Exploring tracks of digital marketing

“What are some career options in digital marketing?” “What kinds of skill sets do I need to excel in the field of digital marketing?” “Is digital marketing a good career option?” I often get asked many such questions by MBA students who are starting out on their managerial journey, as well as by those who are in middle management. My take on an inquiry about the promise that digital marketing holds for marketers is this: there is no black and white answer to these questions as the term digital marketing may mean different things to different people. One may train to become a marketer, or one may train to become a data scientist.

In the first bucket, we consider the “marketing” role: we may think of the digital channels and digital media as part of the overall marketing mix.

This statement essentially indicates that a digital marketer needs to have all those skills that make a good marketer, and add to that the need to understand how consumers and customers interact with the digital channels (yes, there may be various channels, which include the laptop, the desktop, and the mobile device). Managers need to appreciate that digital technology enables the functions of marketing, but at the heart of undertaking digital marketing, there is the consumer.

Aspiring and junior managers need to acquire expertise in the tools and techniques that form the technology-driven backbone of the digital marketing ecosystem – these include some technical understanding of search engine optimization, search advertising, display advertising, app-based marketing and mobile marketing – to name a few.

The skills can also be obtained through certifications offered by leading technology companies like Google (Google AdWords), Microsoft (Bing Ads), and Facebook (Facebook Ad Certification). This statement means that a data scientist needs to have the skills of a computer scientist and a mathematician and/or statistician.