Digital marketing is more than just a corporate buzzword. This type of marketing has become essential for any business around the world. As a career, working in digital marketing opens up countless job opportunities in a growth area. With a digital marketing qualification, you can achieve job security. Gaining a digital marketing qualification is an excellent investment in your future.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is also known as online marketing, and the name pretty much describes what lies behind the term. Digital marketing refers to any form of marketing that is done on the internet.
This type of marketing includes a wide range of marketing channels:
- Websites
- Search engines
- Blogs
- Email marketing
- Social media marketing
- Multimedia messaging
No matter their size, most businesses today have some kind of presence online. Whether this is a website, a business page on a social media platform, or simply a business listing on a search engine will depend on the business and its requirements.
Digital marketing also includes internet-based advertising. Once again, there are several channels to consider for a business:
- Paid search engine marketing
- Paid social media marketing
With so many marketing channels to choose from, digital marketing offers skilled marketers plenty of options to get creative. At the same time, marketers need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each channel to use their budgets effectively.
What Digital Marketing is used for
Like traditional marketing, digital marketing aims to connect brands and businesses with their customers. Selecting the most suitable channels for a campaign is critical to making that connection and running a successful campaign.
Effective digital marketing relies on extensive knowledge of what digital marketing channels can do for a specific business. Evaluating that starts with understanding a brand’s customers. Where are they spending their time online? Why do they choose these channels, and how do they interact on their favourite channels?
Digital marketers use marketing research to answer these questions and build campaigns based on their findings. A wide choice of channels means that there are digital marketing opportunities for virtually any marketing budget. Even a very limited budget can make a difference to a company or organization.
For a small business, selective digital marketing may be the best use of the resources available. On the other hand, digital marketing for a global brand might mean synchronizing online activities with a larger campaign. For example, digital marketing activities may be timed to coincide with more traditional billboard advertising or a series of events designed to let customers experience the brand first-hand.
In this example, you may feel that a certain brand is simply everywhere. But what the brand is doing is creating numerous opportunities for consumers to connect with the company and its products. The overall goal is to create an intention within the consumer. Intentions can differ between a direct purchase, an intention to purchase later, or even acting as an ambassador and mentioning the brand to others.
The Digital Marketing industry in the Asia Pacific region
Digital marketing is an exciting, varied, and future-proof career. Don’t take our word for it, here are several figures to illustrate the strength of the industry.
Within the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, digital marketing advertising spending increased from generating less than US$54 billion to more than US$87 billion within the space of three years from 2016 to 2019. According to Statista, expenditure was forecast to fall slightly in 2020, due to the pandemic. However, the market is already showing strong signs of recovery. The industry is on course to exceed US$120 by 2024, based on digital advertising spending alone.
Another group of researchers predicts annual growth of more than 12% for Asia Pacific’s digital advertising market between 2020 and 2026. The report is based on the analysis of data from 2015 to 2019 and estimates of 2020. Its predictions are based on recognizing the increasing need for digital marketing in the area following the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
For anyone considering a career in digital marketing, this is good news. Even before Covid-19 disrupted much of the world’s economy, the industry showed strong growth. The pandemic accelerated this development.
Digital Marketing and consumer behaviour
Digital marketing aims to help businesses build close connections with consumers. Throughout the APAC region, internet usage continues to grow. As a consequence, opportunities for brands to forge consumer relationships are also growing.
Since 2011, the amount of time individuals spend on the internet has consistently increased throughout the region. Whilst final figures are not yet available, researchers believe that this trend will continue throughout 2021 at least.
Increased mobile network download speed has been one of the major drivers behind the growing internet use in the APAC region. Countries like Japan, Singapore, and South Korea have been leading this development. Throughout the entire region, mobile internet user penetration is set to increase even more dramatically by 2025.
For marketers that means a wider selection of their target audience will be online. Knowing this is crucial – after all, you can only connect a brand to a consumer when they are in the same place.
At the same time, with more consumers coming online, it will become even more important to have an in-depth understanding of the different marketing channels. Without knowing where a company’s potential customers are spending their time online, it’s impossible to connect with them.
How to build a career in Digital Marketing
So, now that you understand the incredible potential of a career in digital marketing, let’s take a look at how to get started. As with most careers, there are different paths into the field.
1. The school of hard knocks AKA learning by doing
In the early days of digital marketing, there simply were no courses available. Marketers experimented and tried different things, evaluating them and adjusting their approach in the process.
Whilst this pioneering style of marketing – or the school of hard knocks – worked well several years ago, it may not be ideal today.
Granted, you can teach yourself some basic digital marketing skills, but there are disadvantages to this strategy. Learning by doing means you will make mistakes that then need to be corrected. Digital marketing is a fast-moving industry. Few businesses will want to spend their time (and budget) on mistakes when there is a better option.
2. Taking a course
Investing in a digital marketing qualification allows you to fast-track your career in the field.
Taking this approach allows you to learn from experts who have distilled their knowledge and experience into a course curriculum. Simply put, you can learn from their mistakes without needing to waste your time.
Learning from experts lets you see which channels work for which product or service. You will also understand potential consumers better: different digital marketing channels attract different audiences. Having a thorough grasp of this helps you choose the most suitable channels for the product or service you are marketing in your first job.
One of the biggest benefits of investing in a digital marketing qualification is to gain access to structured information. Rather than conducting random Google searches to learn more about individual channels, you benefit from a well-thought-out curriculum. The information is presented in a way that not only makes it easy to grasp and remember. You also have the advantage of learning how different channels relate to each other.
Another strong point of gaining a qualification is the ability to ask a real person for clarification on something you are struggling to understand.
Why study online for a Digital Marketing qualification
Digital marketing happens online. For that reason alone, online learning makes perfect sense for your digital marketing qualification. After all, you are planning to build a career that advises brands on how to build their business in the online space.
Online learning is the natural choice for digital qualifications. Moreover, consider the flexibility: online learning allows you to study independently of your location. You can complete study projects and modules in your own time and at a pace that suits your learning style.
This type of learning combines flexibility with close access to tutors and teachers. It’s the perfect way to prepare for a digital marketing career.
Final thoughts
Gaining a digital marketing qualification is your ticket to a long-lasting, exciting, and varied career. An internationally recognized qualification will open doors that would otherwise have remained closed.
Online learning through comprehensive courses like Digital Academy’s Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing is not only flexible. You will also benefit from well-structured, expert knowledge that distils everything you need to know to start a successful career or progress in your existing position.
To learn more about how a digital marketing qualification can benefit your career, contact our team today.
