Global marketing and advertising trends have changed drastically over the past decade, making digital marketing one of today’s most in-demand career paths. From social media specialists and content creators to SEO analysts and PPC experts, businesses in nearly every industry are looking for qualified digital marketing professionals to help them reach their target audiences online.
In fact, global digital advertising spending is forecasted to reach $820.24 billion by 2025. Thus, if you have a degree in digital marketing and more importantly have the right work experience companies want, you can leverage it to get a job in this ever-growing field.
However, it’s imperative to note that a degree alone doesn’t suffice for digital marketing jobs. You could have all the certifications out there. Or, you may have completed every boot camp under the sun. Companies require you to have certain digital marketing work experience in order for you to be hired as that want you to be able to come into the role and start producing good results without having to spend a lot of time training you.
In addition to all these things, having the right digital marketing work experience matters immensely when getting a job. Payscale data shows that not only will it help you get hired much faster and for better jobs, but experienced digital marketers earn 29% more than the national average. Keeping that in mind, let’s look at the jobs you can get with your digital marketing degree.
10 Jobs For a Digital Marketing Major
If you have a degree in digital marketing, you may wonder what jobs are available to you. Below, we list ten jobs you are eligible to apply for.
But do note eligibility doesn’t mean qualification. You’ll want to make sure you have work experience in these areas in order to be able to actually get interviews and more importantly job offers for these types of roles:
- SEO Specialist
SEO is at the core of digital marketing. And an SEO specialist is responsible for improving a website’s ranking on SERPs. They do this by optimizing content, conducting keyword research, link building, and more.
As an SEO specialist, your responsibilities include:
- Conducting keyword research
- Analyzing website data
- Making recommendations for improvements
- Writing SEO optimized blogs
- Implementing SEO strategy
- Monitoring results
- Reporting to clients or managers
Almost every company with a website needs an SEO specialist. After all, everyone wants their website to rank as high as possible on Google.
So, there’s no shortage of jobs. Glassdoor data reveals that SEO entry-level specialists make up to $63,200 per year on average.
- Advertising Manager
Companies are spending billions of dollars on online advertisements. So, they want to ensure they’re getting the most bang for their buck.
As an advertising manager, that’s your job. Your responsibilities include:
- Creating and managing advertising campaigns
- Setting budget and goals
- Analyzing data
- Reporting results to clients or managers
- Strategizing advertisement campaigns
- Monitoring competitors and what’s working well for them
Depending on the company, you may specialize in one type of advertising. For example, you may manage all the company’s display ads or Google Ads campaigns.
The average salary of an advertising manager in the US is $116,713. But it’s important to note that the salary increases dramatically with experience.
For instance, 10% of advertising managers in the upper salary spectrum earn $144,301 annually. Their experience is likely the main reason for this large discrepancy in salary.
- Social Media Manager
Social media has become a necessary channel for businesses. It is a powerful marketing tool, but it takes time to maintain a compelling presence.
More and more businesses are looking for social media managers to help them create and post content, engage with followers, and grow their reach.
A social media manager must have strong writing and communication skills, be well-versed in the latest social media trends, understand how to measure social media metrics, and most importantly understand how to create content that will bring high engagement out of your target audience and effectively move them through the marketing funnel into ultimately becoming customers of your company. Your digital marketing degree can help you develop these skills and stand out to potential employers.
Social media managers earn $53,085 on average but these numbers vary widely as the better results you’re able to show, the more companies will be willing to pay you. Once again, those with more experience can easily make 20% more than this amount early in their careers. People later in their careers can expect to easily earn 33% more than this average and once again, it can be a lot more than this (easily over $100k) if you’re able to show that you can bring good results.
Hence, a career as a social media manager can be quite lucrative. If you are interested in this field, then you should consider pursuing a digital marketing degree. On top of that, get the right type of social media marketing experience that companies are asking for in their job descriptions to increase your chances of landing a high-paying job.
- Email Marketing Specialist
The global email marketing revenue is forecasted to be $17.9 billion by 2027. That means businesses are still relying on email to reach their customers.
An email marketing specialist is responsible for creating and managing email campaigns. They use marketing strategies to grow a list of subscribers and promote a product or service.
To be successful in this role, you need to have excellent writing and communication skills. You should also be able to use email marketing software and understand how to measure campaign metrics so that you can adjust the company’s strategy to get better results.
An entry-level email marketing specialist earns up to $63,155 on average. But you’ll also be entitled to employee benefits and bonuses especially if you’re able to show improvement in the company’s email marketing results.
- Sentiment Analyst
Customer sentiment is a critical part of understanding how your brand is perceived. As a sentiment analyst, you’ll be responsible for monitoring and analyzing customer sentiment data to help improve the customer experience. In this role, you will use your analytical skills to identify trends and make recommendations to improve customer satisfaction. You will also be responsible for creating reports and presentations to share your findings with stakeholders so that the company can better position themselves online.
You can expect to earn $92,534 in this role. However, if you want to make a six-figure salary, experience is once again key. For instance, Salary.com data shows that sentiment analysts with more experience earn well over $100,000.
- Content Manager
Content is the unifying factor of a brand’s marketing efforts. It’s what ties together a website, blog, social media, and email marketing. As a content manager, you have to understand how to create content that tells a story and resonates with your audience across several different mediums as just described.
In this role, you will develop and manage content across all of the brand’s channels. It includes creating, curating, and editing content. You will also be responsible for managing a team of content creators to make sure they are creating content that aligns with the company’s overall strategy.
The top industries to get a job as a content manager are advertising and public relations, followed by media and entertainment. The average entry-level salary for a content manager is $61,228. However, you can earn 24% more than this amount with the right experience in content management.
- Digital Marketing Manager
Digital marketing managers work with the marketing team to develop and implement digital marketing campaigns that promote a company’s products or services. Their responsibilities include:
- Creating and managing digital marketing campaigns
- Developing and managing the company’s social media strategy
- Planning and executing email marketing campaigns
- Creating and managing paid advertising campaigns
- Analyzing data to identify trends and insights
- Developing and managing content for different channels
Salary.com data shows that the median salary for digital marketing managers is $120,946. But you can earn well over $150,000 in this type of role when you have more work experience.
The more experience you have on your resume, the more you can charge for your services and the more likely recruiters and hiring managers will even start reaching out to you for new fun and exciting opportunities.
- Content Strategist
Churning out the right content at the right time is crucial to engaging customers and prospects at various stages of the buyer journey. That’s where a content strategist comes in.
Content strategists develop and oversee the company’s content marketing strategy. They collaborate with different teams to ensure that all content aligns with the company’s overall marketing goals. They’ll pay close attention to what the competition is doing to see if they can gain any insight into what strategies can work for their company in coming up with their content strategy.
The average salary for this position is $74,470, according to Glassdoor.
- Brand Manager
A brand manager is a professional who oversees the promotion and marketing of a brand. The role of a brand manager is to ensure that the brand remains relevant and visible to consumers in a positive light.
A brand manager typically works with a team of marketing and advertising professionals to develop campaigns, create content, and track metrics to assess the brand’s performance. Since all companies need to build a brand the customer can remember, you can find a job as a brand manager in nearly any industry.
Brand managers earn $72,999 per year. However, your salary can be up to $116,000, depending on your experience.
- Digital Designer
Although a new field, digital design is one of the most important types of design for businesses in the modern world. A digital designer creates user interfaces, websites, applications, and other digital products.
To be a successful digital designer, you must have strong visual communication skills and understand the user’s needs. You must also be proficient in a variety of design software programs.
So, in addition to your digital marketing degree, consider getting a degree in graphic design or web design if you want to go this route. If you couple this with the right marketing work experience, you can easily land a high-paying job. The average salary for digital designers is $79,301 annually, but it can be as high as $100,000 with more work experience.
Final Words
Summing up, it’s easy to see that you can get many jobs with a digital marketing degree. But you must have noticed that most jobs will only hire you as well as pay you more if you have the right work experience they are asking for in their job description.
This of course shouldn’t be a surprise as this is how it is for every industry. But, given the fierce competition in the booming marketing job market these days, just remember that hiring managers want to pick candidates that can already prove they know how to do the job as that’s why they put so much emphasis on only hiring those that have the work experience they are asking for.
So, just don’t maek the mistake that so many young professionals make in thinking that since they graduated with a degree, jobs will just be waiting for them as this can cause a lot of disappointment and wasted months of job searching. Instead, pay attention to what work experience companies are asking for in their job descriptions and focus on getting that work experience so you can get hired faster.
If you’d like to get the exact Marketing work experience that companies are asking for immediately, feel free to check out JobPrepped’s Digital Marketing Training + Immediate Work Experience Program as you’ll not only get 1-on-1 Digital Marketing training from a former Fortune 500 Top-Level Marketing Exec., but you’ll also get to add over 25 bullet points of work experience to your work experience section of your resume in Social Media, Email, Paid Ads, SEO, Search Engine Marketing, Content Marketing, Lead Generation, Analytics, and Automation Tools.
Good luck in your journey as this is a very exciting and lucrative field to be getting into.