Most businesses and brands are communicating with their customers using multiple channels and having the right messaging has never been more important. In this digital age, certain traditional marketing methods have simply fallen out of favor. Every company is now looking for marketers that can understand the marketing landscape and how it’s likely to evolve in the future. This is necessary to drive sales and improve service for their customers.
While there is a great deal of digital marketing advice online, there’s still value in pursuing an online degree. Forging your own path through a maze of YouTube tutorials, SEO forums, blog posts and other content is inefficient and it can lead you down the wrong path. Some information may be bad or out of date and the industry is constantly evolving. This is why many new marketers choose an online digital marketing degree to flatten the learning curve and start their new career. So, it is important to appreciate what a digital marketing degree is, the opportunities it offers and whether it’s worth your investment in time and money.
Exploring Digital Marketing Career Potential
The career potential of digital marketing in the years to come is impressive. This role is often referred to as a SEO consultant and these professionals are consistently in-demand for their services. Around 341,000 digital marketing roles were posted on LinkedIn in the past year alone.
The top five industries seeking digital marketing talent are evergreen: automobile, education, food, health and retail. It’s estimated that digital marketing manager roles are set to rise by more than 10% over the coming decade. Given these statistics, it’s obvious why so many people are now gaining a digital marketing education to set them up in a successful career.
How is a Digital Marketing Education Implemented?
Over the last ten years, there have been significant changes in marketing education. Digital marketing is still relatively new in comparison to traditional marketing, which began to be taught from the early 20th century onwards. Earlier marketing efforts tended to be hit and miss affairs based on the emergence of data analysis and psychological techniques. Traditional marketing was focused on print ads, mail shots, radio spots, TV ads, signs and more. As we’ve become more digitally connected some of these approaches are showing their age and they are less cost-effective.
With the arrival of the internet and then social media, there has been a need to adopt digital marketing methods to stay relevant. Both traditional and digital marketing are needed to connect a brand with its target audience. But, where digital efforts differ is that they can be more agile, focused and efficient. With the correct approach, the results can be virtually instantaneous and vice versa. It’s all too easy to tank a brand entirely if the audience feels disconnected from the message.
To exacerbate these issues, it’s important to understand that the industry is evolving and constantly changing. This can make it hard to keep pace with the latest techniques and trends to prepare a brand for the latest market conditions. This is why the best online digital marketing programs offer regular refresher courses to teach relevant skills. A good course will have a balance of theory and practice to ensure that best practices are taught. The emphasis needs to be on subject-specific skills that are relevant now and in the near future with lifelong learning to keep them sharp.
Understanding Digital Marketing Degrees
An online or traditionally acquired digital marketing degree is an academic certification. This degree can be earned after 3-4 years, where you study can be the determining factor in the length of the process. The marketing may be a Master Degree which is a post college degree that can take 1-2 years to finish. This is a shorter degree that’s more intense with a focus on advanced skills that is subject-specific. This is a complex topic that should be approached as an ongoing and long-term investment.
As you might imagine, this can be expensive and the tine investment is considerable. Before the student can upskill to a specialization within digital marketing, it’s vital to understand the basics of marketing. This is a significant challenge, but with the high earning potential and the projected career growth over the next decade it’s well worth the investment. That said, it is important to understand that the earning potential is somewhat dulled by the need for an ongoing and continuing digital marketing education.
Exploring Digital Marketing Career Opportunities
The rise of digital marketing has established some clear niches that have highlighted the need for several specific career opportunities that we will explore.
| Career Field | Key Benefits | Common Job Titles | Average Annual Salary (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Marketing | Remote work opportunities, creative freedom, growth potential in the digital age | Digital Marketing Specialist, Marketing Manager | $50,000–$124,000 |
| Social Media Marketing | Flexible working hours, engaging with trending platforms, brand-building skills | Social Media Manager, Community Manager | $40,000–$100,000 |
| Copywriting | Creative flexibility, freelance opportunities, high demand for content creators | Copywriter, Content Writer, Marketing Copy Editor | $45,000–$63,000 |
| Web Analytics | Data-driven decision-making, valuable analytical expertise, tech industry access | Web Analyst, Data Analyst, Business Intelligence Analyst | $60,000–$100,000 |
| SEO | Remote-friendly roles, technical and creative skill combination | SEO Specialist, SEO Manager, Technical SEO Analyst | $50,000–$80,000 |
| SEM | Performance-based rewards, high-demand skillset in paid advertising | SEM Specialist, PPC Manager, Digital Advertising Analyst | $55,000–$81,000 |
| Public Relations | Networking opportunities, brand-building impact, varied work environments | PR Specialist, Communications Manager, Media Relations Manager | $50,000–$111,000 |
| Content Strategy | Creative leadership, collaborative opportunities, focus on storytelling | Content Strategist, Editorial Manager, UX Content Designer | $60,000–$110,000 |
| Affiliate Marketing | Passive income potential, performance-based rewards, flexible schedules | Affiliate Manager, Marketing Coordinator, Partnership Specialist | $45,000–$94,000 |
Note: Salaries vary by location, experience, and company size. These salaries are accurate at the time of publishing but may change without notice.
Career Prospects – A More In-Depth Look
- Digital Marketing: This is the core niche where the majority of marketers learn how to promote a brand and business with their customers and potential future clients. The basic skill set learned here will be invaluable in the other marketing niches covered here.
- Copywriting: Written content is still important to raise the awareness of a brand and entice the reader to take action. This could be purchasing a certain product or service, taking a survey, signing up for a promotional offer or more. Effective copywriting can help with sales letters, promotional content generation, email marketing and many other aspects of digital marketing.
- Social Media Marketing: This is an extremely important niche in modern marketing, it can be used to rapidly raise the profile of a brand and communicate with the target audience.
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM): This niche uses targeted paid ads to raise the profile of a company on the search engine result pages (SERP).
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The SEO niche focuses on content creation and optimization to raise the profile on SERP and drive sales.
- Web Analytics: This is data collection, analyzing and visualization to offer insights that a brand can use to improve the user-experience.
- Content Strategy: This targeted content creation, planning and sharing to meet a set business goal. Within this niche there are other roles, including: content creation, content moderation and more.
- Public Relations: This is the maintenance of a good public image for a brand or business.
- Affiliate Marketing: This is the creation of a largely passive income stream generated with product recommendations that make a commission with every sale made.
With this list of niches, it’s obvious that no digital marketer is going to master every specialization. To become successful it will be necessary to specialize in one or perhaps two skills for your digital marketing career.
What are the Advantages of Digital Marketing Degrees?
It’s understandable that many people considering a marketing career are reluctant to invest in a digital marketing degree. This is a significant investment in terms of both time and money. Is it with the investment? In our opinion, a digital marketing degree can offer certain advantages that can get your career off to the best start.
Improved Career Flexibility
Many digital marketing skills are in high demand and they can be transferable to multiple niches. This can be invaluable if you want to work with an industry that wants to pivot to online marketing. Some tech startups rely on these skills and the ability to move between roles can improve your career flexibility. For example: a marketer may be an SEO freelancing professional and make a move into content strategy or something else entirely. When you understand how these dynamics work it’s easier to find strategies that can help a company with positioning and product development.
Relevant Skill Development
A solid grounding in the basics needs to be supplemented with deep learning in specific areas, such as: content marketing, SEO, pay-per-click (PPC) ad strategies, email marketing, social media and more. These skills are in high demand for digital marketing roles and many students will move through them as their education advances. A typical route would be SEO followed by link building and then onto data analysis and more technical skills. A well designed degree course will use both assessments and case studies to learn how effective digital marketing campaigns are created. This improves the employment opportunities for the student and it prepares them to be creative and strategic as part of a larger marketing team.
Maintaining Up-to Date Skills
Changes in the algorithm, the development of new trends and technological advances can all alter the digital landscape quickly. Although a digital marketing degree is relevant to what works now it may become less relevant over time. Certain paid and free courses that you may find online worked a short time ago and yet they don’t work now. A commitment to ongoing learning to gain access to the latest relevant information is vital for continued success in this industry.
Networking
As you might expect, digital marketing degree courses attract marketers that want to upskill, entrepreneurs and more. Your peers may be a source of work or open up new opportunities that you have not considered. Networking is an excellent way to find new business ventures, meet mentors and forge solid professional relationships. There could be exclusive job board access, membership programs, internships and other ways to collaborate that are not open to the public.
An Increase in ROI
The Return on Investment (ROI) is repaid with higher earning opportunities when you have a digital marketing degree. The skills can be applied to multiple marketing roles, before you choose to specialize and demand is going to be high for the foreseeable future. Making a switch to other roles, SEO Specialist, PPC Analyst, Digital Marketing Manager and more is an excellent way to increase your earning potential. Those that prefer more freedom can charge more for their services as a freelancer.
What are the Disadvantages of Digital Marketing Degrees?
Some people new to digital marketing or those that are already forging a career for themselves may not be a good fit for a degree course. If you’re considering an online digital marketing degree, it’s important to understand the disadvantages before you make a commitment.
Course Quality Variations
First, not every course is created equally, there may be variation between the quality of education and the accreditation. This can make course selection a significant challenge for students that want the latest up-to-date skills to get the marketing career off to a great start.
Due to the heightened demand for digital marketers, there has been an accompanying rise in the number of marketing courses. The sad fact is that some of these courses are not as useful and they offer little in the way of in-depth training. The only way to avoid a poor investment in a lower quality course is to choose courses from a reputable source. The course must offer accreditation that an employer can recognize to ensure that the student can gain employment. The best way to confirm that the course offers valid accreditation is to research the course and read relevant reviews.
Failing to Keep Pace with the Industry
Taking an online digital marketing course can give you the skills to succeed in your career. But, this industry moves very quickly and the knowledge you gain could be outdated due to algorithm changes, AI advances, consumer trends and more. This constant evolution of marketing methodology offers a very real challenge for modern marketers. Those that cannot adapt quickly can be left behind and your degree will not fill the knowledge gaps.
It may be tempting to delay the course, but this will make no difference and the changes will always follow. The only real solution to this problem is to make the decision early in your marketing career to commit to ongoing and lifelong learning. This is the best way to ensure that your skills are relevant and sharpened for the marketing challenges ahead.
Theory or Practical Skills
Certain digital marketing courses may focus on theory to the detriment of the student. If time is not spent on the development of practical skills, the student will not be prepared for their chosen career. The application of skills is what will determine if the student succeeds in a competitive job market. To avoid this problem, look for an online digital marketing course that uses practical assignments with case studies.
Limited Personal Support
The course may not offer much in the way of personal support to answer specific questions. This often occurs due to a high student to teacher ratio and it may diminish the learning experience. Many students thrive on more personal attention and this is often lacking in online courses. It’s far more likely that you will receive cookie cutter responses to address the more common issues that you may encounter.
A lack of any deeper discussion on complex topics can contribute to the student meeting their goals. To avoid this problem, invest in a course that has a reputation for strong student support. There should be opportunities for direct interactions with the tutors and fellow students taking the course.
No Guaranteed ROI
There are no guarantees in life and for most people an online digital marketing course can be an expensive proposition. Although the benefits for your marketing career may be considerable the ROI may not cover all the costs for some time. This can be a real drawback for students operating on a very tight budget that may be unsure about a future marketing career.
A high paying job may be on the horizon, but it could take a while to reach that point and ongoing learning is a requirement to maintain relevance. This is a significant hurdle to overcome and it may be exacerbated by certain factors, such as: local job market opportunities, networking capabilities, a lack of experience and more. So, you need to carefully consider your goals and how you’re going to fund your online course before you enroll and make a commitment.
Exploring the Alternatives
Those that have evaluated online marketing degrees and found that it’s not a great fit for them have some alternative routes to explore. Some new marketers start with their own basic website that they learn how to manage. This introduces them to practical skills that then can be monetized to earn money as a freelancer. It’s easy to set up a website using WordPress, WIX or Shopify and other e-commerce platforms.
Another popular option is to take the free courses and tutorials that you can find online. This may be a route to certification or accreditation, but some of the skills may be out of date. A self taught marketer must be resilient and some employers may place value on their dedication to get onto a marketing team. This could be a way to find a mentoring or internship opportunity which may ultimately lead to a high paying career.
A final route is to use social media, blogging and podcasting to build your own brand. Engaging in digital marketing and ecommerce can be a learning and earning experience. There will be setbacks, some information that can be sourced online is no longer relevant and this can slow down the learning process.