How to become a digital marketer in 2024

According to Statista, 5 billion people were reported to be active on the internet. This means that 63% of the world's population are internet-savvy users. Furthermore, 93% of these people (that is, 4.65 billion) are on social media, hence the need for businesses, individuals and brands to undertake digital marketing.

Digital marketing is one of the most effective ways to properly advertise a business or brand to a global audience. Listed as one of the non-code tech jobs that pay very well – on an average of $61,643 per year in the United States, and £28,157 in the United Kingdom, it is an employable means of income for individuals.

Digital marketing is best defined as a type of marketing that uses digital channels such as social media, search engines, email, and websites to promote products, services, or brands. It involves various strategies and techniques, such as search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, content marketing, social media marketing, and email marketing.

It is primarily used to reach a wider audience, increase brand awareness, drive good website traffic, generate good leads and ultimately convert all these leads to customers using the web. Because of its importance to the tech industry, companies often hire digital marketing firms or train their marketers in the skill set of digital marketing.

So, if you’re reading and wondering what it’d take to become a digital marketer, this guide provides the skills needed, steps required, and resources available – including books, courses, and videos.

What skills do you need to be a Digital Marketer?

Becoming a digital marketer is very easy. This might sound too cocky but personally, it is very easy for you to engage in. Although certain individuals obtain a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master's degree in digital marketing, I strongly believe that every human is a marketer from birth and he or she, with the proper exposure to certain tools and skills, can easily be a digital marketer.

To be a digital marketer, here are the skills and tools that you need:

a strong understanding of the concept of marketing;
good writing skills especially in conveying brand tone and image; this way, you can be excellent with copywriting;
basic knowledge of the concept of the web; this way, it is possible to understand how to create SEO copies optimized for search engines;
a knowledge of ads and how to create and utilize them;
knowledge of Canva for certain graphically represent contents;
strong communication skills. this would help in building up good client-to-customer relationships;
have a strong sense of emotional intelligence;
ability to run campaigns and create catchy hashtags;
ability to explain ideas clearly and concisely;
ability to work independently and take initiative without any form of supervision;
ability to properly troubleshoot multiple challenges;

As earlier said, it is quite simple to become a digital marketer. We curated three easy steps to help a beginner venture into digital marketing.

1. Learn Digital Marketing Skills

The first step to becoming a digital marketer is learning digital marketing skills. This is because digital marketing goes beyond compiling words and good imagery for the sake of sales. Digital marketers require a lot of skills, especially good data analytical skills, creative skills, and knowledge about the tools used in digital marketing.

2. Take Courses, Bootcamps and Certifications

If you are a marketer, constant up-skilling of yourself is better. It is important to always engage in courses, boot camps and certifications that would keep you up-to-date with the latest marketing skills, trends and innovations.

3. Join Digital Marketing Communities

A community is very important to achieving your goals as a digital marketer. This is because you need all the support and counsel towards finetuning your skills. People within your community can provide you with the most relevant learning resources, update you with the latest industry trends and help you land career-accelerating opportunities.

Some of the digital marketing communities to be a part of include Digital Marketing Meetup Nigeria, the Association of Digital Marketing Professionals, Growth Marketers Group, and DigiClan Africa.

Resources to learn digital marketing

There are a lot of resources online for anyone who wants to learn digital marketing. Books, blogs, videos, courses, the list is endless. However, we curated a list of available resources for intending digital marketers:

Videos

How to Launch Your Marketing Career by Peace Itimi: This video gives a deeper insight into how people can easily launch their digital marketing careers.
7 Websites to Learn Digital Marketing for FREE in 2023 by Franklin Emmanuel: YouTuber and content creator, Franklin Emmanuel highlights 7 good websites to properly and effectively learn digital marketing in the year 2023.
Simplilearn Digital Marketing Course Part 1: Simplilearn, a YouTube channel that offers virtual training on courses gives a 10-hour video introduction on digital marketing, explaining everything around digital marketing.
Shane Hummus’ Is Digital Marketing a Good Career: Shane Hummus answers the question if digital marketing is a good and viable tech career to go into.

Courses

Udemy: This site provides a 12-in-1 digital marketing course for individuals who intend to grow from rookie digital marketers to expert digital marketers.
SemRush Academy: SemRush brings a five-module content-led SEO course for digital marketers.
Google Digital Skills for Africa: Google offers a free fundamental digital marketing course that is IAB-accredited, video tutorials, unlimited access and recognised certification.
Coursera: Coursera offers 670 courses on digital marketing for people to pick and engage in.
HubSpot Academy: HubSpot Academy provides a free certification course on digital marketing that provides students with the marketing strategy at the end of the course.

NOTE: There are many courses out there to pick from. The list isn’t limited to these.

Books

Permission Marketing (By Seth Godin): Ace marketer Seth Godin shares insights and practical techniques on how marketers can shape their message as per clients’ eagerness.
The Art of SEO (By Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, and Jessie Stricchiola): In this book, Eric and the other authors explain how digital marketers can master search engine optimization.
You’re My Favourite Client (Mike Monterio): Mike explains to digital marketers what it means to understand clients’ desires as it is good and a stepping stone to achieving set goals by digital marketers.
Lean Analytics (By Benjamin Yoskovitz and Alistair Croll): Co-authored by two marketing experts, Lean Analytics teaches marketers how to measure and analyze their businesses, find the right customers, and promote them.

Conclusion

Digital marketing is a game changer. It is believed to gain 10% growth between 2020 and 2030, so tapping into its potential will be useful in changing the revenue generated within the tech ecosystem.

We can’t all be coders and developers, but we can learn a great deal from digital marketing.

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