Main fields & jobs of digital marketing that you need to know about
Mobile marketing
Did you know that today mobile phones outnumber human beings almost by half? Besides, as stated by Marketing Dive, 73% of the 37.000 respondents of the most prominent Americans' technology adoption annual survey claim that mobile phones are the electronic devices they use most. It comes as no surprise that mobile marketing is one of the hottest areas of digital marketing in 2021. It's a multi-channel marketing strategy aimed at reaching a target audience on their smartphones or tablets. It can be done via websites, email, apps, text messages, and social media. The success of mobile marketing lies in the fact that it reaches the right person in the right place in real time. Since people typically carry their phones everywhere, it is also highly interactive and allows immediate consumption.
Career options & the average salary in the US in 2021: mobile application developer ($96,563), mobile campaign manager ($105,714), mobile marketing manager ($106,395).
Search engine optimization (SEO)
No one could describe search engine optimization as on point as Ian Dodson, the co-founder and director of the Digital Marketing Institute does: "Smell nice for Google!" The more formal textbook definition of SEO could be the following: it is the process of refining your website using on-page and off-page practices for it to be indexed and ranked successfully by search engines. With SEO, you can grow your website traffic in the best and most cost-effective way by having a high position in organic search listings (SERP). Knowing at least the basics of SEO is a must for any marketer.
Career options & the average salary in the US in 2021: SEO specialist ($54,144), SEO/SEM strategist ($73,770), digital marketing manager ($108,582).
Pay-per-click (PPC)
As the saying goes, nothing is free — everything has to be paid for. Marketing is far from being an exception. Pay-per-click, or PPC, is a revenue model of digital marketing whereby the advertiser pays only when a user clicks on their ad. Essentially, it is buying visits to your site instead of earning them organically. One of the most popular forms of PPC is search engine advertising. It allows you to bid for ad placement in search engine's sponsored links when someone searches for a particular keyword related to your product or service. If you want PPC to work and give you a profit, prepare to put a lot of effort into building a proper campaign: do thorough keyword research, select and organize them, set up PPC landing pages that are optimized for conversions, and so on. If you do it right, search engines will reward you by charging less, which will ultimately lead to increased earnings.
Career options & the average salary in the US in 2021: PPC specialist ($56,500), PPC manager ($70,751), performance marketing manager ($120,979).
Email marketing
Have you ever received promotional messages in your email box? We bet you have! A spoiler here: their purpose is to generate sales or leads; they may contain advertising and are usually sent to people in mass quantities. In other words, they're called email marketing. The fact that often goes unnoticed is that this type of marketing is actually the oldest of all digital marketing forms: the first email marketing blast was sent back in 1978. Contrary to what many think, though, it is not dead. In fact, like Neil Patel, the world's top marketer and entrepreneur, points out, "email marketing is still ranked as the most effective marketing channel, beating out social media, SEO, and affiliate marketing." Why so? It turns out that people use email more than other platforms, and the number grows every year. In addition to that, with email marketing, no algorithm can change your reach — you own your connections. So don't forget the old but gold — it may be the best way to promote your business, increase brand loyalty and get some helpful feedback from customers.
Career options & the average salary in the US in 2021: email marketing assistant ($55,390), email marketing specialist ($65,578), email marketing manager ($106,395).
Social media marketing
Would you like your customers to become your brand's biggest fans and interact with them regularly? Social media is the number one tool for you! Social media marketing is a form of internet marketing utilizing social media platforms to gain website traffic, brand exposure, interaction with customers, and increase sales. It includes publishing great content, listening to and engaging with your followers, running advertisements, and analyzing results. The major social networking sites at the moment are Facebook, YouTube, Whatsapp, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Reddit. Social media is of the utmost importance for marketers nowadays — DataReportal's latest data show that there are 4.33 billion social media users worldwide at the start of 2021. Yes, you read it right — it's more than 55 percent of the total global population. Besides, a typical user visits and uses more than six different social media sites each month and spends an average of around 2.5 hours using social media every day. We think there's no more proof needed, is there?
Career options & the average salary in the US in 2021: social media manager ($52,125), social media strategist ($58,063), social media analyst ($67,357).
Content marketing
Have you ever come across an article or a video on the internet that answered a question that was bothering you for a long time but you couldn't fully articulate? This is called good content marketing. Content marketing is focused on creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract and keep your audience (and eventually drive revenue). It includes blogging, guides, ebooks, infographics, videos, and other activities. Content marketing is a brilliant investment because it gets picked up by Google: people can then find it and share it more times than it would be possible otherwise. It leads to attracting new customers almost indefinitely and may even position you as a leader in your field. Investing as little as six hours a week in content marketing can be enough to grow your web traffic. So how about reaping all those benefits, huh?
Career options & the average salary in the US in 2021: content writer ($47,478), content promotion specialist ($53,132), content marketing director ($126,168).
Marketing analytics
The great thing about digital marketing is that it's the most measurable form of marketing. That's where marketing analytics comes in — it's a process of collecting, measuring, analyzing, and reporting data of your platform's visitors' behavior. Its purpose is to understand and optimize web usage. By measuring your campaigns, you can see what works and what doesn't, adjust them accordingly, and achieve greater success. The best marketing analytics tools are Google Analytics, MixPanel, The AdWords Performance Grader, and others. NB: you should perform your checks regularly because the story behind the stats is a never-ending one (however, worth all your effort)!
Career options & the average salary in the US in 2021: digital marketing analyst ($70,591), business development analyst ($71,246), director of marketing analytics ($127,500).
Final thoughts
Digital marketing is one of the most on-trend fields in today's labor market, and it isn't going anywhere anytime soon. As we've already seen, it offers a plethora of job opportunities: whether you are more on a creative or analytical side, there's always an option for you. So make sure you choose a path that is closest to your heart, follow it dearly, and we're confident that your efforts will pay off in no time!
