Author: Maria

Many companies wish to come up with a digital marketing strategy.Their own employees try really hard to increase their ROI. They even outsource their work to media agencies. When they want to hire their in house SEO and PPC experts, their recruiters try to find a talented digital marketer who agrees a low yearly payment. These payments are between $35K to $50K while a true payment for a veteran digital marketer is between $90K to $130K a year and a digital marketing vice president is around $280K per annum.  Do the majority of companies who want to pay less, get the right people for the job? No. Because a digital marketer, SEO and PPC expert knows s/he will generate a huge amount of sales for the company. So they disagree with low payments at these companies. Marketing honchos who are trying to educate and rebrand themselves digitally won’t agree with these payments.This is why many of them are self employed and have their own clients. So here is a question which I get very often on social media and via email. Should I go to college in order to get a job as a digital marketer? I am an experienced digital marketer, but don’t have a college degree, what are my chances to get a well paid job?

Here is my answer. You must have an academic understanding of digital marketing as well as hand-on training to become very efficient in the field. Some of the fundamental training and expertise that you must acquire encompasses SEO, Google Adwords, social media marketing, video creation and optimization, content marketing and video marketing. An in-depth insight into the way search engines operate is required. For you to remain relevant and sought-after in the field of digital marketing, it is imperative that you learn continuously and keep up with various innovations in the field. Failure to do this would make you obsolete.

In the bid to stay relevant in the world of digital marketing, it is imperative that you are adequately informed on the latest developments in this field. For you to achieve this, you will have to follow an influencer. While there are many influencers online, it is important that you choose an influencer that is relevant, renowned and active.

While it is absolutely possible to understand all of the intricacies of digital marketing independently, it is equally crucial that you are a certified marketing degree at a university especially if you want to be employed. While you may be very competent in the field, no serious minded company would want to employ your services without a recognized college and university degree.

The following are relevant degrees that would heighten your prospects of getting a job:

A university degree in any of these fields of study (digital marketing, marketing, business administration, media and journalism, media and communication) would serve as a preliminary step to becoming a competent digital marketer. This degree would have to be corroborated with an apprenticeship training which will get you to implement relevant actions.  At this stage, your prospects of being employed are quite impressive. Having a university certification in any of the aforementioned fields is imperative if you want to enhance your prospects of being gainfully employed. Though it is absolutely possible to become very efficient in digital marketing without a university degree, but major player companies will not hire someone without a proper degree.

Becoming an independent digital marketer comes with its challenges in the competitive world of online marketing. The best approach will be to work as a freelancer in online marketplaces. This would allow you to undertake different modest jobs and gather the required level of experience and network that will usher in greater jobs.

While internet courses offer an interesting opportunity to understand digital marketing, they are highly unlikely to get you a job at a prestigious company.  You’ll find that there are emerging and established enterprises that require a competent digital marketer who has both experience and college degree. Emerging enterprises would certainly want a veteran digital marketer who has the experience and skillset to propel their operations forward. On the other hand, established enterprises are also unlikely to employ you with mere online certifications. Established enterprises will demand to know your years of involvement in the field, customers you’ve worked with, the kinds of sales you’ve secured, expenditure of customers PPC and more before they offering you place in the organization.

When it comes to getting employed as digital marketer, having a university certification is a great way to bolster your prospects of being employed. If you do not have a university degree, then you must present overwhelming evidence of your involvement and accomplishments in the field of digital marketing.  While you may have acquired all of the relevant skills for efficient digital marketing operations, a university degree will increase the opportunities available to you.