What is Digital Marketing?

Full disclosure: I’m not just writing this post to be helpful.

As happy as I am to share my knowledge with everyone who reads this site, I’ve also put this page together to solve a problem I’ve been having. When I tell people I lead digital marketing teams, I hear the same questions over and over again:

• What is digital marketing?
• How do I hire a digital marketer?
• How do I build a career in digital marketing?

So, I created this page to serve as a go-to resource for anyone who has these and other related questions. If that’s you, I hope you’re able to use my experiences and the information below to find the answers you need.

What Is Digital Marketing?

There are probably more technical definitions out there, but I like to think of digital marketing as “using modern digital marketing tools and technology to reach a specific audience with a specific message online.”

Let’s say I have a client at my agency, Web Profits, that’s a B2C clothing retailer. Using any of the following strategies to help them find customers and sell more clothes falls under the umbrella of “digital marketing.”

• Publishing articles to their blog to help readers make style decisions.
• Setting up complex paid ad campaigns based on keywords that were valuable to the company.
• Sending targeted email marketing newsletters with discount codes for specific subscribers.
• Using retargeting so that my ads follow the site’s visitors around the web.
• Installing a chatbot to answer common customer questions and move visitors closer to purchasing.

The exact digital marketing tactics that are going to be right for any one brand will vary. However, there are a few general digital marketing trends to keep in mind:

• Digital marketing has gotten more complex as technology has evolved – and this is only going to continue. Most brands are better off specializing in a handful of channels than trying to be great at all of them.
• Within individual digital marketing channels, there’s often a range of behaviors that span from white-hat to black-hat. Even if using black-hat techniques gets you results in the short-term, they aren’t guaranteed to stick. Stay safe by staying white-hat.
• One of the cornerstones of modern digital marketing is that just about everything is measurable. A big part of your focus in digital marketing should be capturing the data needed to improve and refine your campaigns’ future performance.  

Check out these resources for more information:

• 11 Digital Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore in 2019
• 10 Years of Content: How My Approach Has Changed from 2009 to 2019
• Growing a Company in a Competitive or Saturated Market
• A Day in the Life of 8 SaaS Customer Success Managers
• 10 Online Digital Marketing Courses

Building a Career in Digital Marketing

Now, let’s say that – rather than implementing digital marketing at your company – you want to transition to a job in the field. That’s a great idea, as the median pay for a digital marketing manager in 2018 was $132,620 per year. 

If you’re ready to make the transition, here are a few of the tips I give most frequently:

• Specialize, specialize, specialize. Learn the ways of the T-shaped marketer. Rather than trying to be a master of all trades, pick a single field to learn in-depth, based on your personality and skills. 
• Invest in education. You don’t need to go back to school to learn digital marketing. There are tons of training materials online, but you do need to be selective about where you focus your attention. Engage with reputable courses and attend well-regarded events for the best information.
• Practice until you can show results. The great thing about digital marketing is that you don’t need to be employed to get started. Build your own website and practice the skill set you eventually want to work with. Being able to show results you’ve driven will get you hired faster than any degree or certification.

The following resources can help you get started:

• How to Start a Career in Digital Marketing
• The 11 Best Events & Courses for Digital Marketers
• How to Level Up Your Team and Yourself

Building a Digital Marketing Team

The tips above should give you some direction if you’re trying to launch a digital marketing program or find work within one. But if you’re trying to build a team, I’d recommend focusing on the following areas:

• Every digital marketing team needs to fill four core roles: team lead, strategist, creative execution and data analysis. How you fill those roles is dependent on the type of company you run and the size of your organization.
• Hiring digital marketers isn’t like hiring for other roles. Results matter, but learning how to separate real results from bullshit takes practice. Spend some time learning about the ins and outs of the process before you post your first job listing.
• You have a tremendous amount of flexibility when building a digital marketing team. Can’t afford more FTEs? Expect your campaign to only run for a limited time? Work with consultants, agencies, freelancers, contractors, part-time employees and more instead. You can always scale up later if needed.

You might also find these resources helpful as you’re building your team:

• Everything You Need to Know About Digital Marketing Jobs & Roles
• How to Interview a Digital Marketer
• Interview Questions for Digital Marketers
• How to Hire a VP of Marketing

Got another question you’d like me to answer? Leave me a note below with your questions:

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