Career in Digital Marketing- How to start career as Digital Marketer
The global economy has thoroughly moved towards digitization in the last few years. Most national and international organizations have turned to digital mediums for promoting their products and services. Digital marketing has offered thousands of benefits to many businesses, including increasing leads, sales growth, trackable results, and many more. While traditional marketing has geographical restrictions, digital marketing helps an organization extend its business globally and reach a worldwide audience. In today’s competitive world, every business flourishes depending on its online presence, customer testimonials, and reviews.
According to many renowned business owners, digital marketing plays a crucial role in every brand’s or organization’s success. It has eventually led to more budget allocation for digital marketers’ job profiles. Digital marketing has become one of the most popular and highest-paying career paths. The scope and opportunities are growing exponentially in the digital marketing career as it touches numerous aspects of a business. Today every single sector needs a team to handle its digital marketing responsibilities. Because of the effectiveness of digital marketing, the job profile of a digital marketer is highly in-demand in the global market. If you are interested in starting your career in the digital marketing field, then you are in the right place. Here we will discuss everything related to the digital marketing job profile, including the scope, responsibilities, required skills and eligibility, salary, courses, and more. Let’s know first who a digital marketer is.
Who Is A Digital Marketer?
Digital marketers are central to any company’s marketing team. Digital marketers are solely responsible for handling the company’s overall digital marketing plan of action. Their primary responsibility is to plan and implement online marketing strategies and help their companies extend their business globally. Other than this, they also conceptualize, organize, and optimize online campaigns. A digital marketer positively contributes to market research, search engine optimization, newsletter creation, sales growth, social media outreach, brand building, lead generation, client engagement, and digital communication. In simple words, an individual must be excellent at multitasking to become successful as a digital marketer. Digital marketers should also have a strong background in marketing and diverse knowledge of handling digital platforms.
Though higher studies are not essential for this job profile, an individual requires some specific training, education, and experience to reach an executive level in this field. Digital marketers usually collaborate with the organizational marketing department to ensure that the company’s marketing strategies align with the company’s vision and goals. They also work closely with the company’s digital partners to achieve these goals. Depending on the requirement, many digital marketers often mentor and guide entry-level or junior marketers in their respective teams.
Digital Marketing – Job Profile and Work Responsibilities
A digital marketer should be well-versed with multiple industry terms and practices. The role and responsibilities of a digital marketer are relatively similar to a marketing specialist. A digital marketer is primarily responsible for executing a company’s marketing strategies and taking necessary actions based on the resulting data to improve the digital campaigns.
The job profile of digital marketers is rewarding if the marketer has the required skills and work experience. However, the job position varies from organization to organization. Nowadays, there are thousands of job opportunities for digital marketers across the globe. While some companies may hire digital marketers as full-time employees, a few organizations offer freelance or contractual opportunities to candidates. A skilled and dedicated digital marketing specialist can bring immense success to a company, as digital marketing is the most effective and profitable way to generate sales and increase customer engagement.
Work Responsibilities of A Digital Marketer
The following are some primary responsibilities of digital marketers.
- Identifying the target audience
Identifying the target audience and understanding the market needs are two primary responsibilities of digital marketers. A strong understanding of the consumer market helps digital marketers promote a company’s services and products in a way that can easily attract the target audience. Identifying consumer behavior and requirements is extremely important for executing successful promotional campaigns.
- Executing promotional campaigns
Another significant responsibility of digital marketers is to plan and run promotional campaigns. To successfully run digital campaigns for an organization, they must learn about some essential key insights, such as organic traffic, paid ads, and influencer management. These key insights help digital marketers execute the most appropriate strategies.
- Collaborating with other professionals
Digital marketers often collaborate with other marketing professionals to plan and execute digital marketing strategies, depending on various projects. They usually collaborate with social media managers, SEO specialists, content writers, editors, and graphic designers for various business campaigns.
- Developing brand identity
Digital marketers play a pivotal role in developing a company’s brand identity appealing to existing and future customers. Despite all the competition, they help a company build a good reputation in the global market. Digital marketing specialists inform the potential and new consumers that the company is relevant and provides essential services.
Other job responsibilities of digital marketers include:
- Researching new advertising trends
- Ability to conduct market research
- Deciding on the placement of advertisements
- Determining what content will reach the target audience
- Publishing digital marketing content online
- Managing the company’s social media platforms
- Planning and executing email marketing campaigns
- Monitoring google and social media analytics
- Making reports on the growth and result of online campaigns
Required Skills for Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is a skill-based job profile. People of any gender can pursue a career in the digital marketing field. Most companies provide training to digital marketers during their probation period. But a candidate must have a few essential skills to become successful as a digital marketer. Below are some exceptional skills required for the digital marketing job profile.
- A digital marketer must have extraordinary analytical skills to execute profitable marketing strategies and determine consumer preferences.
- Leadership skills are extremely crucial for the digital marketer job profile. A digital marketing specialist must know how to manage a team of various professionals. Digital marketers should know how to encourage growth and participation and ensure healthy communication between team members.
- They must have good communication skills to connect with other team members. Similarly, communication skills help digital marketers to build interpersonal relationships with potential and new customers.
- A digital marketer must be creative enough to develop unique and innovative concepts depending on the client’s requirements. It is one of the most vital skills for promoting and advertising a company’s services and products.
- Digital marketers must have an in-depth understanding of marketing and branding. Marketing skills and experience help them achieve success in their career.
Other required skills are:
- Ability to identify the target audience
- Knowledge of handling social media platforms
- Experience in using HTML and content management systems
- Strong project management skills
- Ability to meet strict deadlines
- Familiarity with marketing automation technology
- Problem-solving and time-management skills
- Business-to-customer experience
- Knowledge of SEO
How To Start Your Career As A Digital Marketer?
A person requires a few significant qualifications and work experience to work in an organization as a digital marketer. Most companies prefer candidates with a marketing degree for the digital marketing job profile. However, candidates must meet the following criteria to get a job in this field.
Eligibility
Candidates interested in digital marketing must complete their higher secondary examinations with a minimum of 50% marks from a recognized board. Those who want to take the traditional path to start their career can join an online or offline digital marketing course. A certification course can be helpful for this job position as most companies prefer candidates with knowledge of marketing. A professional marketing degree is not mandatory for this job, and graduates from any discipline can apply if they have the required skills. However, the following courses are considered helpful for this job profile.
- Journalism and Mass Communication
- Public Relation
- Email Marketing
- Social Media Management
- Web Development
- Business Development
- Content Writing
Experience
Candidates who don’t want to join a certification course can directly apply for paid digital marketing internships or part-time entry-level jobs to gain the required experience. In India, many organizations offer freelancing opportunities to candidates. So that they can learn and earn together without committing to full-time employment. Work experience can help candidates understand the tips and tricks of digital marketing.
Digital Marketing Courses and Fees
Nowadays, many renowned online educational platforms provide paid and free certification courses in digital marketing. Candidates willing to start their career as digital marketers can join these courses. Candidates can also join offline digital marketing certification and PG diploma courses in affiliated private and government universities in India. While some online platforms offer free digital marketing courses, candidates must pay to join the offline ones.
Best Online Digital Marketing Courses
The following are the top 8 best online digital marketing courses.
P.S- Candidates can join these online courses anytime, according to their preference.
| Sl No. | Courses Name | Course Provider | Duration | Average Fees |
| 1. | Advanced Certificate in Digital Marketing and Communication | Upgrad | 32-50 weeks | INR 3256/month |
| 2. | Digital Marketing: How to Generate Sales Leads | Udemy | 12 hours | INR 1299 |
| 3. | Fundamentals of Digital Marketing | Google Digital Garage | 40 hours | Free |
| 4. | Digital Marketing Course: Get Certified in Digital Marketing | HubSpot Academy | 4 hours | Free |
| 5. | Digital Marketing Certification Course | Henry Harvin Education | 40 hours | INR 15,000 |
| 6. | Digital Skills: Digital Marketing | FutureLearn | 2 weeks | Free |
| 7. | Digital Marketing Specialization | Coursera | 8 months | Free |
| 8. | Digital Marketing Specialist | Simplilearn | Registration required | INR 64,200 |
Best Offline Digital Marketing Courses in India
In India, any private and government educational institutes provide offline digital marketing certification programs where candidates can learn everything regarding internet marketing. Below are the top 8 best offline digital marketing courses available in India.
P.S- For joining an offline digital marketing course, the candidate must complete their 12th with a minimum of 50% marks from a recognized board.
| Sl No. | Course Name | Institution Name | Duration | Average Fees |
| 1. | Internet Marketing Certification Course | Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad | 1 year | INR 1,80,000 |
| 2. | Digital Marketing Certification Course | Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai | 100 hours | INR 90,000 – 1 Lakh |
| 3. | Digital Marketing Certification Course | Delhi School of Internet Marketing (DSIM) | 4-6 months | INR 49,900 |
| 4. | Digital Marketing Course | All India Management Association | 60 hours of training and 12 hours of projects | INR 36,000 |
| 5. | Digital Marketing Course | NMIMS University, Mumbai | 1 year | INR 40,000 – 50,000 |
Best Digital Marketing PG Diploma Courses
Many educational institutions in India provide PG diploma courses in digital marketing. These courses cover every aspect of digital marketing, including social media marketing, email marketing, content marketing, data analytics, and the like.
P.S- One needs to complete their graduation from any discipline to join these postgraduate diploma courses.
| Sl No. | Course Name | Institution Name | Duration | Average Fees |
| 1. | Post Graduation Program in Digital Marketing | Indian Institute of Digital Education (IIDE), Mumbai | 11 months | INR 4,67,000 |
| 2. | Post Graduate Diploma in Digital Marketing | Indian Institute of Information Technology, Lucknow | 2 years | INR 1,00,000 per annum |
| 3. | Masters in Digital Marketing | Delhi School of Internet Marketing | 2 years | INR 49,900 |
| 4. | Post Graduate Diploma in Digital Marketing | Institute of Marketing Communications India | 1 year | INR 1,50,000 |
| 5. | Diploma in Digital Marketing | ISBM, Hyderabad | 6 months | INR 15,900 |
Salary of A Digital Marketer in India
Digitization has taken over the entire world, especially after the outbreak of COVID-19. That’s why digital marketing has become one of the most trending careers among today’s generation. Because of the huge demand in the global market, the average salary of digital marketers has increased quite a lot in recent times. As every sector widely depends on the digital landscape for lucrative growth, most corporate companies offer better annual salary packages to digital marketers than most job roles at the same experience level.
In India, the average salary of an entry-level digital marketer is 1.5-2.5 lakhs per annum. However, making money in digital marketing largely depends on the job location and the candidate’s designation, work experience, and educational qualification. The pay scale of the digital marketing job profile increases with time depending on the employee’s annual performance. When working as an intern, freelancer, or junior digital marketing associate, one can expect a salary between 8,000-12,000 INR/month. However, a senior-level digital marketing executive can earn up to 4-6 lakhs per annum.
Top 8 Recruiters of Digital Marketer Job Profile in India
In recent times, digital marketing has emerged as one of the most popular career choices among today’s youth. The primary reason behind the popularity of digital marketing careers is the growth of the worldwide e-commerce market during the pandemic and multiple lockdowns. There are thousands of rewarding job opportunities for digital marketers in the global market. The field of digital marketing is constantly evolving because of affordability and analytics. Many renowned corporate companies across the globe offer diverse job roles for digital marketers. Working with renowned corporate organizations can increase your chance of achieving success as a digital marketer. Here are the top 10 Indian companies hiring for digital marketer job profiles.
- Accenture
- Amazon
- Eduvacancy
- BookMyShow
- Discover Matrix
- Digi Sidekick
- Juvlon
- Cybridge
- Brainpulse
- Zivame
Top Universities in India for Digital Marketing Courses
Many affiliated private and government universities across India offer offline professional and PG diploma digital marketing courses for candidates. Here are the top 10 universities in India that provide the best learning experience in the digital marketing field.
- Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad
- Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
- Delhi School of Internet Marketing (DSIM)
- All India Management Association
- NMIMS University, Mumbai
- Indian Institute of Digital Education (IIDE), Mumbai
- Indian Institute of Information Technology, Lucknow
- Expert Training Institute, Delhi
- Institute of Marketing Communications India
- ISBM, Hyderabad
Top Online Platforms for Digital Marketing Certification Courses
Many online platforms offer numerous professional courses to candidates. Nowadays, many online platforms provide free and paid digital marketing certification courses. The following are the best online platforms that offer certification courses in digital marketing.
- Udemy
- Coursera
- Upgrad
- Google Digital Garage
- Simplilearn
- FutureLearn
- Henry Harvin Education
- HubSpot Academy
Digital Marketing Course Duration and Fees (UG/PG Level)
A certification in digital marketing is primarily a short-term course offered by various online educational platforms. Similarly, many affiliated private and government educational institutions in India offer professional certification and PG diploma courses in digital marketing. While some online digital marketing courses with shorter duration are mostly free, candidates must pay to join the elaborated ones. The course fee largely depends on the course duration and topics. The duration of an online digital marketing course can range from a few hours to a few months. Additionally, the duration of an offline certification and PG diploma internet marketing course can range from a few months to 2 years. In India, an online certification course in internet marketing can cost up to 60,000 INR, while an offline course can cost up to 2 lakhs. The average fee of a PG diploma digital marketing course can be 15,000-5,00,000 INR.