How to Become a Successful Digital Marketer

According to Bullhorn, 71% of hiring managers are struggling to find enough skilled professionals in digital marketing; there’s never been a better time to become a digital marketer. Not only can becoming a digital marketer ensure application success, but it’s also a field that can provide a fairly lucrative salary. But this begs the question: how can one become a digital marketer in the first place?

As businesses move their presence and advertising off billboards and into the virtual world, the need for digital marketers in every sector around the world has never been greater. Over 88% of businesses currently operate, at least on some level, in the digital space, and digital marketers' career prospects can extend into any industry, from medicine and engineering to education and retail.  

As of 2024, the average annual salary for an entry-level digital marketer position in the United States stands at around US$65,418. For the average Digital Marketing Manager, this figure sits around US$88,343, with the total value of compensation packages reaching well past US$100,000 annually. These comparatively high figures reflect the growing demand for digital marketing professionals in the workplace and the integral part they play in the success of companies in the modern marketplace. 

With prospects like these, it’s hard not to want to become a digital marketer. But what exactly is digital marketing, and what do digital marketers do? In this article, we will discuss the full scope of becoming a digital marketer, acquiring and applying digital marketing skills, constructing an attractive digital marketing resume, and much more! If you are interested in getting a headstart in one of the most lucrative professions, stick around to the end of this article!

Understand the fundamentals

Before becoming a digital marketer, one must first understand the fundamentals. Digital marketing professionals are required to have a deep understanding of industry terms and digital marketing concepts. In this section, we will briefly introduce the most popular marketing concepts and explain their significance as they relate to the success of a digital marketer. 

SEO 

Search Engine Optimization is an area of digital marketing that revolves around the ranking of content on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing, as well as the rate of organic traffic to a website. SEO content specialists understand how search engine algorithms determine if an article contains trustworthy information, is engaging and if it fully discusses the topic it sets out to explain. The higher ranked an article is by the search engine, the closer it is to the first page of search results. With only 25% and 18% of consumers clicking through to the second and third page of search results, the importance of employing a digital marketer who can consistently allow your content to have a high Search Engine Results Page (SERP) ranking is undeniable.

If you're looking to become an SEO specialist, learn how to write a resume for an SEO position.

SEM 

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is similar to SEO but deals more specifically with the way content is ranked and accessed through paid advertisements. SEM specialists focus on increasing both organic traffic to a website and traffic generated through paid advertisements on other platforms or websites. This is an important skill for a digital marketer to possess if their company places banner advertisements on websites or videos. You might want to get used to Google Ads if you want to do SEM.

Social media marketing

With almost 5 billion users of social media, the demand and competition for the top spots in advertising on platforms such as Instagram and YouTube have never been higher. Social media marketing is a lucrative specialization whose strategies revolve around utilizing the reach of social media platforms to drive traffic toward a product or service. Social media marketers must understand market and platform trends, as well as the way that users interact with the services themselves. 

If you're looking to become a social media marketer, learn how to write a resume for a social media marketing position.

Content marketing

Traditional content marketing is a specialization that focuses on the creation of visual and written media for sharing and distribution purposes. Content marketers focus on maximizing content ad brand awareness and brand loyalty, both of which are key to maintaining the success of a product or service. 

Email marketing

Email marketing is a strategy that digital marketers use to reach out to new and existing clients to advertise a product or service. It is a great way to solicit new clients through cold emails or incentivize existing customers to repurchase a product. 

While it is recommended that digital marketers have at least a preliminary understanding of all the aforementioned strategies, choosing a specialization can increase your marketability. It is common for businesses to employ digital marketing specialists with different competencies, meaning that having a deep understanding of one or two digital marketing strategies can positively reflect in available career opportunities.

How to be a digital marketer

Once you understand the foundation required to become a digital marketer, you can begin to discover how to develop the necessary skill set to find success in the digital marketing industry. In this section, we will discuss everything you need to know to develop the qualifications needed to market yourself as a digital marketing specialist. 

1) Acquiring Relevant Education and Training

There are several ways to acquire the necessary skills to pursue a digital marketing career. Three main routes are formal education, taking online digital marketing certification courses, and independently studying with other self-learning resources. 

• Formal education: While many digital marketing skills can be learned online, investing in a degree can provide access to professionals in the industry and resources not available anywhere else. A degree in digital marketing can even be a job requirement for higher-level positions within the industry! Another benefit of formal education in digital marketing is the space and time it affords for you to discover and explore your interests and engage in extracurricular projects and part-time jobs without the pressure of a full-time position, all the while discovering what specialization you would like to focus on following graduation. 
• Online courses: If formal education is not in the books for you, don’t fret! The internet is a valuable resource and compendium for a limitless amount of information. There are many online courses and digital marketing certification websites that offer much of the knowledge that can be gained through more formal routes of education. Many of these courses offer a certificate at its end – for a small fee, you can get a certificate proving your competency which you can include in your CV or resume!
• Self-learning resources: If you are an established digital marketing professional or do not have the financial resources or time to engage in physical or online education but want to deepen your digital marketing proficiencies, you can pick up instructional books or read industry blogs to keep up with trends and developments in the digital marketing field!

2) Developing Essential Skills 

Regardless of the path a digital marketer takes to acquire their knowledge and background, they must pick up a range of key skills required to succeed in digital marketing. These skills include: 

• Analytical skills for interpreting data
• Creativity for designing compelling campaigns
• Communication skills for effective messaging
• Technical proficiency in using digital marketing tools and platforms
• Digital marketing strategy developing an executing

These hard and soft skills would prove invaluable in any digital marketing specialization and can help you integrate seamlessly into most modern workspaces. What is more, as digital marketing is a continuously evolving industry, there are many online resources and digital marketing certification resources that you can register for and add to your resume or CV. Some of the most reputable digital marketing courses and certification platforms include edX, Coursera, Udemy, HubSpot Academy, and LinkedIn.

3) Learn how to use digital marketing tools.

A digital marketing specialist should have some level of competence in digital marketing tools. These tools allow digital marketers to do many core responsibilities, including keeping track of trending keywords and market trends, tracking the progress of existing and current projects, and monitoring the organic and/or paid traffic into advertised products and services, to name a few! Here are some digital marketing tools for the following core digital marketing specializations:

• Search Engine Optimization: Tools like WordPress can be used to create and maintain websites, including their plugins and themes, to personalize written SEO content.
• Social media: Social media marketers can use BuzzSumo to track social media trends, influencer trends, trending content, and more on a wide range of social media platforms. 
• Email marketing: Email marketers can check out a program called Hemingway. Hemingway is a spelling and grammar checker that can eliminate semantic and syntax mistakes in a written text. Linguistic errors are unprofessional and do not reflect well on a company and the marketer responsible for sending the flawed work! You can also check out Campaign Monitor for assistance in tracking mailing lists and automating messages. 
• Marketing data analytics: Google Analytics and Google Search Console are great tools for tracking market data. These programs allow you to monitor changes in website activity and the effectiveness of advertisements in relation to CTR and position in search page rankings.

4) Gain hands-on experience 

The importance of gaining hands-on experience in digital marketing cannot be understated. Experience is gold when becoming a digital marketer and is something that can be attained through internships, freelance projects, or personal projects. You can find different digital marketing career options like internships and apprenticeships on online platforms such as Cake and get a headstart on your career today! These experiences will both provide the environment to hone your existing skills and allow you to develop new ones along the way to make yourself more marketable in the future!

Gaining hands-on experience can also be a good way for them to choose your niche. As previously discussed, choosing a specialization within high-demand fields of digital marketing (whether it be SEO, social media, content marketing, or email marketing), specialization offers a greater incentive to employers to hire you for their specific needs. For instance, a digital marketer specializing in social media marketing has a higher chance of landing a job in that field as opposed to a jack-of-all-trades digital marketer with cursory knowledge of every specialization. 

5) Build a portfolio

Experience is gold in any industry, and digital marketing is certainly no exception! Experienced digital marketing professionals should take the time to compile summaries and copies of past projects into a portfolio. This portfolio can be used as evidence in an interview to show employers your skill sets and practice specializations. Generally speaking, your digital marketing portfolio should always:

• Showcase only your best work.
• Include the most recent projects first and list others in chronological order.
• Be regularly updated
• Include contact information in case employers wish to reach out to you
• Include any digital marketing certifications and certificates you may possess

If you do not have a portfolio already or wish to update yours to the modern workplace, CakeResume’s portfolio feature could be the right place for you! Our comprehensive portfolio builder includes attractive templates and helpful tips that you can use to make a killer portfolio that can land you your dream job! Check out CakeResume’s portfolio builder here.

6) Write a digital marketing resume

The next step in becoming a digital marketer is writing a digital marketing resume. Taking time to craft a compelling and attractive resume carefully often means the difference between having your application package overlooked and landing the first interview. There are many ways to write a resume, but all well-crafted resumes should contain and reflect your level of experience, past accomplishments, and hard and soft skills that would make you a good fit for the company and position you are applying. For digital marketers seeing employment, consider the following points when creating your resume:

a) Include achievement with a consolidated number. 

Experience is gold, but quantifiable metrics that provide tangible evidence of your experience mean the most in a resume. Whenever possible, include numbers and figures that connect to your accomplishments. Providing figures related to the quantity and/or quality of your work shows employers that you are worth investing in and hiring and directly shows the value that you could bring to their operations. 

Here is an example of including achievements with relevant figures in a resume:

• Produced 37 marketing campaigns for 14 products, resulting in a 400% increase in CTR over 8 months and generating over US$700,000 in sales revenue. 

b) Choose a proper resume format.

The format and order of the sections in your resume can change significantly depending on the level of experience you bring to the table. Entry-level professionals who are beginning their careers in digital marketing should consider a functional resume. A functional resume highlights the potential value that an individual can provide in the future. In other words, a function resume shows the future potential that can be realized over time.

On the other hand, a digital marketing veteran with years of experience and accomplishments under their belts should opt for a chronological resume. This type of resume is tailored toward demonstrating an individual’s overall career path and highlights the preexisting value that is being brought to the table. Chronological resumes focus closely on quantifiable metrics of success and track the evolution and progression of a career over many years.  

You can also consider a combinational resume format if the other two don't suit your needs.

c) Adopt an ATS-friendly resume format and design.

The Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a program that many (especially larger) companies use to digitalize, filter, and monitor submitted applications for positions advertised. ATS works on an algorithm that scrapes data from resumes and runs it against preset conditions to push certain applications that contain the information desired by a company. Ensure that when building your resume, it is in an ATS-friendly format and design. This means that your resume should be in the correct file format (as requested by the company), should include keywords related to the position you are applying for, should not contain graphics or photographs (unless specifically requested), and should use a common resume font like Times New Roman.

Following these steps maximizes the chances of your resume passing the preliminary computerized review and can land an in-person or online interview!

7) Build a network

A fundamental element of becoming a digital marketer is having a strong and well-rounded professional network of contacts. Networking comes easily for a lucky few but is generally a skill that is developed over time and through much trial and error. Nevertheless, a good network with professionals in your field can allow you to keep up to date with industry changes and trends and can give you access to industry events that can accelerate your career and success as a digital marketer!

While attending networking events and mixers is a great way to connect locally with people face-to-face, online platforms offer a much more lucrative experience as they allow you to form an international network of contacts around the world. Some popular networking websites include CakeResume, LinkedIn, Eventbrite, and Jobcase, to name a few. 

Networking can be especially challenging for beginners. Follow these tips to help you become the most interesting person in the room!

• Prepare ahead of the event: If you are attending a networking event in person, spend some time researching it. Ensure that your industry knowledge of digital marketing strategies is up to date and that you are aware of the companies that will send representatives to the event to seek out talent. Prepare some interesting ice-breaking networking questions, which might be a good idea.
• Make your 30-second pitch: In a networking event, marketing yourself is everything. Examine your career and/or qualifications to date and devise an engaging self-introduction that you can comfortably deliver when asked about yourself.
• Create an attractive conversation initiator: When networking online, sending the perfect opening message is essential. When connecting with someone new on a networking website, ensure that the message you send is customized to the individual and states the reason you feel you would be a valuable addition to their network of contacts!  

8) Continuous learning and staying updated

Digital marketing is a rapidly evolving industry where success is largely dictated by keeping abreast with trends on social media and consumer preferences. As such, digital marketers should be in a constant state of learning and research to maximize the success of their marketing ventures. There are several ways that digital marketers can stay updated and make sure that their content remains relevant to the consumer. These include: 

• Following industry blogs: The Internet is one of the best sources of information! Following popular industry blogs that discuss changes in market trends and consumer preferences is a good way to stay ahead of the curve and ensure the content you produce is in line with current digital marketing standards. 
• Attending webinars: Online seminars, called webinars, are a popular medium of continued education. One or more established professionals typically host Webinars, which are great spaces to ask questions and pick the minds of those who are more experienced and practiced at their craft! 
• Networking with professionals: Forming professional connections with other professionals in the digital marketing field is a great way to increase your exposure to new technologies and strategies to employ in your day-to-day career. Professionals are always eager to share expertise and knowledge; newbies and veterans in the digital marketing space can take advantage of this to upgrade their knowledge and professional networks!

Conclusion

Digital marketing is a broad field that has grown into one of the most sought-after specializations in recent years. With the digitalization of so many services, the need for a strong and marketable online presence has never been greater. Digital marketers can benefit from the traditional formal education route but can also pick up many skills online and through independent study. As the field continues to evolve, digital marketers must do their best to learn new skills and technologies continuously, and to keep up with market trends and consumer preferences. Luckily, many programs, applications, certifications, and courses are at the modern digital marketer’s disposal and provide everything needed to succeed in this competitive industry!

We hope that you found this article insightful. If you are looking to maximize your career prospects in digital marketing or any other field, check out the Cake article collection! Our collection of curated resources, articles, and services is a great resource for beginners and veterans alike, offering quality career advice, tips, and tricks. Check us out today!

— Originally written by Alexander Coye —