How to Start Your Digital Marketing Career: 10 Easy Steps

Digital Marketing
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Here are 10 steps you can take today to pursue your digital marketing career:

  1. Learn the basics of digital marketing

For beginners in digital marketing, the first obvious step is to understand what digital marketing is and the key components that make up digital marketing. There are many components that cover all areas of online advertising. It’s important to understand that this is not a single area, but a set of processes (channels) that allow you to participate in digital marketing campaigns.

Digital marketing has the following channels in particular:

  • Search Engine Marketing – Includes two areas: Search Engine Optimization (Organic SEO) and Paid Search Advertising.
  • Website Marketing-Promote your website on the internet.
  • Content Marketing – How to use different types of content in your digital marketing campaigns.
  • Email Marketing – Marketing a product or service by email.
  • Social Media Marketing – Marketing on Facebook, Instagram and other social media networks
  • Mobile Marketing – Marketing on various app stores (Google Play, Apple Store)
  • Video Marketing-Marketing on YouTube, Vimeo and other video channels
  • Affiliate Marketing – Make money by promoting other people’s products and earning affiliate commissions.
  1. Start your own website

One of the best ways to apply different digital marketing concepts to the real world is to launch your own website.

Digital marketing is not a theoretical concept, but it is very measurable and practical. It’s not enough to know the theory behind SEO and social media marketing, but you need to know how to actually apply different techniques.

  1. Become an SEO expert

People who are not good at SEO cannot pursue a career in digital marketing. You need to be an SEO expert first and then acquire other skills. With SEO, you can learn how to create websites that both users and search engines will love, and apply the same concepts to boost Google Ads and Facebook paid campaigns.

  1. Get Google Ads Certification

Part of my job as a digital marketing consultant involves using Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) to promote products and services across various Google products and websites. The easiest way to acquire the skills you need is to qualify for Google Ads. Google has a wealth of resources to become an expert in Google AdWords. Obtaining a qualification is a great way to show your clients and potential employers that you have the necessary skills.

  1. Facebook Advertising Mastering Advertising

The next step is to start with social media marketing, especially Facebook advertising. As a digital marketing specialist, you need to know how different social media networks (Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn) work, but spend most of your time and campaign budget on Facebook and Instagram. Facebook is not only a great social network, but also one of the most important tools for digital marketing campaigns.

  1. Become an expert in Google Analytics

In addition to learning different tools that can generate traffic, digital marketing professionals need to know the analysis. One of the key features of digital marketing campaigns is that everything is measurable. We know the number of people who viewed the campaign, the number of people who clicked on the ad, the number of conversions generated, and many other metrics that cover every aspect of the campaign.

  1. Get a digital marketing job as a freelancer

The next step in your career path to becoming a digital marketing professional is to get a real digital marketing job.

Starting your own website (step 2 above) is a great way to practice the different digital marketing techniques but doing digital marketing for a client, it`s a totally different story.

Handling client accounts will force you to set up procedures, improve your analytics and reporting skills, learn how to handle budgets, and how to manage client communication. It`s difficult for freelancers with no feedback to get a job assigned so make sure that you:

  • Read the job posting requirements carefully and reply to any questions.
  • Reply fast. Make sure your application is at the top of the list, as one application will accept hundreds of applicants.
  • Keep prices low and reasonably priced. If you have no experience, you will not be able to charge a surcharge. Your goal at this stage is to gain experience so that you can make money later.
  1. Get a real internship

Another way to grow your skills and experience fast is to get a real job as a digital marketing assistant in an established agency. This is highly recommended because you will get to learn how a modern digital marketing agency works and you can use some of their practices if you decide later to start your own agency or join another company as a digital marketing expert.

  1. Stay informed of new updates and keep learning

Digital marketing tactics change all the time. Some digital marketers love this and some hate it, but it`s a fact that digital marketing is a fast changing industry. Google makes hundreds of changes related to organic and paid search each year, Facebook’s algorithms are constantly changing, and the digital marketing situation is generally very dynamic.

  1. Learn how to use digital marketing tools

In addition to using Google Analytics, you also need to learn how to use other digital marketing tools. To climb the ladder and become a digital marketing manager, you need to manage a team of digital marketing specialists. The only way to evaluate their work and manage the progress of multiple projects at the same time is to use tools. A good tool will allow you to create dashboards for all channels and meaningful reports to management or clients.