As India completed its 70 years of independence, we have witnessed radical changes in almost every aspect of our lives, including the socioeconomic landscape since 1947. India’s GDP has grown from a mere INR 2.7 lakh crore to INR 121.65 lakh crore (2.264 trillion USD) in the past 70 years. Apart from the economic, cultural and technological growth, the country has also started to consider the new-age career options. In this post, we will discuss the digital marketing careers and jobs in India – career scopes, salaries, training resources and top courses (classroom-based and online).

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Digital Marketing Careers and Jobs in India

Even 6 to 7 years back, digital marketing was used to be considered as an unconventional career path. Fast forward to 2017, and it’s one of the most trending mainstream careers. It’s kind of similar to the excitement about IT/Software in the late 90s and early 2000. Digital marketing jobs came into the scene back in 2010 and started flourishing since 2013-14, thanks to the start-up storm and the digital boom. Digital marketing careers and jobs are so popular in India right now that they are currently being considered as a mainstream career. Know more about the top digital marketing market trends in 2018.

As of April 2016, there are 600 million internet users in India and thus creating a fascinating business opportunity to sell to a growing population. The majority of the Indian population now have access to the internet in India. The Internet and smartphone penetration has revolutionized the marketing scenario for both consumers and the marketers. According to a combined study of CII and KPMG, India’s digital advertising industry is growing at CAGR of 33.5%; and the value is expected to cross INR 255 billion by 2020.

However, the popularity of the digital marketing jobs is not only because of the internet and the social media. Factors like the Digital India campaign by the Government, development of an entrepreneurial mindset, a rise in gig economy and the cool attitude of the millennials are also fuelling the popularity of the digital marketing careers.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing (also known as online marketing or data-driven marketing) is an umbrella term for the marketing of products (or services) using digital technologies (primarily internet). Digital marketing involves the integration of platforms and customers’ experience via a digital channel. Digital marketing offers the prospect of increasing and improving the interactions and relationship development with customers (both current and prospective) through blogs, social networking sites, search engines, instant messaging systems, email, mobile apps, and websites.

Career Scopes and Job Opportunities in Digital Marketing

Irrespective of the industry, marketing is essential for any company or startup. Although product development is very critical, a business needs to understand the customers’ needs and communicate with them effectively. The only way a company stands out in the crowd is through concrete marketing activities. Digital marketing is not meant for replacing the traditional advertising and marketing. In fact, traditional marketing is still very much needed for few sectors. In today’s digital economy, digital marketing helps a business to perform marketing more effectively and affordably and thereby can make a business more profitable in a much shorter time period.

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Proficient digital marketers conduct high-quality campaigns to help businesses build brands from the scratch. Even political parties and celebrities look up to digital marketing campaigns for their success (e.g. Indian PM Narendra Modi & US President Donald Trump). It is a challenging job, and equally exhilarating.

One of the biggest virtues of pursuing a career in digital marketing is that you don’t need a specific set of qualifications to be able to pursue digital marketing. Passion is the key to having a successful career in digital marketing. Another important perk is that a digital marketing career is great for a work-life balance.

The number of available jobs in digital marketing is rising rapidly. As of April 2017, there are more than 800, 000 digital marketing jobs in India. Most of these jobs are based out of Gurgaon, Bangalore, Noida, Delhi, Pune, and Chennai. As a digital marketer, you can get employed with a digital marketing agency, a PR or advertising company, internet giants (e.g. Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, SalesForce etc.) and any brand that needs advertising. Last but not the least; the salaries are also very handsome.

Source: PayScale

Required Skills for a Career in Digital Marketing

Creativity

Analytical Skills

Communication Skills

Willingness to learn and grow

Being tech-savvy

Attention to details

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Most Common Functions (Job Roles) in Digital Marketing

SEO

SEO (aka search engine optimization) is the process of generating free (organic) traffic to a web page or website, from search results of search engines for a specific set of keywords (or phrases). SEO is a long-term process and involves optimization of content and technical set-up.

The ultimate objective of SEO is to attract visitors to your website when they search for information, products or services related to your business. SEO is one of the most basic and valuable techniques of digital marketing.

Infographic Credit: DigitalVidya

Recommended Reading:

On-Page vs. Off-Page SEO

Top 10 SEO Tools

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing high-quality, consistent and valuable content to attract, inform, and engage an audience, while promoting the brand itself simultaneously. Content marketing is technically the alternative of pitching your products or services that are aimed at solving the pain points of your prospective customers. Like SEO, content marketing is also a long-term process. It helps a business to increase brand awareness, brand preference, traffic generation, lead generation and to reach to a wide audience at low or no cost.

Infographic Credit: DigitalVidya

The end goal of content marketing is to attract a clearly defined audience and ultimately stimulate the customer to take an action profitable for your business. To get into content marketing you will need an impeccable knowledge of the English language along with a lot of creativity.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing (SMM) is a form of digital or online marketing that leverages social media sites as marketing tools. SMM is a very effective way for businesses of all sizes to reach prospects and customers. The objective of social media marketing is to produce viral content that users will share with their social network and thereby increase the brand exposure, audience outreach, traffic generation, and lead generation. The majority of customers rely on social networking sites to discover, research, and educate themselves about a brand before engaging with that organization.

Infographic Credit: DigitalVidya

The more your prospective customers engage with your content, the more likely it is they will share it with their social circles. This will ultimately result in gaining paid customers and will also influence their friends and relatives to become customers as well. Hence, SMM is of utmost importance these days.

Recommended Post: 10 Laws of Social Media Marketing

SEM & PPC

SEM, aka Search Engine Marketing, is a way of paid marketing. PPC, aka Pay-Per-Click, is a way of advertising that basically involves purchasing ads (for particular keywords or phrases) that get displayed along with search results on a search engine. The business pays for every click that comes through to its site, regardless of conversion. As an SEM/PPC expert, you are responsible for managing PPC keywords, split ad groups, refine landing pages, generate reports, provide suggestions for ad copies and graphics etc. Know more about SEM & PPC.

Infographic Credit: DigitalVidya

Email Marketing

Email marketing is simply the use of email to promote products and/or services. Email marketing is one of the marketing approaches for businesses to communicate with their targeted audience with the aim of promoting content, events, and special offers and also to direct readers to their websites.

Infographic Credit: DigitalVidya

The main advantages of email marketing are cost-effectiveness and ease. Email marketing (often done through sending a newsletter or email alerts) is an inexpensive way of advertising your products and/or services. Besides, it’s easy to set up and track a particular email marketing campaign. Know more about email marketing.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation refers to the software and tools that automate repetitive tasks such as emails, social media, and other website actions. The ultimate goal with your marketing is to maximize your productivity and generate more revenue for the business. Know more about marketing automation.

Mobile Marketing

As explained earlier, mobile devices are becoming an integral part of the modern human society. Mobile devices are handy and accessible 24*7. There are various ways of mobile marketing; the key ones include SMS, MMS, and in-app notifications. Know more about mobile marketing.

Infographic Credit: DigitalVidya

Apart from the above techniques (or categories), inbound marketing, conversion rate optimization, web analytics, copywriting and designing (graphic & web) also come under the broad field of digital marketing. Know more about the 7 Key Roles in Digital Marketing.

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Digital marketing is vast, dynamic and very broad. You can choose any domain or sector, such as e-commerce, IT, FMCG, services, FinTech, education (including ed-tech) etc. Besides, there are various roles that you can choose from.

Required Education for a Career in Digital Marketing

The education does play a crucial role in the career growth; especially, if you are looking at to make a career in the corporate world. Few big brands and large digital marketing agencies do ask for an MBA (Marketing or Business Analytics), but it’s not mandatory if you walk the path of online courses and certifications. The best way for career growth in digital marketing is through hands-on experience, continuous learning and keeping updated with the latest industry trends.

Top Foreign Universities for Masters (MA/MSc/MBA) in Digital Marketing

USA

University of Michigan-Dearborn

University of Texas at Austin

New York University

Syracuse University

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Stanford University

Boston University

University of Connecticut

Art Center College of Design

Virginia Commonwealth University

Miami Ad School

University of Denver

Southern Methodist University

University of Washington

Georgetown University

University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, Berkeley

Rutgers University

Canada

University of British Columbia

University of Toronto

Ryerson University

UK

University of Southampton

University of Portsmouth

University of Kent

University of Reading

University of South Wales

Heriot-Watt University

Oxford Brookes University

Middlesex University

Coventry University

Robert Gordon University

University of Aberdeen

Northumbria University

Nottingham Trent University

De Montfort University

Rest of Europe

Trinity College Dublin

University College Dublin

ESCP Europe

LMU Munich

Bologna Business School

Digital Marketing & Analytics Program at the University of Connecticut