Choosing a career path is a frightening experience to most of us. You need to evaluate the pros and cons, what you are passionate about, and if it can provide you an overall stability. Furthermore, you need to make sure that it fits the lifestyle you want. You will be spending your future in this career your whole life, anyways.

These days, most people aspire to be a career in digital marketing. When you look at the opportunity it provides, you can see a lot of potential career outlook and specialty, especially with the demand in digitalization and online presence. In fact, according to the Future Job’s Report in 2020 of the World Economic Forum, Digital marketing is one of the Top IT emerging career paths.

However, this career is not something that you can go to quickly. You need to do a lot of studying, learning, and familiarizing yourself with how to get a career in digital marketing. Worry not, however, as we made a guide for you. Here are ten easy steps to start a career in digital marketing.

Why Choose a Career Path in Digital Marketing?

A career in digital marketing offers a promising path. You can be an expert in various media such as SEO, SEM, Advertising, Outreach or PR campaigns, Social Media Specialists, Content Marketers, and more. Here are the top 3 reasons you should start a career in digital marketing

1.   New Industry with Opportunities

Digital marketing is a new industry with many opportunities. It is an industry that has been increasing and will continue to do so. The demand for digital marketers has increased significantly over the last few years.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the market for digital marketers is projected to grow by 10% in 2026, faster than average occupations.

2.   Immense Learning Scope,

A career in digital marketing can be enriching, and the field is constantly changing and evolving. The scope of digital marketing is immense. It covers various areas, from social media marketing to web development.

Digital marketers generate leads and revenue for businesses by developing and executing online marketing strategies. Digital marketers may specialize in certain areas, such as SEO or SEM, or more general roles like social media management.

3.   New Trends

Digital marketing is a constantly evolving industry. It means that there will always be a new trend or technology that will come up and take over. It’s predicted that by 2020, digital marketing will account for two-thirds of all consumer spending. That’s why it’s essential to stay on top of the trends to stay relevant in this ever-changing field.

10 Steps to Start Your Career in Digital Marketing

Step 1 – Learn the basics of digital marketing

Learning the basics is an essential aspect of starting a career in digital marketing. Since it undermines various internet advertising and marketing functions, you need to cover many areas when learning digital marketing. You need to understand not just one discipline but many processes to become a digital marketing specialist.

Below are the top areas of digital marketing:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) covers optimizing your website to rank and appear on the first page of search engines. This digital marketing effort helps increase incoming traffic and leads to your website.
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM) / Pay Per Click (PPC).  Sometimes, optimizing your website is not enough to increase organic traffic in your website. If you want an instant organic traffic result, SEM or PPC can help bring traffic to your website through advertising
• Content Marketing. SEO is not just about optimizing your website. Sometimes, you also need to post top-quality content on your website. Content marketing is essential in both SEO and SEM. It is the key to impress potential customers and invite them to avail of your services or products.
• Email Marketing / PR can be used in engaging inactive customers, building a loyal community, and building links for your SEO campaigns.
• Social Media Marketing (SMM). Nowadays, every company needs social media accounts as most people use the Internet daily. Social media marketing will help you promote a brand, market a product, and build an online presence on these platforms.
• Website Development. The website is the storefront of every business. It is needed in all aspects of digital marketing such as SEO, SEM, PPC, Content Marketing, and even SMM.

However, do not stress yourself learning everything in one day. Take your time and research what you need to know in each area.

Step 2 – Showcase your career by creating a website

Once you know the basics of digital marketing, the next step to starting a digital marketing career is showcasing your skills. And you can do this by making your website.

To start building a website, you first need to:

• Gain the necessary skills to develop a website, such as familiarizing yourself with Website Builder (WordPress, Shopify, Wix), Hosting, Domain name, and web design.
• Find a niche and create content through this niche
• Implement digital marketing strategies such as SEO, PPC, content, etc.

Digital marketing is more practical than an academic career. You need to test each method and see which one works well. Likewise, creating a website is also a great way of practicing your skills and applying different practices you learned.

You can even use this website to showcase your client’s skills, best practices, and lessons learned. Show them how far you have gone and how your website got its success.

Step 3 – Learn about SEO

SEO is a vital aspect when you start a career in digital marketing. You cannot pursue digital marketing without knowing what SEO is.

With SEO, you will learn several aspects of creating websites, learning what your user wants, and seeing which campaign works best – without spending a lot of time and resources. You can improve your paid ads campaign and social media organic campaign with these lessons.

Here are some SEO basics that you need to familiarize yourself with

• Ranking monitoring. Learn how your SEO efforts are working and what you need to adjust
• Keywords. See what keywords work best.
• Link Building
• Creating a sitemap
• Search friendly URLs and Slug
• Page Speed Optimization
• Alt-Image Description
• Content planning.

Step 4 – Discover Ads and PPC

As a digital marketing consultant, it is your responsibility to promote products and services on various platforms like Google or Facebook.

One essential aspect of starting a career in digital marketing is knowing how to set up Ads.

Likewise, the fastest way to acquire these skills is by getting a Google Ads certification. It provides many resources and can train you to become experts in Google Adwords, Display Ads, Search Console, and more.

It is also a great way to prove your skills and potential to your clients.

Step 5 – Master social media marketing

Then; the next step to start a career in digital marketing is by exploring social media and how it can help a business. The most social platform offers ads creation. And as a digital marketing specialist, you need to know how these different social media networks work. You need to research what works best for every business:

• Facebook is a good network for any business. It has one billion daily users from different industries and aspects of life. This platform works best to build a community, post jobs, interact with people, and connect with your consumers.
• Instagram is suitable for posting creative and visually appealing posts. It is perfect for reaching the younger generation. It comes with several features such as stories and now reels. It’s an excellent way to showcase your products and collaborate with influencers to promote your brand.
• Twitter is a brilliant marketing platform for reaching businesses, journalists, celebrities, or politicians. You can also find a way to use it in your marketing campaign by constantly engaging with your audience and adding value to your posts.
• LinkedIn is perfect for reaching businesses and professionals in different fields, posting job ads, and collaborating with people.
• YouTube is one of the most popular video-based platforms worldwide. Using YouTube lets marketers connect with their target audience differently through long-form and short-form video content. Just make sure to optimize it by creating a relatable title and using the proper tags for your videos.

These platforms are just a few of what most social media specialists use in their campaigns. Other networks such as TikTok, Reddit, and Snapchat can offer more traffic. Just study it first and what it can provide before using time, effort, and resources.

Step 6 – Familiarize yourself with the tools

Digital marketers use to improve and optimize their strategies and campaigns. And since you are just starting, you should try practicing your skills on free tools instead of paying for premium ones. Here are some top free tools for digital marketing services:

• Canva (Design Tool) offers a wide range of editing templates, perfect for creating your social media marketing campaigns and website blogs.
• Google Analytics (Ads Analytic Tool) provides data such as traffic, engagement, and others that let marketers optimize their ad and organic campaign. It also includes information about sales, user demographic, and conversions
• Hubspot (Content Marketing Tool) is an all-in-one platform that offers a variety of benefits to marketers. marketers can use this tool on SEO, social media, CRM, and more. It features a Blog Topic Generator that helps content marketers get questions, pain points, and objections for their crucial topic.
• Ahrefs Webmaster Tool (SEO Tool). Although Ahref requires a paid plan, they also offer free tools that most SEO masters can use. One of them is Ahref’s Webmaster Tool, which lets marketers monitor SEO health, discover backlinks, and see keywords that invite traffic to your website.
• MailChimp (Email Marketing Tool) is excellent for creating email marketing campaigns and automating routinary tasks such as sending a newsletter, updates, etc., to clients. This tool also comes with analytics – indicating data such as open rate, response rate, and more.
• Buffer (Social Media Scheduling Tool) is excellent for automating social media content posting, making marketers more efficient.

Step 7 – Keep up with the trends

Digital marketing strategies are always on the move and continuously changing. So if you want to start a career in digital marketing, you need to keep up with the trends to get ahead of the competition.

To keep up with the trends, you can try attending virtual seminars conventions, taking online classes, or simply reading companies’ latest blogs or newsletters. You should also constantly read any update released by a popular search engine such as Google or ads updates released by Facebook.

Step 8 – Create a winning Resume

When applying for a digital marketing job, you need to make a dynamic resume that showcases how valuable your skills are. There are loads of free templates online to aid you work in a creative industry, such as digital marketing. Here are some important reminders when creating your resume:

• Make an easy-to-read resume
• Add a compelling professional summary or objective
• List down duties and experiences relevant to digital marketing
• Put education and certification that can surely impress a company
• Attach a digital marketing cover letter that indicates your capabilities and what you can contribute to the company.

Step 9 – Network with the experts

When you start a career in digital marketing, it’s essential to get your name out there. And one means to do this is by networking. You need to make sure that people remember you. Building great connections can help you throughout your career. It gives out an avenue for clients to come to you or create your reputation.

Likewise, you can try building a network through

• Training programs you attended
• Previous employers and colleagues
• College professors

Step 10 – Choose your digital marketing career path

Lastly, there are tons of digital marketing paths you can choose from. Whether it’s SEO, Content Marketing, Social Media, or display ads, you need to select a focus and enhance your skills from there. Make sure to research its pros and cons and see what you are good at.

Conclusion

And that’s it! When you achieve these 10 steps, then signs you’re ready for a career in digital marketing. A career in digital marketing is not easy. You will commit mistakes that may affect your morale and confidence in your journey. However, try not to learn from it instead and do what works well.

If you think you are ready to start your career in digital marketing, Flexisource IT is hiring. Learn more on our career page!