in today's past-paced digital landscape, you might be questioning whether digital marketing is a good job to pursue.
in today's 'so' video, we analyse all the factors to help you make an informed decision about whether to embark on a career in digital marketing.
join us to explore earning potential, skills in demand, fun and creativity and the opportunity for growth and advancement.
if you have any questions you would like answered as part of our 'so' series, please get in touch and let us know.
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transcription:
so, is digital marketing a good job?
i've spent my entire career doing this, so if i say no, it's a bit of a disaster, right? i think we need to start with defining what good is. is it a good job because it's going to make you loads of money? is it a good job because the skills are in demand, so there’s going to be work out there? is it a good job because you can progress and there's a career progression path? or is it a good job because you can enjoy it and it's fun? and it's all of those things i would say. the reality is that there's a lot of things that all offer different people.
and just before we get into it, this idea that you should do what you're passionate about, i hear this all the time and it drives me mad, right? because i didn't wake up one day and go, i'm passionate about digital marketing. i am now, but i only built that passion by being good at something.
it’s easy to say you should just do your passion, you won't work a day in your life. come on, how many people go to work every day going, i'm so excited to get to work today. lots of parts of jobs are not the most exciting, you have good days and bad days, and all those kind of things. but actually, by being good at something, you build yourself a network, you build self esteem, you build respect.
so actually i think it's finding something that will allow you to do those things, that actually becomes what's important. and you build a hunger to push yourself, and to drive to new heights and and better levels. that, and drinking more coffee always makes me more enthusiastic about everything.
so, let's start with salary.
so latest stats say that digital marketing jobs get 26 percent higher salaries than all other jobs. now there'll be others like that as well, like data analytics, but essentially, the average salary is higher across each level. so salary wise, it can be can be a good industry to work in, particularly.
so we knew we used to run an agency in brighton. we knew our staff would only last a couple of years because they would be poached by a london agency because they could make a big leap.
and we kind of, in salary, and we kind of knew that would be the case. and it's like, okay, let's go into that accepting that. let's help them get that next step. and that encouraged people to come in. so i think yes, there is. there is definitely the opportunity in salary from that point of view.
so, that's all connected to demand, right?
that's it, there is a digital skills gap. we do the digital skills benchmark. if you want to benchmark yourself, by the way, we’ll include the link here. but if you just search digital marketing skills benchmark, you can go and check your own skills and see how they align against that.
it’s hard to get people in organizations that are good at this stuff that have got really practical skills. therefore, there is a massive demand for these kind of skills. so, it becomes really, really important to make sure that if you've got those skills, there's an opportunity.
so, a good job if you're good at it, and when you first start out, you won't be. but that's, that's how things work, right? first out, you're not, but that's why you really need to be quite passionate and quite thick skinned. i think like when you have your little failures, you need to dust yourself off and learn from them.
because here's the thing, the reason why the salaries are substantially higher is because actually when you're a good digital marketer, you're invaluable. you are a rainmaker when there's a drought. you know, that's what you're able to do. like, to those uninitiated, it appears to be magic.
i've just applied best practice consistently. and i’ve tried and i've experimented and i've learned, and the longer i do it, you know, the better i get at it. but that's what makes it a good job, is like chasing and being good at it.
so, what about the fun aspects of it?
i think what ciaran’s just said, you know, you're looking at one, it can be quite creative, and if you're not traditionally creative; you're not a graphic designer or something like that, you can come up with ideas for campaigns, you can come up with new ideas of ways of doing things, you can test and learn and iterate, and you get to experiment, and i think that can be fun, you'll be able to find like minded people, and you'll be able to bounce ideas off against people, because everyone's learning as they're doing, because the industry is changing so quickly, so i think it certainly can be fun from that point of view.
certainly agency environments can be a lot of fun because it's lots of people at similar stages in their career, so yeah i think definitely there's that element to it and you get to do quite creative stuff even if you're a technical person which for me, i was more on the techie side of things, i've been able to take that and do something with it in a creative way which i've really enjoyed.
so you go in as an exec, and then you can build up to being a manager, and then you can be account director, and then you can be manager, and exec director, and so on and so forth. the reality is that depending on the type of organization, the size of organization, there will be opportunities. but even if you're in an organization with one marketing role, and you're that person, you will keep be able to improve what you're doing, you'll be able to demonstrate the proof of what you're doing.
and that will lead to pay rises and career progression from that point of view. and then there's always the opportunity to move organizations if you're not getting what you want from that role as well.
so, any final thoughts?
yeah, i think digital marketing isn't just the marketing thing. it affects so many different areas of business now that actually everyone needs to know a bit about this. they need to understand the ai tools, how search engines work, media consumption, all those kind of things.
so there's a set of skills in there that everyone should be learning a bit about but it means actually, you become more invaluable in the organization because it's touching every part of the organization as well. so i think it's a great place to build a career and there's a huge opportunity.
and i would second that. best job in the world. why? because you get to make the world a better place. like, so many levers that you can pull to do that and that's just fun. so do it.