7 Smart Ways Young People Can Get Started in Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is one of the largest rising fields these days. In order for companies to get new clients and customers, they need to use a number of digital marketing techniques. These include everything from social media to placing online ads through Google and Facebook.
In addition, digital marketers need to understand how to track their results and gain insight into their customers.
With so much involved in this field, it’s no wonder that young people need to have more than just basic knowledge of the internet in order to enter it.
Here’s how they can get started.
1. Use Social Media Apps
Since digital marketing uses social media a great deal, it makes sense to have a solid grasp of the various apps and platforms before getting into the field.
Experience with all of the main forms of social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snap Chat, and more – is necessary.
People need to have profiles on all of these platforms (ones that are visible to potential employers) and understand how hashtags work. This shows some proficiency in this segment of the industry.
2. Understand Metrics
Metrics are crucial in the world of digital marketing.
After all, people need to be able to track their campaigns to see if they are actually working or not. Metrics include everything from the number of people who fill out a form on a website (called “conversion” for the record, since those people are converted into customers), as well as the number of followers that the brand has on social media.
These metrics can be broken down into categories, including gender, location, age groups, and more, making them extremely useful. Digital marketers need to understand not only where to get these metrics, but also how to use them.
3. Gain Certifications on Top of Your Degree Program
While there are some degree programs that focus on digital marketing, others don’t and take a more general approach. Those who want to get into the field will need at least a bachelor’s degree in marketing, possibly one in business administration, and if there are no specific courses for digital marketing in that program, an additional certification.
There are many places to receive these special certifications online, making them easy to obtain. The more that the person knows about digital marketing, the better.
4. Keep Up with The Trends
When it comes to digital marketing, some things change, while others remain the same.
For example, Google AdWords has been one of the most popular options for many years now. Odds are, it will continue in the future, however, other things, such as the rise of videos over photographs and plain text updates, change regularly.
These digital marketing trends are important to follow since digital marketers need to use them in order to reach potential customers. The more up to date their tactics are, the better their marketing will be received. Companies need to seem modern, and these trends are the easiest way to convey this.
5. Be Able to Understand and Discuss SEO
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a crucial part of digital marketing.
This segment of the field transcends that of social media and delves into the world of online content. While the digital marketer may or may not be the person creating the content (this depends largely on the company, although some writing skills are necessary – see below), they do need to understand how SEO works and how to find the best keywords to use for their content.
In addition, a solid grasp of the other forms of SEO, including off-page and technical, are important to have as well.
6. Have Solid Writing Skills
There’s much more to digital marketing than just social media. Yes, having the ability to create videos and edit photos helps, but those in the field need to have good writing skills.
Even if they simply used to communicate their needs, such as explaining the newest keywords for a blog post or in typing up interoffice memos and creating presentations on metrics, it’s important that they can communicate effectively.
Solid writing skills are a must-have. It will be hard for anyone to get into digital marketing if they are unable to write up paragraphs of information.
7. Experience in The Field Matters
Finally, people who are considering going into digital marketing need to have some professional experience in the field.
Whether they work part-time for a digital marketing company while in college or have several internships in the field under their proverbial belt, the more experience the better.
This experience proves that the person trying to get into digital marketing has the basic knowledge required to do any number of entry-level jobs in the field, from coordinating social media posts or going over those important analytics.