Digital Marketing: The Best Career Option (No Degree Required)

When the Internet was introduced to the world a few decades back to reduce the six degrees of separation, perhaps few would have visualized how immensely intrinsic a part of everyday interactions it would become. Today, practically the whole business of life happens online and living life without the Internet or digital media seems to be simply impossible. Be it individuals, influencers, startups or businesses, everyone is using digital and social media for a number of purposes – personal as well as professional.

With the rise of the Internet, one of the most significant transformations that have occurred, is perhaps how businesses function. The digital world has literally revolutionized the traditional forms of marketing, selling products and customer interactions.

Since businesses have taken on to the digital road, job profiles have also changed. The new hype among the top skills in demand is probably what you would have already heard of, that is – digital marketing. It is one of the fastest growing occupations today – employment search portals are full of roles for digital marketers and organizations are looking for people, expert in digital skills more than ever. Read on to know more about this best career that does not require a degree!

What is Digital Marketing? –

In very simple terms, digital marketing means promoting your website, products or business online and establishing presence. Just as the purpose of traditional marketing is to sell products, engage with customers and build a unique brand awareness, digital marketing too subscribes to these ends. But, like its name suggests, digital marketing brings these traditional forms of marketing on virtual platforms.

All the methods, tools and techniques that one follows to promote businesses, sell products or services and build customer relationships online, falls under the domain of digital marketing. This may include promotions through social media, search engines, website ads, or through emails. Just like traditional marketing, the main goal of digital marketing is to attract a specific audience and generate leads.

One thing that is salient about digital marketing is that it is an ever evolving field. The marketing techniques or strategies that yield profitable outcomes today, may very well be considered dysfunctional in the near future.

This is because search engines like Google, and social media networks like Facebook and Instagram constantly update their algorithms, even as fast as each month. Digital marketing is an umbrella term with an expansive range of skills under its name.

Some of these include:

Ad Management –

When you visit a website or are scrolling through social media, you must surely have come across several ads. These ads are displayed on the sides, on the top or any other place on a web page that you are viewing. They are in fact, a form of digital marketing. For instance, if someone wants to buy a chair and search for it on Google.

Google will display a number of search results including various ads which direct users to landing pages for buying chairs. Any business that has products to sell can post an ad on Google, webpages, or social media to promote and sell their products. Posting ads on the Internet falls under the purview of digital marketing.

SEO and SEM –

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. The terms are quite self explanatory, but nevertheless, let us see how these two work. Whenever you enter a search query in Google, there are two types of search results that we can see – firstly, the ones that appear on the top and say ‘Ad’ in the superscript are paid search results.

Whenever a person searches Google for a particular product or service, businesses operating in that niche bid to place their ad as the top search result. The process takes place in microseconds. These paid results are displayed through Search Engine Marketing.

Search Engine Optimization on the other hand, is an organic way to appear higher in search results. It basically means optimizing your website in terms of content, images, keywords and more to make it most relevant for particular search queries. Once your website and its products etc.. appear on the first page of Google search results, you are potentially exposing your business to millions of people at the same time. This can have a direct impact on the growth scale of your business.

Social Media Marketing –

The times when businesses put up a serious, faceless corporate version of themselves is long gone. People are now looking for a more personalized face of businesses and interact with them intimately. Social media provides them a platform to do so.

The most effective way of building customer relationships and trust is through social media marketing tools and businesses have already exploited this opportunity to a great extent. These platforms let the digital marketers go where their audience is. They can communicate with their prospects directly and create a thriving following base for their brand.

Promoting or even selling products on social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram or YouTube is a real thing today, especially with these social media networks integrating more features to support businesses on their platforms.

Email Marketing –

Email marketing is one of the most effective forms of marketing and is exactly like it sounds. You might have come across several websites that ask for your email to offer free information, send you a newsletter, product information, coupons and so on.

The purpose of a brand asking for your email is to build a deeper relationship with you – their prospective customers. This form of digital marketing enables brands to connect with their audience on a more personal level.

Content Marketing –

Content is king – well there might be some truth to it since Bill Gates said it. If you are an expert at content, then you can make some serious earnings online and never be broke at any point of your life. Content marketing basically refers to the creation and promotion of valuable content for the audience. It helps in establishing trust in the audience and attracting new visitors.

All the content you see online, whether it is a blog article or a YouTube video, is a product of content marketing. Brands are able to better their prospects by solving real life problems through high quality content.

As a digital marketer, your role would be to plan, create and promote the content for different brands. You will also have to identify which form of content would be perfect for your organization as well as which platforms would suit it the most.

Why Should You Pursue Digital Marketing As A Career? –

If you are someone who enjoys creativity as much as technical stuff, then digital marketing can be your dream profession.

Read on to know the many reasons why you should take up digital marketing as a career.

Insane Demand –

As mentioned above, digital marketing is the new skill in demand. Businesses are shifting from physical stores to the virtual web, especially with the pandemic.
As businesses go online, so is the need to market products digitally rather than traditionally. Plus, as per statistics, the supply rate of digital marketers currently is drastically low as compared to their demand.

No Degree Required –

Years and years of education to land up for that same old 9 to 5 job is a thing of the past. Digital marketing does not require you to spend valuable years of your life attending classes.

Rather, you can learn digital marketing skills online in a matter of a few months. The real practice of digital marketing however, is when you put it into practice.

Be Your Own Boss –

If you are a digital marketer, there is great scope to work independently of any organization. This means that you decide what to do and when, you do not have to take orders from anyone, you can do tasks your own way.

So, save yourself from the hectic and monotonous 9 to 5 employment and upgrade your skill set with digital marketing. Once you gain expertise in the field, you can offer digital marketing consultations to companies and charge a high fee.

Immense Earning Potential –

The world is coming online, there is no denying that. But the rapidity with which it is happening promises one thing – the immense competition among businesses to promote themselves online.

This on the one hand creates a greater demand for digital marketers and secondly, since the supply is low (as mentioned above), the pay per head increases. The future of marketing is digital and with the rise of digital means, your earnings are also to go up.

Prospects for Growth, Creativity and Learning –

Google, Facebook, Instagram, Facebook etc.. change their algorithms frequently – in fact, these changes happen even as early as monthly. This means that you will have to evolve continuously and upskill yourself for your marketing strategies to work.

Such a setup offers plenty of opportunity for individual growth, challenges our creative potential and presents new opportunities for learning regularly. There is absolutely no possibility of a stagnant employment when it comes to digital marketing.

Conclusion

All the online ads that you see, the content that you read, and the images that you see online, are in one way or another related to the work of a digital marketer. Basically, anyone who knows how to make money online can be a digital marketer.

Becoming a digital marketer is a matter of acquiring skills pertaining to the digital as well as applying them into practice. So wait no further and try your hand at digital marketing – it literally offers a broad scope for you to prosper and make money entirely online.