What Is Digital Marketing?

In simple terms, digital marketing is a form of marketing that makes use of electronic devices – social media, e-mail, mobile devices, apps, search engines – to reach consumers.

Digital marketing entails:

Creating and posting content on social media channels

Devising an effective digital media strategy to attract consumers onto the platform

Devising ‘viral’ video or content ideas

Generating leads to find new customers to use your digital product

Tracking consumer activity and behavior to understand the impact of the campaign

As a digital marketer, your work would involve a lot of coordination with different teams – copy, content, design, and tech.

Digital marketing and tech go hand-in-hand,”. You would spend your time planning and execute in a high-pressure environment that would involve data and numbers. Most importantly, you would have to keep track of changing trends and modify your plan of action accordingly. This career path is exciting for people who are results-driven and love working in a fast-paced environment.

“Digital marketing is simply marketing on the digital platform. Just like we have billboards, flyers, and TV ads to target an audience offline, we have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media to target an audience online.”

The only differing factor that makes digital marketing more challenging and interesting is the level of engagement and interaction of the brand with its audience.

Since digital marketing is carried out on electronic devices, it thrives on a consumer’s response. Thus, the consumer and the brand have to interact with each other for the brand to make its mark in the consumer’s mind.

This means that brands have to be more accessible and conversational with their consumers. This also makes it easier for the consumer to express concerns, ask questions, and show their loyalty to the brand.

Digital marketing is the next big thing in the world of marketing, and the possibilities are endless.

Is Digital Marketing A Good Career Path In India?

The demand for digital marketing in India is growing exponentially. The hiring trends of various companies indicate the growing need for hiring professionals with expertise in Digital Marketing.

According to marketing trends 2018 conducted by McKinley,  69% of companies are planning to hire more marketers. The most in-demand expertise was digital advertising (45%), content creation and curation (42%), and content strategy (39%)

Research says Indians are spending 4 to 5 hours on the internet every day. We’re making use of the internet for everything – ordering groceries and food, booking movie tickets, finding homes to buy and rent, and entertaining ourselves.

By 2025, about 65% of internet users in India are going to be 25 years or older, making it a platform for the youth.

The average time spent on the internet has naturally shot up since the COVID-19 pandemic. As more businesses have had to pivot and shift online, the need for skilled digital marketing professionals has only grown more urgent.

It Caters To Digital Media, An Ever-Evolving Platform

Digital media is an ever-evolving platform with endless possibilities. In a country like India, where several markets remain largely unexplored, digital marketing can truly be leveraged and expanded.

India’s booming start-up culture and e-commerce markets are particularly lucrative, as they require advertising and do not always have enough funds for offline marketing. With so many opportunities insights, digital marketing is only bound to evolve.

Career Opportunities In Various Types of Digital Marketing

As you can see, the world of digital marketing is vast. If you’re considering becoming a digital marketer, there are many avenues to choose from.

That said, there are several different types of digital marketing roles that you can pursue:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Pay-per-click Advertising (PPC)

Search Engine Marketing

Content Marketing

Social Media Marketing

Email Marketing

Influencer (Affiliate) Marketing

Video Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – the process of optimizing the brand website so that it is easily visible on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

Pay-per-click Advertising (PPC) – the process of advertising on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing to get more visibility. This usually goes hand-in-hand with SEO.

Search Engine Marketing – the process of using the right keywords to bring more traffic to the brand website. This usually goes hand-in-hand with SEO.

Content Marketing – the process of using content to drive traffic to the brand website. This involves writing high-value, enriching content that will turn users into loyal customers.

Social Media Marketing – the process of growing the brand’s business using social media channels such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.

Email Marketing is the process of growing the brand’s business through information sent directly to the person’s inbox. This could include newsletters, blogs, information and offers sent to the user’s email ID.

Influencer (Affiliate) Marketing – The process of using influential social media personalities to sell your products or services. This is a new, sophisticated version of native advertising – an influencer collaborates with a brand for monetary compensation to promote the brand to their audience.

Video Marketing – Also known as viral marketing, it is a process where a brand teams up with viral video content to promote its brand. The content may not be directly related to the brand, but it catches the attention of the viewer as entertainment. These videos are often funny, silly, and entertaining to watch.

These are some digital marketing examples for you to consider when opting for this career path.

Digital Marketing Career Growth

The above-mentioned digital marketing roles work in tandem with each other. Most of the roles are intertwined with each other – there’s a chance you’ll be working on multiple forms of digital marketing in your job, and it is recommended that you do. This makes the digital marketing career path enticing and interesting.

As a digital marketer, you can start with executive roles and later venture into strategy. There are instances where companies have created titles – such as CMO, Digital Marketing – for professionals specifically.

For more horizontal growth, one can venture into spaces such as category management or switch sectors for more creatively challenging work.

Digital Marketing Salary In India

The growth prospects of the field also reflect in the digital marketing salary earned by freshers and experienced alike. According to research for 2020, here are the average starting annual salaries for the different branches of digital marketing, which are subject to change as per work experience:

Digital Marketing Manager    Upto INR 4,00,000

Pay Per Click Analyst   Upto INR 2,50,000

SEO Analyst     Upto INR 2,20,000

Social Media Executive           Upto INR 3,50,000

Content Marketing Executive Upto INR 2,50,000

Digital Marketing Salary For Freshers

If you’re just starting in executive roles (0-2 years of work experience), As a digital marketing executive Your salary would most likely be up to Rs. 30,000 a month.

Digital Marketing Salary For The Experienced

At the Intermediate stage (4-5 years of work experience), you should ideally be able to handle a small team. Your salary, then, would be between Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 60,000 a month.

A few more years in the domain would lead you to the role of a manager which would make your salary as a Digital marketing manager about Rs. 1,00,000 a month. Further salary increase would depend on how specialized your skillset is.

These are the approximate figures of digital marketing salaries in India. It’s lucrative and has the scope to grow.

How To Start A Career In Digital Marketing In India

Now that you’re well aware of the digital marketing roles and responsibilities, digital marketing salary, and scope of digital marketing in India, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to start digital marketing and become a digital marketer:

Enroll In A Good Digital Marketing Course

Gain Experience Through Internships

Work On Your Portfolio

Build A Strong Online Presence

Build An Impressive Resume

Set The Right Expectations For Your First Job

Enroll In A Good Digital Marketing Course

To start a career in digital marketing, you’re going to need a bit of technical knowledge – how to sell to a customer, what mediums to use, how best to communicate the idea, how to calculate the impact of your campaign, etc. A digital marketing course can help you get quality knowledge on the subject.

However, your willingness to learn on the job at the end of the day is what can truly get you ahead. But to understand the technicalities of marketing, a BBA or an MBA is helpful.

Enrolling in a course is beneficial for many reasons – besides gaining knowledge, you would also be surrounded by like-minded people who will help you get those creative juices flowing. Enrolling in a reputed university can also open up the possibility of getting a job, as most universities have a placement system.

Gain Experience Through Internships

If you’re someone who’s looking to get a digital marketing job and has no experience then the best place to begin would be an internship experience. There’s nothing that can substitute on-ground experience, and an internship can help you with that. You don’t have to be enrolled in a university to fulfill an internship requirement; you can choose to do a part-time internship even if you’re working. Doing an internship is beneficial because it teaches you more about the digital marketing industry growth in India and helps you pick up skills that a theoretical course won’t impart.

As a fresher, an internship will play a significant role in your job search – recruiters would want to be impressed with your list of internships and the role you’ve played.

Work On Your Portfolio

As is with all creative fields, digital marketing freshers would require more than just coursework to get hired. Recruiters would want to know if you’ve really got what it takes, so you must present a portfolio.

In your portfolio, you’ll have to record all the work you’ve done in the field of digital marketing. The likes, shares, impressions, engagement rate, ranking – all of it counts.

Your internship and college projects should ideally help you build it a little, but it’s important to get your hands dirty and work on your own projects.

There’s nothing that can give you satisfactory first-hand experience as a passion project can. Start your own blog about something you’re passionate about and try to get it to rank on Google. Practice keyword research to get more traffic on your blog. Start an Instagram page and read up on the tips and tricks to increase engagement and followers. Make use of low-cost or free tools at your disposal to build your personal project. Practicing using these tools can help you apply your knowledge practically. As you succeed and get better results, you can add your passion project to your portfolio.

Build A Strong Online Presence

You need to know the nitty-gritty of social media as a digital marketer. You must be aware of new digital media trends and how to leverage them to make a brand grow. It’s helpful to subscribe to tech, digital media, and social media publications so you can stay up-to-date.

You also must network and build your personal brand as a digital marketer, and LinkedIn is the best site for this purpose.

You can get hired by updating your profile in a way that impresses and makes yourself more visible by regularly posting about your thoughts and ideas. Now is a great time to leverage LinkedIn, so clean up your profile and get to it!

Build An Impressive Resume

You have internships and a solid portfolio at your disposal – now is the time for it to reflect in your resume.

A resume is, needless to say, an important part of getting your dream digital marketing job. If you’re wondering how to find a  job in digital marketing, your resume must reflect all the relevant experience you have in the field – whether it’s theoretical knowledge, certifications, or internships. Since you’re going to need numbers to showcase your skills, you can specify them in your resume.

For example, if you’ve successfully handled an Instagram page of a big brand during your internship, you can write about it under the ‘internships’ section of your resume along with the impact you made. It can look something like this:

Was in charge of NIDM Instagram account for a period of 2 months. During this period, I ideated the campaign #learn digital marketing through NIDM, which garnered over 1 lakh impressions.

An impressive resume for digital marketing freshers must have the impact of the campaign mentioned clearly, as that can give the recruiter an idea of your skills.

Set The Right Expectations For Your First Job

The scope of digital marketing in India is incredibly high. Choosing this field is a great decision – start on the right foot!

Spend some time researching the overall scopes of digital marketing which industry you’d like to work in, basis your interest, and the potential of the industry itself. Read about the organization’s culture, try getting in touch with former employees to understand more about the organization. That way, you’ll also inevitably end up preparing for a potential job interview and a career in digital marketing.

Conclusion

Digital marketing is the right way to start your career goals start today with NIDM and build your dream job career.