Guide: How To Become A Digital Marketing Executive

Updated 4 November 2022

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Digital marketing executives are central to a company's marketing team. Becoming a digital marketing executive requires a strong background in marketing, digital platforms, a fundamental understanding of leadership responsibilities and exceptional skills to handle a team.

Since digital marketing executives usually require specific training, education and experience to reach the executive level, it is important to understand these requirements if you are considering pursuing a career in this field. In this article, we explain how to become a digital marketing executive.

What Is A Digital Marketing Executive?

Digital marketing executives are generally responsible for preparing plans, developing and implementing strategies and managing a company's overall digital marketing plan of action. A digital marketing executive works under with other executives in the company, often working closely with other departments. They ensure that marketing plans and strategies align with the vision and goals of a company. They may also be responsible for mentoring, guiding and managing digital marketers and professionals in other marketing positions in the team.

Additionally, a digital marketing executive may have to be well-versed in several industry terms and practices. They may have to prepare strategies for advertising aimed specifically at mobile users, such as through mobile optimised websites or mobile marketing. Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement in which an online retailer pays an external website commission for sales or traffic generated from its referrals. Apart from social media ad campaigns, digital marketing executives may also run pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns online.

How To Become A Digital Marketing Executive

Follow these steps to learn how to become a digital marketing executive:

1. Get a degree in marketing

Many digital marketing executives start their career journey with a bachelor's degree in marketing, business administration or analytics. Pursuing one of these degrees may help you gain training and learn valuable skills such as basic marketing tactics, knowledge of digital marketing tools and analytics. You can pursue a range of offline and online courses to get a formal academic qualification in digital marketing.

2. Develop soft skills

While marketing skills are a necessary requirement for a digital marketing executive, it is also important to develop soft skills. These include attention to detail, an ability to work independently, team-building skills, leadership qualities and excellent verbal and written communication skills. Possessing such soft skills can project an individual as a highly employable candidate to a potential employer.

3. Become an SEO expert

Knowledge of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) practices is crucial for a digital marketing executive. SEO is the practice of optimising content to rank higher on search engines. While SEO is part of marketing education, becoming an expert in it can benefit your digital marketing career greatly. With a thorough understanding of SEO, you can create optimised content quickly and improve the efficiency of your work.

There are many online SEO courses and tutorial videos that offer great opportunities to expand your SEO knowledge. You can also pursue certifications, such as:

HootSuite Certification
Certified Production Marketing Manager

4. Launch ad campaigns

Learn more about how online ads work to launch an ad campaign and study its analytics. You can start small and even offer your services on a voluntary basis. Expand your knowledge of the industry you work in and gain professional experience. It is important to focus on the areas you are inexperienced in, to gain a comprehensive working knowledge of digital marketing practices. Ad campaigns are used to engage users and customers, so practising content creation can help improve your skills.

5. Increase your team management skills

Working with a team is an opportunity to create more effective digital marketing content. As you progress in your career, focus on learning team management techniques and improving your communication skills, to gain credibility in a leadership position. Consider taking up projects with professionals from other departments or offer to lead the marketing team on specific projects according to your interests and preferences. You may also consider taking courses on leadership and team management.

6. Diversify your skills

Advance your skills in digital marketing by diversifying your education and experience. If you have never taken part in a social media marketing campaign, ask to be a part of the team to diversify your experience. You can also spend some time working with professionals from other departments to see how they tackle issues and strategise as part of their work. As you diversify your professional experience, the skills you possess for a digital marketing executive position become more advanced and comprehensive.

What Responsibilities Does A Digital Marketing Executive Have?

A digital marketing executive is responsible for building, planning and implementing the overall digital marketing strategy of a company. They do this by staying up to date with the latest technology and the best practices in digital marketing. They usually manage and improve a company's online content using search engine optimisation and analytical tools.

A digital marketing executive may have to prepare and manage a digital marketing budget, monitor activity on social media accounts of a company, scrutinise marketing plans and forecast sales performance. They also monitor return on investment (ROI) and key performance indicators (KPI) periodically. These are measurement tools that help businesses gauge how successful their strategies have been in achieving predetermined goals and objectives. Apart from this, they may be responsible for managing, training and motivating a team of digital marketers and sales professionals.

What Skills Does A Digital Marketing Executive Require?

Digital marketing executives receive training in industry-specific hard skills during their internships or training period. They may also have to develop soft skills to prosper in their job role. If you are interested in a career in digital marketing, consider developing the following skills:

Leadership skills: A digital marketing executive may be the leader of a team consisting of a wide variety of professionals, so it is very beneficial to learn how to effectively manage teams by encouraging growth and participation, ensuring good communication between team members and setting goals by working alongside team members.
Communication skills: Great leadership depends on good communication. It is very important for a digital marketing executive to have the necessary communication skills to connect with and lead their team.
Thorough understanding of SEO: Digital marketing executives typically have a strong familiarity with Search Engine Optimisation techniques. High-level knowledge of SEO techniques and requirements helps these executives develop digital marketing plans that yield better results.
Creativity: Creativity helps digital marketing executives create new and innovative marketing techniques and often helps accelerate processes. Creativity may also help a team motivate themselves to work towards solving a problem.
Knowledge of social media platforms: Social media marketing is an integral part of most digital marketing strategies. Experience in using social media platforms and online content-creation tools is an important requirement for digital marketing executives.
Web analytics: A digital marketing executive uses experience with web analytics tools to perform their tasks successfully and to improve the efficiency of their practices. Using web analytics tools, you can track your marketing performance and use the data to improve results using more advanced SEO techniques.
HTML/CSS: As a digital marketing executive, you may require minimal experience in coding languages like HTML and CSS, to work with specific marketing and content creation software.
B2C experience: A typical digital marketing executive needs a deep understanding of B2C (business to customer) social media content creation. Having this understanding helps you effectively promote products and services.

Digital Marketing Executive Salary And Job outlook

As more users go online, there has been a growing need for digital marketing in many companies because efficient digital marketing offers several benefits. The overall scope of digital marketing has improved over the last 2 decades and digital marketing executives may find lucrative job opportunities in diverse industries. The average base salary of a digital marketing executive is ₹2,53,613 per year.

Please note that none of the companies, institutions or organisations mentioned in this article are associated with Indeed.

Salary figures reflect data listed on Indeed Salaries at time of writing. Salaries may vary depending on the hiring organisation and a candidate's experience, academic background and location.