, here are some of the institutes/platforms where you can enroll for the course:
- Upgrad
- Henry Harvin Institute
- NIIT Digital Marketing
- Digital Vidya
- AIMA (All India Management Association)
- Learning Catalyst
With businesses going online and the rising popularity of OTTs, the need for digital marketing professionals is higher than ever. This indicates that this industry is just continuing to grow even further, making it the right career option for you.
