How To Become a Digital Marketer In 2025: A Complete Career Guide

With the number of individuals rapidly turning to the Internet as a resource and networking platform, digital channels have started emerging as one of the strongest channels for advertising and marketing for companies and organizations. Not only has nearly 59.3% of the global population turned to social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc. for networking (prioridata), but companies are now increasingly investing in digital modes of marketing accordingly to meet the right audience for their products. 

With an estimated growth of $1.3 trillion to be hit by the digital marketing industry over the coming decade by 2033 (hostinger), digital marketing is a raging field to explore for students and professionals interested in building a successful career in marketing or advertising. Bringing together aspects like creativity alongside analytics, this field provides scope for individuals to come up with innovative solutions and creative ways of solving problems related to brand building, brand perception, conversion of potent leads into active ones, and so on.

Why Choose a Career in Digital Marketing?

The field of digital marketing provides a professional with the scope to integrate their creativity and innovation with analytical acumen to devise novel solutions for building brand perception using digital media. In addition to fueling skills of creativity and analytical aptitude, a career in digital marketing is also beneficial for a professional due to the below-mentioned reasons:

• Enhanced Relevance in Current Economic Landscape: With nearly 60% of the global population using digital social media channels, companies are deciding to enhance their investments in the field of digital marketing (nearly 9.1% of their total revenue source: hostinger). Thus, a career in digital marketing has become more relevant and pertinent in the current decade. Further, with the forecasted boom in the industry in the upcoming decade, it is one of the most potent careers to explore by enthusiasts of marketing, journalism, mass communication, and so on. 

• Diverse Career Options: In addition to being a prosperous field, digital marketing in itself entails a number of diverse domains like social media marketing, content writing, paid marketing, SEO, and so on. These allow a diverse number of options to specialize in for a digital marketing professional. 

• Lucrative Compensation & Perks: Careers in digital marketing are not only potent for growth and stability, but also lucrative in themselves. The field allows freelancers as well as full-time workers to explore well-paid roles and projects as companies are willing to invest significant budgets into digital marketing campaigns.  

• Potential for Growth in Career: The field of digital marketing has been estimated to grow from the current $366.1 billion to about $1310 billion in 2033 (source: hostinger), showing a gigantic forecasted growth by 257.9%. Accordingly, the potential for growth in the field is also enormous if a professional starts developing their expertise in a domain of this industry currently. 

• Availability of Variety of Courses: The opportunities available for students and professionals to upskill in the domain of digital marketing are also varied and affordable. Not only can students consider degrees at the UG or PG levels, but there are ample diplomas and certifications available in the short term for this domain as well. Furthermore, many online courses that are easier to pursue remotely are also available in the field of digital marketing. 

Given this context of the boom that digital marketing channels are currently seeing, it is surely one of the most lucrative and potent career domains to explore in 2023! This is especially true if you are someone fascinated by digital media and communication channels.

Roles & Responsibilities of a Digital Marketing Specialist

Before considering pursuing a career in digital marketing, understanding the roles and responsibilities of the job are crucial to understand. Some of the key elements of digital marketing include: 

• Regularly researching about new and up and up-and-coming trends and digital platforms to target for marketing
• Developing and maintaining campaign budgets basis the overall available budget for marketing  
• Coordinating digital marketing campaigns, including aspects like identifying influencers for campaigns, developing content for the campaign, identifying the target audience and platforms, budgeting, monitoring success and so on. 
• Regularly creating and updating original content for digital media channels including podcasts, textual content as well as audio-video content
• Ensuring that the content is Search-Engine Optimised (or SEO-friendly) before its publication
• Assess the progress and performance of campaigns and track the traction generated from campaigns 
• Manage affiliate marketing ventures of the company
• Management of the contact database and lead-generation activities 

Additionally, it is important to keep in mind that the above activities present an overview of the responsibilities involved in digital marketing. The specific activities involved in the job would vary depending upon the digital marketing specialist’s area of specialisation, for e.g. SEO specialist, Paid Marketing Associate, Social Media Manager, Content Developer etc. 

Key Skills Needed for Digital Marketing 

Some of the major skills and competencies important for a digital marketing specialist to prosper in this field include two major components–the technical or hard skills needed for success on the job, and the soft skills needed to thrive overall in the professional context of digital marketing. These have been elaborated further below. 

1. Technical Skills & Knowledge to Succeed as a Digital Marketing Specialist

A number of technical areas need to be sound and proficient to establish a successful career in digital marketing. The details of these are elaborated below. In addition to having a fairly good idea about all these domains as a digital marketing specialist, a professional can also specialise in one area and become an expert in the same. 

Key Skills	Specifications
Search Engine Optimisation	Understanding and optimising company content to enhance its rankings on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. so as to gain more user traction
Social Media Marketing	Maintaining a strong social media presence on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin etc. so as to enhance the user visibility of the brand to users and gain traction
Paid Marketing	A crucial aspect of digital marketing involving the use of paid ad channels on various social media and media platforms to promote one’s brand and its products and services
Data Analysis	Analysing user data, market trends, industry trends, forecasting performance etc. based on data analysis and processing.
Content Creation & Optimization	Creation of original and engaging content in the form of text, audios, audio-video materials and so on and optimising them for traction in digital spaces
Product/UX Design	Focusing on building a positive user experience by addressing user needs from a product-led perspective addressing aspects like user acquisition, conversion of leads etc.

2. Soft Skills to Succeed as a Digital Marketing Specialist

The field of digital marketing is quite dynamic, agile and fast-evolving. As a result, in addition to domain expertise, certain soft skills are also essential in order to succeed in this career. A few key such skills have been enumerated below. 

Key Skills	Specifications
Adaptability	Maintaining an agile and flexible approach to problem-solving and working in the fast-paced world of digital marketing
Creativity & Innovation	Generating and testing novel solutions to problems as a digital marketing specialist to gain first mover advantage and generate unique selling points for the brand
Communication Skills	Using effective and engaging communication to gain user traction, build positive brand perception and manage stakeholder correspondences.
Teamwork	Working and thriving in a the team-setting given the professional context of working in cross-functional teams for developing unique solutions
Problem-Solving	Having a solution-oriented perspective catering to devising unique and effective solutions to problems that may arise in the professional context

What are the Career Opportunities for Digital Marketing Specialists (Types of Options available in Digital Marketing)

Digital marketing as a career domain represents an umbrella term for a large number of career directions. As already explained above, a digital marketing specialist can either focus on garnering an overall expertise in various subdomains or can focus on becoming a specialist in a given domain. The more commonly chosen career path includes going for a specific domain of digital marketing and becoming a specialist, for example, SEO specialist,  social media manager etc. 

A few of the prominent career options available in this field along with details related to the job description and compensation are provided below. 

Job Role	Description	Average Salary (Per Annum)
Digital Marketing Specialist	A professional responsible for promoting a brand, a product or a service by an organisation through digital channels including social media, websites, audio-video platforms etc.	INR 4.5 LPA
Content Marketer	A professional responsible for creating and effectively marketing the content using digital channels so as to build brand perception and maximise user traction	INR 7.6 LPA
Social Media Manager	A professional responsible for primarily handling the content released by a company on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram etc. to enhance user engagement.	INR 5.5 LPA
SEO Specialist	A professional responsible for enhancing the search-engine friendliness of digital content released on the internet to ensure high ranking of the content on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo etc.	INR 7.5 LPA
Content Creator	A professional responsible for the creation of original digital content such as podcasts, videos, social media posts etc. for the company’s marketing of a product/service.	INR 4 LPA
Content Writer	A professional who creates original textual content for the web in the form of webpages, blogs, articles, copywriting and so on.	INR 3.5 LPA
Influencer Marketing Specialist	A professional responsible for arranging and coordinating marketing campaigns through partnerships with social media influencers to gain user traction and enhance brand visibility.	INR 4 LPA
Market Research Analyst	A professional focusing on gaining market insights, understanding industry trends and forecast future performance of a company through data analytics	INR 7 LPA
Affiliate Marketing Manager	A professional responsible for coordinating and managing affiliate marketers’ campaigns for a company.	INR 5.5 LPA
Digital Analytics Manager	A professional analysing digital marketing data, trends and current company performance to predict future performance and accordingly alter the strategy for future campaigns.	INR 26 LPA

Career Analysis: What is the Salary & Demand for Digital Marketing?

In recent years, digital marketing has emerged as one of the most prominent career domains in the marketing sector, with a shift from conventional channels and methods to more innovative digital channels and strategies. In this light, knowing about the industrial trends and career dynamics of digital marketing is important. 

1. Demand for Digital Marketing: Industry Trends

Industry trends in digital marketing point to the field’s growing centrality in marketing budgets of companies, popularity with the masses and forecasted boom in the future. 

• Statistics indicate that while the digital marketing industry touched about $366 billion in 2023, by 2033, it is forecasted to be touching the mark of $1.3 trillion, exhibiting a tremendous annual growth rate of 13.6% over the decade. 
• Companies, especially those in North America and Europe allocate about 51% of their marketing budget to digital marketing including paid marketing and marketing technologies. 
•  Mobile ad expenditures are forecasted to contribute to about 70% of the total advertising expenditures companies make. This includes social media ads and social display. 
• Content marketing contributes to about 84% of the B2B brand awareness creation, in which blogs are a popular way of content distribution. 

(source: hostinger)

2. Fees & Cost Involved in Becoming a Digital Marketing Specialist

While the field of digital marketing is quite lucrative in itself as a career domain, one also needs to invest some time and financial capital for the sake of attaining an accredited qualification in the domain. There are multitudes of free courses and learning materials available on the internet for digital marketing, but a proper accredited degree or diploma in the field can provide a significant leverage to the professional in terms of career opportunities.

Mentioned below are a few of the prominent degrees and diplomas that one can pursue to kickstart their digital marketing career. 

Course	Average Course Fee
Online BBA in Digital Marketing	INR 2,70,000
Online BBA in Advertising & Marketing	INR 80,100
Online B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication	INR 2,00,000
Online MBA in Digital Marketing	INR 2,50,000
Online MBA in Digital Marketing & E-Commerce	INR 2,30,000
Online Executive MBA in Market Research	INR 2,50,000
Online PG Diploma in Digital Marketing	INR 1,00,000

3. Career Growth Trajectory of Digital Marketing 

The growth trajectory of digital marketing as a career is quite prosperous and the scope for growth from a financial standpoint is also quite lucrative. The growth trajectory in terms of the compensation in the field is represented below.

Source: payscale

Career Navigator: What Course to Pursue for a Career in Digital Marketing? (courses, colleges, options in India and abroad + how to find opportunities in this field) 

To kickstart your career in digital marketing, one must first develop their skills in the required domain they wish to specialize in. For this, they can pursue either a short-term certification, a diploma, or a full-fledged degree in this domain or related ones (e.g. journalism and mass communication). While having a particular stream is not important or mandatory for venturing into a career in digital marketing, having a recognized and accredited qualification in the field is important for meaningful opportunities. 

The overall career trajectory has been described below for reference:

Some of the popular courses in digital marketing include: 

• Online BBA in Digital Marketing
• Online BBA in Advertising & Marketing
• Online B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication
• Online MBA in Digital Marketing
• Online MBA in Digital Marketing & E-Commerce
• Online Executive MBA in Market Research
• Online PG Diploma in Digital Marketing

While the mentioned courses are available to pursue in the offline classroom mode as well, pursuing an online course (degree/diploma/certificate) confers certain key benefits to the student: 

• The chance to pursue another qualification alongside the digital marketing course. 
• Opportunity to opt for the best degree/diploma irrespective of location 
• Flexibility of learning based on one’s own pace and convenience
• Relatively affordable fee
• Pan-India networking opportunities with peers and professionals.
• Access to user-friendly LMS to facilitate learning and so on. 

Top colleges and institutes for Digital Marketing

Some of the prominent colleges and institutes for seeking a degree, diploma or certificate in digital marketing and related fields include: 

Conclusion 

As outlined above, digital marketing is an up and coming career domain with diverse opportunities that a professional can look for exploring. With readily available and credible online courses at the UG, PG and short-term levels, one can effortlessly navigate into a career in digital marketing and grow in it through years.