Digital Marketing Career Path

I'm so excited to share with you about the field of digital marketing, what it entails and the opportunities it present. Currently, I'm in a traineeship with iHub Africa, such an amazing journey it has been for the past 6 months. Working alongside talented individuals and learning from experienced lecturers and facilitators, where they equip us with digital skills and soft skills that will create local and global opportunities.

What is Digital Marketing

Digital is any marketing activities that add value to the company that is in the digital platform through channels such as SEO, social media, etc. The main function is to:

• Build brand awareness

• Drive targeted traffic

• Convert traffic into leads and new customers

Digital marketing is a very broad field however it can be broken down into two distinct categories

1. Inbound marketing - a business methodology that attracts customers by creating valuable content and experiences tailored to them.

2. Outbound marketing - aim to put marketing messages in front of as many people as possible in the online space, regardless of whether it's relevant or welcomed.

The digital marketing industry is exploding, it is said that the global market for Digital Advertising and Marketing estimated at US$350 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$786.2 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 13.9% over the analysis period. There's an abundance of job opportunities, both local and international.

There are a number of skills required to strive in this field and build a strong foundation. You must be data-driven to make a decision, decisions must be made based on evidence and data, not on opinion. As a digital marketer, you must embrace change because the only guarantee in digital marketing is change, the algorithm changes every 4 - 6 months, and new social media platforms emerge such as TikTok. Those that continue to embrace change will succeed in the long term. You must be action-orientated.

How to be a Digital Marketer

Semrush Academy recommends a T-shaped Digital marketer. The field is very broad and there are different paths you can choose to take. You need to pick a niche within digital marketing and go deep into it instead of trying to study everything.

Above is the T-shaped Digital Marketer, it explains that you need broad knowledge of all the fields within digital marketing to operate well. Then you need depth knowledge of one area of the field. SEO is the area of focus in the illustration above,

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and science of persuading search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo, to recommend your content to their users as the best solution to their problem. Within the 6 months of my traineeship with iHub Africa and Co-marketers, SEO is complex, very technical, and exciting at the same time. Therefore I would recommend anyone who wants to be a digital marketer, to pick the area of focus of SEO.

SEO Pros

• Long-term stability (Google isn't going anywhere)

• It produces the best long-term value for business

I'm looking forward to continuing my journey and building a strong foundation.