Reading Time: 3 minutesWhen people think of what a digital marketer does, they likely imagine someone behind a computer screen tweeting and updating Facebook posts, but there’s a lot more to this career than that. Beyond simply having a social media presence, digital marketers must have an intimate knowledge of consumer habits – they must understand what drives the behaviors and motivations of their target audiences. Using data, they must synthesize analytics and communicate with customers.
Digital marketers are chasing moving targets all the time because they must drive campaigns while measuring the impact of all those moving parts of the campaign – all while managers are asking for updates. They must analyze real-time data of consumer behaviors, and tell what’s working and what’s not and offer ways to transition to better ideas in a speedy time frame.
How Digital Marketers Spend Their Day
You may be thinking, yes – but what do they do? Well, they always have a lot of balls in the air, but they tend to be part of a larger digital team. They may answer to someone like a CMO (chief marketing officer) or a digital director. While all digital marketer roles vary, here’s a lowdown of how a sample digital marketer passes the workday hours.
- Studies Consumer Behavior. A typical day for a digital marketer could include monitoring what consumers – or would-be consumers – are doing. A digital marketer studies what consumers are looking at online, how often they look there, and how long they might stay on a site. For businesses that have a large web presence, there might be several digital marketers studying different aspects of consumer behavior.
- Monitors Conversions. It wasn’t that long ago that what drove a person to make a purchase was a bit of a mystery. With the help of digital marketers, some of that mystery is solved. They study the sales funnel and monitor how and when visits convert to sales.
- Analyzes Content. In today’s digital landscape, a website’s content matters – it drives conversions and expands a business’s reach. A digital marketer analyzes what content is doing its job and what is wasted words.
Marketers can take what they learn from their analysis of these things and put that to use. With this intel under their belt, they continue their work by:
- Developing marketing strategies for various target audiences.
- Managing SEO (search engine optimization), social media, developing ad campaigns.
- Analyzing campaigns to discover what did and didn’t work.
Given this kind of workday, it’s obvious that there’s a lot more than social media that needs to be handled – though working across social media platforms is still a big aspect of it for many digital marketers. Digital marketers leverage tools like the internet, digital television, radio channels, and electronic billboards to understand consumer behavior and expand an organization’s digital reach. Depending on the business, texting, social media messaging, videos (for YouTube or Vine), and podcasts may also come into play. Digital marketing is like traditional marketing in that there’s no one size fits all marketing campaign. Their work depends on the business and how customers engage with that business.
Digital Marketing Helps Businesses and Consumers
During their workday, digital marketers offer businesses valuable information about consumer motivation and habits, but they help consumers as well. Their work ensures consumers can:
- Easily identify brands they trust.
- Trust that favorite businesses understand their needs.
- Receive customized communication relevant to their habits.
Digital marketers aim to please both the business and the business’s target audience. When done well, it’s a perfect marriage of sales and consumption. A digital marketer’s job is to deliver first rate services for consumers based on their behaviors. The business feels like they are shooting fish in a barrel, and the customer feels like they’ve been treated as a person rather than a dollar sign.
How to Break Into Digital Marketing
When you are considering the field of digital marketing, there’s no one correct path. A marketing or communications degree is a great start. What’s crucial to making digital marketing a career is garnering the right kind of experience. If you are new to the industry, interning as a digital marketer looks great on a resume or CV, but you can also begin working on digital marketing as a side job to the one you are in. Create your own project within your business. If you feel like you are ready, enter a marketing contest – it’s a great way to get your foot in the door.
However you start, know the world you’ll be in by studying the language of the field. Learn industry jargon and master marketing terms and metrics – know what they mean and how they are used. From there, consider building your online presence and creating a personal brand. Doing this proves to potential businesses that you have the chops to make a go of it in their digital marketing department.
Because digital marketing is often a virtual job, it can offer a great work-life balance. For those who have a knack for sales and understanding human behavior, it can be the perfect opportunity. Want to learn more or have questions? Contact us! We’re happy to help.
