There are two basic types of marketing that a business can perform, which include traditional marketing and online marketing. Some examples of traditional marketing include magazine ads, television commercials, direct mail, and billboard ads. While traditional marketing can still be effective when performed properly, online marketing is more important than ever since the majority of customers do their shopping online.
Even customers who shop for items in a physical location will oftentimes begin their shopping experience by searching for products online. As such, businesses must focus on online marketing when attempting to grow their business and brand. An internet marketing specialist is someone who uses social media, websites, blogs, and email to reach marketing goals of any kind.
While some marketing professionals focus on all types of marketing, it’s common for companies to hire someone who specializes in internet marketing, after which this person will handle every facet of online marketing. This individual can help increase brand awareness throughout the digital space, acquire new leads, and drive website traffic. Many businesses hire internet marketing specialists to design, execute, and further manage robust online marketing campaigns. These campaigns are spread out across numerous channels and can involve display ads, paid search ads, organic search, social media, and email.
Keep in mind that an internet marketing specialist differs from a digital marketing specialist. In fact, internet marketing is considered to be a subset of digital marketing. Digital ads aren’t restricted to the internet and can even be shown on television. If you would like to become an internet marketing specialist, it’s important that you obtain the right type of degree for this position.
While it’s possible to gain an entry-level position as an internet marketing specialist with an associate’s degree, you’re far more likely to receive a job with a bachelor’s degree in a related field, which can include anything from digital media and communication to marketing and website design. This guide provides you with everything you need to know about internet marketing specialists and what it takes to become one.
What You Study as an Internet Marketing Specialist
Even though you can gain a degree in a field that relates to online marketing, there aren’t many degrees that are designed specifically for internet marketing specialists. The profession is relatively new, which means that most colleges haven’t created the necessary degrees. As mentioned previously, try to obtain a degree in fields like digital media, market, website design, and communication. Some of the topics that will be discussed during your coursework include:
- Web analytics
- Mobile marketing
- Digital advertising
- Social media message and comment development
- Search engine optimization
- Online marketing strategy
- Blogging
What Do you Do as a Internet Marketing Specialist?
When you work as an internet marketing specialist, you’ll have many responsibilities that encompass all areas of internet marketing.
Ad Copywriting and Content Creation
Ad copywriting involves creating all of the words that will be placed in the online ads that are made for a typical marketing campaign. It’s possible that an internet marketing specialist can work with other writers or hire freelance writers to assist them in copywriting and content creation.
However, the majority of internet marketing specialists must perform these tasks on their own. Some aspects of ad copywriting and content creation include creating articles for organic search, writing guest posts, writing eBooks that site members can gain access to, and writing all of the content that will be shown in an ad. To be effective at ad copywriting, you should have fantastic writing skills as well as the ability to create content efficiently.
Expand Visual Assets
When working as an internet marketing specialist, you will also be asked to develop and expand visual assets for online marketing campaigns. While it’s possible to work with professional graphic designers for these tasks, most businesses require internet marketing specialists to take care of this work themselves.
There are many different types of digital assets that you may be asked to develop, which include videos, images, emails, brochures, blog posts, sales letters, and website content. If you want to be an effective internet marketing specialist, you should have extensive knowledge of the top graphical tools, which include Adobe Illustrator. These tools will need to be used to develop visual assets for infographic marketing, display advertising, and email marketing campaigns.
Create Digital Marketing Plans
A marketing campaign is a comprehensive course of action that’s designed to promote a service or product. Along with selling the service/product, the marketing campaign should improve the company’s brand image. Internet marketing specialists plan, develop, and implement online marketing campaigns throughout numerous platforms and channels. The primary channels include paid advertising, social media, organic search, and email marketing. Most online marketing campaigns will be tied to goals that the business wants to achieve once the campaign is implemented.
Publish Content via Blogs
Along with the ad copywriting mentioned previously, internet marketing specialists are expected to create blog posts and publish content. This content should make the company’s website more popular and aid the online marketing campaign by increasing awareness and promoting various products/services. While the sale of products and services can occur at a higher rate after publishing strong content, it’s important to understand that blog content is considerably different from ad copy.
While ad copy is designed to directly sell a product or service, blog content is meant to provide site visitors and loyal customers with articles that they may be interested in. When someone visits a website for an auto dealership, they may enjoy reading a blog article about how to drive safely during the winter, which is content that keeps these users engaged.
If you want to be an internet marketing specialist, you will need to understand how to select the right topics for a blog while also writing high-quality content at a consistent rate. Along with understanding the content management system that your company’s website has, you should also know how to perform technical optimizations through the modification of CSS or HTML code.
Optimize Marketing Campaigns
Another core task that internet marketing specialists must perform is the optimization of marketing campaigns. Once a marketing campaign has been implemented, it’s important that the campaign is regularly monitored to ensure that any poorly performing elements of the campaign are switched out with better ones. Marketing campaigns tend to last for around three months, during which internet marketing specialists must perform optimization. The only way to effectively optimize marketing campaigns is by first identifying the results of the campaign.
As an internet marketing specialist, you will use data analytics tools, the primary of which is Google Analytics. These tools are able to tell you how traffic to your website is being generated. This information can be used to determine how to most effectively increase conversions and generate brand awareness. While optimizing a marketing campaign, you will also use a combination of conversion rate optimization software and visual design skills to enhance landing page performance and boost conversions.
Summary of an Internet Marketing Specialist
Due to the ever-increasing need that businesses have to develop a strong online presence, internet marketing specialists are more in demand than ever. Once you have obtained the necessary education requirements, you may be able to obtain a job as an internet marketing specialist. Keep in mind, however, that you will have many responsibilities when working in this position. Along with writing ad copy and blog content, you must also develop marketing campaigns that you will need to optimize over an extended period of time.
In the event that an online marketing campaign doesn’t produce the intended results, you will need to know how these results occurred and what you can do to improve them in the future. If you believe that this position is right for you, the average pay for this line of work is just under $50,000 when you are just getting started. You should also have numerous opportunities to grow your career with upward mobility.
Once you garner a substantial amount of experience as an internet marketing specialist, there are a range of similar positions that you may be able to qualify for. While the following positions are similar, they are also considered to be senior positions, which means that you could earn a higher salary. These positions include senior digital marketing manager, director of digital marketing, director of corporate marketing, and senior marketing director. These positions come with an average annual salary that ranges from $93,000-$116,500.
After you’ve developed the necessary skills and have earned the requisite education, you can begin your career as an internet marketing specialist by first seeking an entry-level online marketing job. You may need to work as a marketing analyst or marketing coordinator before you can be hired as an internet marketing specialist. Going through an internship will also look great on your resume.
If you want to set yourself apart from all of the other candidates, consider earning a master’s degree in digital marketing or marketing strategy. Having managed a successful online marketing campaign will make you more appealing to prospective employers and clients. Earning more experience is necessary for you to grow your career.
