Looking for the best digital marketing positions that you should consider applying for?
Market analysts have predicted that for the first time, digital advertising spending will reach $336 billion, accounting for more than half of all ad media spending globally.
As companies continue to undergo digital transformation, there is a huge demand for digital marketing professionals with the skills to manage and execute complex online marketing strategies.
If you’re interested in a career shift into digital marketing or looking to grow your career by moving to a more senior role, now is the best time to make your move.
To help you get started, we’ve put together this list of the top 10 digital marketing positions you should consider applying for. This list is divided into entry-level, management, and executive leadership positions. Details are included for each position, including a basic overview, key skills and responsibilities, and PayScale average salary.
10 Best Digital Marketing Positions
Entry-Level Roles
Image: In an entry-level digital marketing position, you’ll be on the front lines building marketing campaigns that have a real impact on results for your clients and your business. Entry level roles are your opportunity to gain the hands-on skills and experience needed to manage effectively later in your digital marketing career.
Image Source: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1516321318423-f06f85e504b3?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=500&q=60
Entry-Level Marketing Specialist Roles
Overview: Entry-level marketing specialist roles include job titles like “PPC Advertising Specialist”, “SEO Specialist”, or “Social Media Specialist”. These are entry-level marketing jobs with a specific focus on one area of digital marketing. You will work with other specialist team members, collaborating each day to design, build, and deliver complex marketing projects.
Key Skills & Responsibilities: Specialist skills and responsibilities are job-specific, so it ultimately depends on what you choose to specialize in. An SEO specialist works on search engine optimization campaigns, researching keywords, and creating content to capture more organic traffic. A PPC Specialist might spend most of their day analyzing campaign results in Google Ads, while a Social Media Specialist focuses on generating brand awareness through social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn.
Average Salary: The average salary for an SEO Specialist in the United States is $45,686 per year, with the top 10% earning $64K per year or more.
Digital Marketing Coordinator
Overview: A digital marketing coordinator typically works for a small, in-house marketing team, coordinating marketing campaigns by collaborating with in-house marketing team members and external vendors. Marketing coordinators often play a versatile role in their organizations, managing the company website, creating blog posts and social media updates, and overseeing digital advertising.
Key Skills & Responsibilities: Specific responsibilities for digital marketing coordinators vary by company, but the most important skills are research, communication, teamwork, organization, and attention to detail.
Average Salary: Marketing Coordinators in the USA earn an average of $44,224 per year, with the top 10% earning $59K or more.
Graphic/Visual Designer
Overview: Visual Designer is one of the best digital marketing positions to apply for. Designers support digital marketing projects by creating on-brand graphics, images, and layouts for websites, landing pages, ebooks, and other digital media.
Key Skills & Responsibilities: Designers working in digital marketing must combine their knowledge of color, fonts, and composition with illustration skills, software skills, and sound marketing knowledge. Visual designers must be able to collaborate effectively with team members and communicate design ideas effectively with clients.
Average Salary: Graphic designers in the USA earn an average of $45,261 per year, with the top 10% earning $63K or more.
Web Development Specialist
Overview: Web developers are responsible for building websites, maintaining them, and updating them to reflect technical SEO best practices.
Key Skills & Responsibilities: Web developers working on digital marketing projects will need to know coding languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, along with the basics of technical SEO. Some digital marketing teams include web developers who build the back end of the website and web designers or UI/UX designers who build the front end. Both of these roles require excellent technical skills and the ability to work independently or in teams.
Average Salary: The average salary for a web developer in the United States is $59,514, with the top 10% of web developers earning $87K annually or more.
Demand Generation Specialist
Overview: Demand generation is a common marketing role for software companies that sell B2B. Demand generation is all about raising the level of overall interest and awareness of your brand among target prospects.
Key Skills & Responsibilities: A demand generation specialist works to identify prospective customers, connect with them through digital channels, and nurture their interest in the desired brand, product, or services. Demand generation specialists use methods like display advertising and email outreach to present their offerings to prospects in hopes of driving downstream conversions or generating leads that can be passed on to the sales team.
Average Salary: The average demand generation specialist earns an average salary of $54,761, with the top 10% earning more than $74K annually.
Management Roles
Image: In a management-level digital marketing position, you will be expected to lead a team of marketing specialists and visual designers. You will spend less time doing hands-on marketing activities, and more time coordinating the efforts of your team members to meet project requirements under strict deadlines.
Image Source: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1542744173-8e7e53415bb0?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=500&q=60
Digital Marketing Manager
Overview: A digital marketing manager oversees a team of marketing specialists, web developers, and graphic designers to organize the delivery of complex digital marketing campaigns.
Key Skills & Responsibilities: Digital marketing managers must have a deep understanding of all aspects of digital marketing, including search engine optimization, PPC, conversion rate optimization, and more. Managers must have excellent interpersonal skills to communicate project requirements and deadlines, resolve conflicts or differences between team members, and promote a positive and collaborative working environment.
Average Salary: The average digital marketing manager earns an annual salary of $66,166, with the top 10% earning $98K or more annually.
Creative Services Manager
Overview: A creative services manager oversees a team of graphical and visual designers, managing their creative output to support digital marketing initiatives.
Key Skills & Responsibilities: Creative services managers possess exceptional marketing knowledge, visual design skills, and technical skills with graphic design software tools. They must be able to effectively capture creative requirements from their leaders and customers and communicate those ideas to members of the design team, resulting in high-quality design work that meets customer needs and expectations.
Average Salary: The average annual salary for a Creative Services Manager in the USA is $66,206, with the top 10% earning $96K or more.
Marketing Specialist Management Roles
Overview: If you started your career in a marketing specialist role, you might consider moving into management with a job title like “SEO Manager”, “PPC Manager”, or “Social Media Manager”. With marketing specialist management roles, you will assume responsibility for managing marketing specialists in your vertical and coordinating their efforts to meet project requirements and deadlines.
Key Skills & Responsibilities: Specialist managers require in-depth knowledge of their specialty subject areas in digital marketing. In addition to supervising a group of SEO specialists across multiple projects, an SEO manager will have to deliver training, evaluate SEO performance, and implement new SEO strategies to meet campaign objectives.
Average Salary: An SEO manager working in the United States earns an average salary of $68,207 per year, with the top 10% earning $98K annually or more.
Executive Roles
Image: In an executive-level digital marketing position, you will be responsible for conducting market research, defining the high-level strategic marketing goals of your organization, communicating those goals to marketing team members, and effectively delegating marketing tasks and projects to maximize results.
Image Source: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1507679799987-c73779587ccf?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1051&q=80
Director of Digital Marketing
Overview: Director of Digital Marketing is a leadership role concerned with the daily oversight of marketing projects and operations.
Key Skills & Responsibilities: A marketing director is responsible for directing marketing operations at their organization. Marketing directors play a major role in daily marketing operations by creating and assigning projects, setting budgets and expectations, organizing project teams, helping to manage communication and deadlines between the business, its client, and its vendors, and measuring the overall success of marketing initiatives.
Average Salary: A Director of Digital Marketing in the USA earns an average of $87,739 annually, with the top 10% earning as much as $150K per year.
Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)/Vice President of Marketing
Overview: CMO and VP of marketing are executive roles that set high-level marketing strategies for organizations, helping them maintain or grow their share of the marketplace.
Key Skills & Responsibilities: Marketing executives must be skilled and knowledgeable in management and in all areas of digital marketing. They are expected to oversee Directors and marketing managers, delegate projects, and communicate the organization’s marketing goals effectively to align department initiatives with business strategy. Marketing executives also monitor market trends to discover new opportunities for product and process innovation within their organizations.
Average Salary: A VP of Marketing in the United States earns an average annual salary of $147,044, which the top 10% earning $204K or more per year.
Summary
Each of these positions provides a great financial outlook, excellent job security for the future, and the opportunity to progress in your career while making a huge impact on your marketing efforts.
To get certified in online marketing and enhance your qualifications for these digital marketing positions, check out our digital marketing course on Directive Institute.
Brian Bui
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