Considering a career path in digital marketing? Digital marketing skills are high in demand today as businesses worldwide compete for attention online.
From content marketing to social media marketing skills, companies are on the lookout for agile professionals who possess the digital expertise to navigate the quickly evolving field.
If you’re considering a digital marketing career, we get you up to speed on the digital marketing industry and essential things you should know.
What does a digital marketer do?
Digital marketing roles are highly results-driven. Besides attention to detail, digital marketers must possess a proactive mindset and the ability to work in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.
There are several digital marketing job roles, each requiring a high level of creativity and adaptability:
1. Digital marketing executive
Digital marketing executives plan, develop, and execute marketing campaigns, as well as produce engaging, relevant, and targeted content. Roles and responsibilities include the following:
- Identify trending digital marketing strategies to position the organisation at the forefront of its industry
- Plan, develop, and execute digital marketing campaigns to promote an organisation’s product and services in the digital space
- Manage and optimise content for the organisation’s website and track web traffic
- Manage and optimise content for the organisation’s social networking channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to improve online engagements
- Generate performance reports on digital campaigns and initiatives
- Attend networking events, product launches, and develop webinars and webcasts
2. Digital marketing manager
A digital marketing manager gathers market information for an organisation’s products and services, and works with digital marketing executives to plan, develop, and execute digital marketing campaigns. Roles and responsibilities include the following:
- Identify and leverage new digital technologies to optimise marketing campaigns, email marketing, social media, as well as display and search advertising using web analytics tools
- Supervise digital marketing executives in planning, developing, and executing digital marketing campaigns to promote an organisation’s product and services online
- Enhance brand awareness in the digital space for the organisation
- Drive and track web traffic and acquire leads
- Generate performance reports on digital campaigns
3. SEM specialist
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a specialised aspect of digital marketing.
SEM specialists support the marketing team by increasing the visibility of websites in search engine results through paid advertising.
This ensures that when customers search for a specific topic or keyword, an organisation’s website will be immediately visible. The roles and responsibilities of SEM specialists include the following:
- Implement digital marketing activities and manage content relating to products, services and campaigns across search, shopping, and display networks
- Optimise landing pages of paid search engine marketing campaigns
- Track and achieve ROI in paid search campaigns by collecting and analysing data, and identifying trends and insights
- Identify and leverage search engine trends and developments
- Generate performance reports by tracking and analysing website analytics and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns
- Manage campaign budgets
4. Social media marketing expert
Social media marketing experts combine marketing and social media management to enhance an organisation’s digital presence.
They should be familiar with the ins and outs of social media platforms, social media marketing strategies, and content optimisation to better engage and interact with audiences. The roles and responsibilities include the following:
- Build social media marketing strategies based on competitive and audience research
- Plan, develop, and execute social media marketing campaigns. The latter includes ideation for campaigns, managing content, planning budgets, as well as implementation plans
- Promote an organisation’s products and services on various social media platforms
- Optimise an organisation’s social media pages on various social media platforms to increase social content visibility
- Track and optimise audience engagement and traffic on social media platforms
5. Digital marketing copywriter
Writers support the marketing team by producing written content for websites and social media pages.
Using the key messages from the marketing team, copywriters refine the content and choice of words used to produce better content and ad copy. Roles and responsibilities include the following:
- Produce written content for blogs, websites, social media pages, ebooks, etc.
- Understand the needs and interest of target audiences, and tailor content to them accordingly
- Work with the marketing team to complement designs and visuals with quality copy, or co-develop digital content such as videos, infographics, and ads
- Identify interesting and fresh angles to capture audience attention
6. Content marketing manager
Content marketing managers are responsible for planning, developing, and implementing the overall content marketing strategy for an organisation.
They will need to ensure that any marketing campaign they execute in the digital platform will be worth an organisation’s investment. The roles and responsibilities include the following:
- Plan, develop, and implement effective editorial plans and content marketing strategies
- Research and analyse competitors and the content marketing landscape
- Identify topics and trends relating to an organisation’s market position, products, and services
- Create and optimise content to drive greater conversions
- Track and optimise metrics relating to traffic, engagement, and leads
- Work with the marketing team to integrate content strategy with brand campaigns to drive demand
- Generate ideas to increase customer engagement
Benefits of a digital marketing career
If you’re on the fence about starting a digital marketing career, consider these five benefits:
1. Growing demand
Dueto the recent COVID-19 pandemic, organisations are embracing the digital movement and taking their businesses online. As traditional brick-and-mortar stores transition online, they’ll need help with digital marketing to reach out to new prospective customers.
The digital marketing field will see growing demand, as well as new platforms and strategies. This is why businesses will continue to hire digital marketers.
2. The skills are easy to pick up
One of the benefits of a career in digital marketing is that it’s possible to pick up the necessary skills and expertise on your own.
For instance, you can build a website with drag-and-drop platforms to learn how they work, read up and learn how Google Ads and Facebook Ads work, or familiarise yourself with Google Analytics and explore Google Keyword Planner.
We cover simple ways to use Google Adwords for SEO keywords here.
3. Versatility
The flexible, versatile nature of the digital marketing industry allows you to have an agile career.
As digital marketing is such a broad scope with a wide array of opportunities available, you may choose to specialise in one area, and upskill to another with just a little training. For example, you could specialise in SEO marketing as a start, while dabbling here and there on social media marketing.
This helps you build on existing skills while learning new ones, allowing you to benefit from various career paths and ongoing learning opportunities.
4. Flexible work arrangements
Given the nature of digital marketing work, it’s common to land digital marketing jobs with flexible working schedules instead of fixed work hours, or roles that allow you to work remotely from home.
It’s also a field that lets you freelance by building your own client base and putting your digital marketing skills to work. For instance, you could decide to work only on selected months a year.
5. Exercise creativity
Most digital marketers work in young, dynamic environments where they brainstorm new ways of marketing an organisation’s products and services, engage audiences and solve problems online.
Organisations are also usually open to experiment with new methods of digital marketing, and this is where you’ll get to exercise your creativity and produce the next big idea.
Digital marketing salary in Singapore
With the rise of e-commerce and online shopfronts, marketing professionals are increasingly expected to have specialised digital marketing skills.
This is why digital marketing executives and managers, digital marketing specialists, campaign managers and account managers were high in demand in 2020.
Digital marketing also ranked second in the list of top skills sought after in the industry, right after sales.
In digital marketing, the more technical expertise and experience you have under your belt, the higher the salary you can command.
| Position | Qualification | Experience (Years) | Salary range |
| Digital marketing executive | Degree | 1-5 | $2,800-$4,700 |
| Digital marketing manager | Degree | 3-7 | $6,000-$11,000 |
| Campaign manager | Degree | 4-6 | $3,800-$6,200 |
| Digital marketing specialist | Degree | 3-5 | $4,500-$6,000 |
| SEM strategist | Degree | 3-5 | $3,500-$5,000 |
If you have four to six years’ experience as a campaign manager, you can expect to draw a monthly salary between $3,800 to $6,200.
If you’re starting as a digital marketing executive, you can expect a monthly salary of between $2,800 to $4,700. With more experience, your salary can be bumped up to $6,000 to $11,000 as a digital marketing manager.
As a digital marketing specialist with three to five years’ experience, you can expect to draw a monthly salary of between $4,500 and $6,000.
Skills you need for a successful digital marketing career
Organisations are looking for digital marketing skills that they can tap on to boost their visibility online, such as the following:
1. SEO skills
If you have search engine optimisation (SEO) skills and can significantly boost a webpage’s ranking in search results, you’ll be highly sought after.
You’ll need to be skilled in using analytical tools to evaluate the performance of web pages, read trends and data well, as well as be familiar with some aspects of web design.
However, the SEO landscape is ever-changing. Purely repeating keywords excessively on each webpage or editing content and metatags constantly don’t work. It involves an overarching SEO strategy, as well as knowing how to create a strong brand positioning in your market.
2. Writing skills
Effective writing skills are highly prized in the digital marketing field. Organisations need people who can create compelling content for their websites, blogs, and social media pages to capture attention and retain visitors.
Besides writing, digital marketers may need to do in-depth research to deliver content that visitors want to read. Content should also be tailored to specific audiences for maximum effectiveness.
Skilled writers can also help to boost customer conversions through effective copywriting.
3. Communication skills
As digital marketing is a dynamic and creative field, digital marketers may be required to make a case for a campaign and help others in the organisation understand the importance of digital marketing. Great communication skills are thus vital.
For instance, digital marketers will have to pitch to clients on their approach for customer outreach in the ever-evolving digital marketing space.
4. Creativity
Digital marketing requires professionals to exercise their creativity and come up with novel solutions.
To build a successful digital marketing career, you’ll need to be able to produce blog articles, create infographics, conduct in-depth research for white papers and ebooks, as well as develop ads, websites and social media posts.
You’ll also need a sound understanding of SEO, how to implement and manage social media marketing campaigns, as well as the basics of web design.
Need a rundown on optimising your website for SEO? Check out this article.
5. Analytical skills
Managing a PPC campaign involves more than its execution. Identifying the right keywords may not always be straightforward, and you can expect a steep learning curve with PPC tools such as Adwords.
You’ll be required to learn and use such analytic tools in order to conduct successful digital marketing campaigns. This includes understanding bidding methods, how keywords work, how to search for the right keywords, and how to manage and execute multiple campaigns at a go.
6. Goal-orientedness
To succeed in your digital marketing career, you’ll need to be goal-oriented. This means setting both long-term and short-term goals, and tracking how your digital marketing activities are leading up to those goals.
For instance, a digital marketer may measure metrics such as site traffic, sources of traffic, total conversions, number of engagements, likes and shares, as well as deep-dive into data.
How to get started on a digital marketing career
If you’re looking to be part of an industry with huge growth potential and opportunities for career advancements, a digital marketing career could be up your alley. Here’s how you can get started.
1. Enrol in training courses
While many professions require specific academic qualifications, a degree is no way necessary for the field of digital marketing.
It’s possible to establish a digital marketing career through self-learning, determination, and hard work.
Check out the training courses and programmes available online such as these:
For social media training, you can enrol in this online training course by digital marketing consultant Eric Schwartzman.
You can also familiarise yourself with Facebook’s various qualifications, and earn badges and icons after completing these courses. By adding these badges and icons to your resume or portfolio, you’ll be able to stand out from the competition.
We cover more digital marketing courses in Singapore here.
2. Educate yourself through free online resources
It’s also possible to learn on your own by soaking up shared knowledge and experiences.
Learn how big brands collaborate and use digital marketing strategies effectively, and tune in to digital marketing consultants who are willing to share a new approach or hack to digital marketing.
Digital marketers are constantly testing new ideas, and are always happy to share the results. Hence, read as much as you can to gain a broad understanding of the digital marketing space.
You can start off the with following topics:
- SEO
- SEM
- Social media marketing
- Content marketing
- Writing for the web
- Email marketing
- Growth hacking
- Marketing funnel
- A/B and multivariate testing
- Affiliate marketing
- Web analytics and more
Online communities such as Medium and GrowthHackers often share and promote digital content.
Alternatively, visit sites such as Marketing Land, Search Engine Land, ConversionXL, Moz, Search Engine Journal, Social Media Examiner, and HubSpot for more excellent content.
3. Intern with a company
To begin your digital marketing career, consider taking up a marketing role with an organisation or reach out and volunteer your services to hone your skills. This helps you gain industry experience.
You could also consider getting an internship by approaching start-ups or marketing agencies to get some actual experience.
Start-ups are a good place to start. As fast-growing units with plenty of work, start-ups will be delighted to have an extra pair of hands.
If you land a role with a marketing agency, you can gain a broader experience as you’ll be exposed to clients in various industries. However, marketing agencies are likely to have higher expectations of you as you’ll be functioning as part of a highly specialised team.
4. Begin your digital marketing career
After gaining sufficient experience in the digital marketing field as an intern, you may begin hunting for a permanent, full-time role.
One way to begin your job hunt is by searching for relevant jobs on LinkedIn.
As an aspiring digital marketer, you can start by creating a LinkedIn profile to showcase your experience and skills. Alternatively, you can seek assistance from a recruitment company that specialises in filling digital marketing roles.
Even after landing your full-time job, remember that the digital marketing industry is fast-paced and ever-changing. For example, thousands of updates are made to Google’s page-ranking algorithm each year, for instance, causing websites to either be bumped up or lose their search rankings. These updates will influence how digital marketers manage their SEO strategies.
We talk about the recent 2020 Google Search updates here.
As such, digital marketers must thus stay current and relevant by keeping up with the latest developments in digital marketing.
By staying ahead of digital marketing trends, you’ll be able to offer strategic insights that would be useful to businesses, and remain a highly valuable and sought-after digital marketing professional.