Digital marketing is becoming a mainstream career in India. Until 2010, many businesses did not take digital marketing seriously. They were not ready to change and were stuck with traditional marketing practices. Compared to digital marketing, traditional marketing is extremely inefficient. In fact, if you do not have a digital marketing strategy and an online presence, customers are bound to shy away from you and buy from a competitor. This shift in marketing practice has given rise to a huge opportunity in digital marketing.
According to this research, the digital economy is growing 10 times faster than the traditional economy and firms that engage in online trading are twice as likely to be creating jobs as firms that aren’t. A career in digital marketing provides you various sub-career option. If you love coding, you can go for web designing or if you are a born writer, go for content marketing and so on. In addition, you don’t have to spend sleepless nights mugging up the formulas that you are never going to use in your life.
Eligibility criteria:
Unlike other major career options, Digital Marketing doesn’t require an individual to pursue a specific degree at the undergraduate or postgraduate level. However, it is recommended to have a degree in Business Management, Mass Media, Journalism, or Marketing as they would help you get a basic understanding of Marketing, Content and Business.
They should ideally be backed by a certification in Digital Marketing, which would help you enhance your skills and knowledge and raise your chances of getting a job in this field. These are all comprehensive online courses that integrate live projects, simulated learning, instructor videos, course material, etc., and are well-recognized in the industry for developing the skills needed for a career in this field.
Skills Required:
- Technical skills: In addition to the technical skills (e.g. about SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing), following are the skills you would need to be a successful Digital Marketing professional. To the degree, one has these skills to the same degree one can expect success & growth as a digital marketer.
- Creativity: Given the amount of content & conversations on a digital medium, creativity plays an important role in differentiating a brand among its peers.
- Analytical Ability: Given measurability is one of the key strengths required, analytical skills are critical to being a successful digital marketer.
- Communication Skills: For most of the profiles in this domain, good communication skills especially written communication are important. In absence of good communication, one has to rely on an external resource and that’s not always feasible & is inefficient.
- A Quest for Learning: Given the dynamic nature of digital media, one has to be open and should be hungry to learn newer trends & skills to move ahead of others.
- Passion for Digital Media: Digital Marketing professionals who are genuinely passionate about digital media will surely see more success coming their way in terms of results of their campaign and their career growth.
- Multi-tasking: Most of the internet campaigns involve multiple digital media channels and continuous activities. In order to successfully manage this spread of online marketing campaigns, multitasking is another important skill for any digital marketer.
- Networking: As shared earlier, Quest for Learning is a desired attitude in any digital marketing professional. Networking skills (especially online) play an important role for any digital marketer to stay abreast of latest trends & techniques in internet marketing.
- Comfort with Technology: While knowledge or experience of technology is not required for a digital marketer, one’s comfort with technology and associated changes is another important element for success in online marketing.
- Willingness to Experiment: Digital Marketing is an evolving field and there are no defined rules for success. One’s willingness and ability to experiment in digital marketing also plays an important role in determining the success of such campaigns.
Portals offering Digital Marketing courses:
1. Coursera
Coursera’s digital marketing course is a 6-course specialization that covers all major areas of digital marketing. These courses can be taken separately or as part of the specialization which culminates in a fully online accredited Master of Business Administration (iMBA) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
2. UpGrad
UpGrad is an online higher education platform, which provides a PG Certification in Digital Marketing and Communications. For this certification, UpGrad has a partnership with MICA, Ahmedabad, a reputable business school in India. Their courses allow you to use real-time money to build social media campaigns and track their progress. They also provide a certificate from Facebook on course completion.
3. Manipal ProLearn
Manipal ProLearn’s digital marketing certification program covers various aspects of digital marketing such as SEO, SEM, ORM and Analytics. The course is certified by Google.
4. Udemy
Udemy offers a digital marketing course that covers topics like Web Analytics, Web Copywriting, Social Media Channels, E-mail Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Content Marketing, etc. Their course material has been developed with the support of top professionals from The Oxford College of Marketing.
5. TalentEdge
TalentEdge provides a specialized Executive Programme in Digital Marketing from XLRI, and is suited for early beginners as well as people with preexisting experience in the marketing domain.
6. Digital Vidya
Digital Vidya offers Digital Marketing (CDMM), Mobile Marketing (CMMM) and Social Media Certification programs (CSMMP) in association with V-Skills, a Govt. of India initiative.
7. Simplilearn
Their Social Media Specialist Master’s Program has 35+ online instructor-led classes in digital marketing that provide hands-on experience in various Digital Marketing domains. They also provide access to forums and mentoring sessions in the program.
Job Opportunities:
- Digital Marketing Consultant
- Content Marketing Executive
- Content Writer
- Inbound Marketer
- Social Media Marketing Expert
- Search Engine Marketer
- SEO Executive
- Conversion Rate Optimizer
- Copywriters
- Web Analytics Executive
- Email Marketer
- E-commerce Manager
Salary:
Given the increasing gap between demand and supply of Digital Marketing professionals, a Digital Marketer commands a much higher average salary compared to other industries. A graduate with no work experience can expect a monthly salary of Rs. 25,000-30,000 per month. The head of Digital Marketing in a large brand or agency can earn over Rs. 2-3 lakh per month.
(Edvantage Point is India’s go-to platform for education-related products and services. We are into admissions management for schools, career advice and counselling services for students as well as recruitment services).
