I remember when I first heard the word “Marketing,” I would think it was a boring subject. I had in mind salesmen going from door to door advertising their products/services, CEOs meeting with their team looking at graphs and statistics from cardboard posters of their marketing department, boring commercials taking the time away from watching your favorite show. I guess you can say the type of Marketing I am describing is Traditional Marketing.
Please don’t get me wrong, Traditional Marketing is not a totally bad thing. In fact, it is still being used, of course not as much these days. I don’t have anything against Traditional Marketing but have you stopped for a moment and really realize how much the world of marketing has evolved?…
Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination, as we go into a brief deep dive into Digital Marketing. You don’t know what Digital Marketing is? Say no more, I’ll be showing you throughout this blog post, but most importantly I’ll be giving you the deets on how you can start your career in Digital Marketing.
Digital Marketing Who???
Okay, so basically Digital Marketing is using anything from smartphones, laptops, social media sites, etc. to promote any products/services and track the target audience. Anything digital that you use to create a market for a product or service, that is Digital Marketing.
Now that we have an idea of what Digital Marketing is, let’s see the many wonderful places that Digital Marketing can take us.
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Believe it or not, Digital Marketing is still evolving and expanding in trends, innovation, statistics, creativity, digital, and so on. In other words, you can never go wrong with being involved in Digital Marketing.
I can go on and on about the many career paths that you can take in Digital Marketing, but for now, I will be listing and explaining well-known categories in Digital Marketing to give you an idea of which way to go.
- SEO– Search Engine Optimization is considered an “organic” way to expose a brand. Meaning no one had to pay anything to market a product/service to the audience. Developing basic to advanced skills in SEO will open doors for you to many companies. With SEO, you need to be familiar and have the knowledge of finding “keywords.”
- Have you noticed when you go to Google’s or maybe even Bing’s search engine and the first thing you type, you already have lists popping up for you to choose from? Also, when you click on what you are searching and then you are taken to a page with many links to websites. Have you noticed the links that show up first on the page after your search? Well, all this is behind SEO.
- Content Marketing– When bringing content, you are telling a story. Whether this story is about the brand of a business or about a certain product/service. You are making sure throughout content marketing, there is an engagement between the storyteller and the customers. What is great about content marketing is that you have the freedom of being creative with storytelling and engaging with people. You can create eye-catching posts for social media, be creative when creating a video, or write a trendy blog (The irony haha). There has to be some type of content strategy you need to develop and follow when helping a company with its content aspect.
- Email Marketing– Let me ask you a question, How often do you check your email in these present days? Probably more than back than years before, right? Email Marketing is a form of a digital marketing channel to promote a business product/service. This form of digital marketing is becoming popular over time, as it is a great way to communicate and get connected with an audience. You may think that writing and sending emails can sound boring, but that is not the case. With Email Marketing, you can be creative and come up with different ideas by writing emails to build relationships with potential customers.
- Social Media Marketing– Ah yes! Social Media Marketing, one of my favorite categories in Digital Marketing. It involves ALL social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Youtube, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. Social Media Marketing is not only just posting on social media, there’s more to it. You have to measure and analyze the traffic that is visiting on a certain social media page for a business.
- You need to prepare posts and content ahead of time to set a schedule. There also has to be customer engagement and brand awareness. How well known is the brand through social media? Using social media platforms is a great tool to promote from little to no cost at all. There are many companies looking for ways to promote their products/services, so to have a talent with social media is a great advantage.
In Conclusion
After reading this, I hope you have gotten an idea of where to start on your new journey in the world of Digital Marketing. A quick piece of advice before I finish off is to just start and not make any excuses. You can begin learning and experiencing these skills through YouTube videos, Instagram, Hubspot, internships, school, and more. The point is the opportunities and choices are endless. Find your talent and explore where you are best fit to begin your career path!
About the Author:
My name is Kristal Ochoa, and I am a Digital Marketing Analyst Intern at the International Institute of Digital Marketing. I am originally from El Paso, Texas then moved to the state of Illinois to complete my Degree in Entrepreneurship. During my last year in college, I have developed an interest in the world of Marketing, and I am driven to learn more within this field.