The Top Digital Marketing Career Paths of 2020
Whether you’re an experienced marketer looking to add some digital skills to your resume or are a recent graduate trying to build a career, digital marketing provides a near-endless stream of opportunities. As more and more businesses turn to the immense opportunity provided by the proliferation of the internet and internet-enabled devices, these businesses need digitally skilled individuals to help support their online marketing campaigns.
If you have your heart set on a career as a digital marketer, you will likely find this to be a rewarding decision. However, given that digital marketing has numerous sub-fields, you may find yourself questioning where to begin and how. If this is you, here is a quick guide to the top digital marketing career paths of 2020.
Content Strategists
Content is king, as Bill Gates famously proclaimed in 1999. It is doubtful that even he knew, at the time, just how important content would become to nearly every facet of digital marketing. While content spans writing, graphics, audio, and video, content writing is possibly the most accessible and most in-demand of the content disciplines.
If you fancy yourself to be a wordsmith, you can pay a handsome fee for turning in high-quality content that helps businesses make sales or rank well in terms of search engine optimization (SEO). Even better, you can consider a career as a content strategist. Content strategists help businesses and organizations determine what content to produce.
One of the best things about content strategy is that you can work remotely in most cases. However, you should note that the ease of entry into this field makes it extremely competitive, so you might need to be patient while waiting for your big break.
The average starting salary for a content strategist is $61,281.
Social Media Content Creator
Social media content creators have the challenging job of creating a varied stream of content to suit the social media channel, the audience, the campaign, and the client. A social content creator will need to be a generalist who is gifted with words, understands graphics and video, and audio. If this is you, you will be delighted to learn that social content creators are among the higher-earning digital marketing professionals of 2020, with an average annual salary of $50,473.
SEO Strategists
As so much of digital marketing revolves around SEO, it should come as no surprise that SEO strategists are in high demand. Statistically, around 90% of all traffic for any search query stays on the first page of search results (SERPs). Whatever the industry or niche, the competition is extremely stiff to land a coveted top spot on a SERP. The process is a complex one that requires a dedicated SEO professional who is skilled at SEO audits, on-page SEO, technical SEO, and so on. Given that Google has approximately 200 ranking factors to consider, SEO is a full-time, challenging, and rewarding digital marketing career path with an annual salary of $49,589.
Digital Analysts
It is now widely accepted that data-driven digital marketing is the best practice. This is true because data provides an objective picture of what is working and what is not, allowing digital marketing teams to replicate their best efforts.
At the heart of this process are digital analysts who take data, analyze it, and produce useful reports that aid in sensitive decision-making. Digital analysts will work across all the content teams, with their influence being felt in social media analytics, SEO, YouTube, and pretty much any online channel used by the business.
Beyond marketing analytics, however, digital analysts will also be involved in industry analysis, keeping an eye on competitors’ data to uncover their strategies and stay ahead of the pack. Find out more about the range of jobs open to marketing analysts here. Digital analysts have an average annual salary of $60,208.
Digital Project Manager
Like the digital analyst, a digital project manager must have a bit of knowledge in all digital marketing areas. The main difference is that while the digital analyst serves internal stakeholders, the project manager manages client relationships. This is a mid-level role and might also include other staff’s supervision, particularly those who might be tasked with working on specific aspects of a client’s campaign, such as SEO or social media. The average annual salary for a digital project manager is $74,350.
How to Tell if Digital Marketing is Right for You:
Are you thinking of pursuing a career in digital marketing? If one of these areas interests you, you should jump right in by getting some training. Before you make the leap, though, ask yourself a few questions to be sure that this is the right career move:
1. Are you Unendingly Curious?
Unlike most other fields, digital marketing evolves continuously. In a year or two, the knowledge you gained today, may be irrelevant or even incorrect—some of these roles, which are in high demand, maybe completely automated or highly saturated. To stay ahead in digital marketing, you must stay a lifelong and willing learner.
2. You tend to See the Big Picture Without Missing out on the Details
Digital marketing requires people who are incredibly well-balanced in their approach to analysis. You must be able to think creatively and logically at the same time, which is something a lot of people struggle with. Regardless of the particular role you have chosen, you must also be conversant with data analysis.
3. You have Great Communications Skills
Digital marketing is about communication—between organizations and their customers (and stakeholders). Beyond this, when you take on a role as a digital marketer, you also need to be able to communicate effectively with your team members and the client, pass on sometimes complex information, and convince them of your ideas.
If you’re still excited by the prospect of a career in digital marketing, you should go right ahead. This is a dynamic and rewarding field perfectly suited to enterprising people. You might want to begin by acquiring some certifications, but if you’re already an experienced marketer, you might be able to learn on the job.
