Do You Need a Degree for a Digital Marketing Career?

Keren Dinkin

Written by Keren Dinkin

Senior Technical Writer & Content Strategist

Updated & Fact Checked: 10.28.2024

Do You Need a Degree for a Digital Marketing Career?

The digital world has given birth to numerous career opportunities, most notably digital marketing. The industry is predicted to grow to  $1,310.3 billion by 2033, making its mastery necessary for those who wish to thrive in the online space.

But what accreditations do you need to be a winning digital marketer? Should you try to get a degree? And what are the niches you could explore?

For growing and aspiring digital marketers,  this article is for you. Find out which types of training you can consider, learn more about what’s happening in digital marketing, and discover a few roles you can pursue.

Education and Experience 

The key to carving a path in this field is a strong demonstration of digital marketing skills and certifications that demonstrate your education and expertise. While a relevant degree in business, communication, or arts can be a good springboard for a digital marketing career, pursuing further education can help legitimize your qualifications as a job seeker. Along with notable experiences and quantifiable success, relevant training can boost your CV and desirability as a candidate.

Since digital marketing jobs are dynamic, they require continuous learning. They are sought after across various industries and are employed by in-house marketing teams, digital marketing agencies, freelance or consulting firms, tech companies, e-commerce companies, content marketing agencies, PR companies, and more.

But before we dive deep into digital marketing, let’s look at today’s digital marketing landscape to understand which roles are in demand. You might already have the skill set to fulfill them. With the right course, you can develop mastery in digital marketing and grow your career.

Digital Marketing Today

What exactly is digital marketing and how has it evolved into a robust industry? Moreover, how can you make a career transition through a degree or certification course?

Digital marketing refers to marketing efforts on the digital front. Where TV, radio, print, and outdoor advertising used to dominate marketing channels, internet and technology have made digital marketing inevitable. It has opened up a vast online world where businesses can reach their audiences more efficiently while targeting specific demographics.

Simply put, digital marketing is any marketing-related effort done online to promote a product, service, or idea. Though it’s a 21st-century industry, its objectives are the same as old-school marketing—to promote, engage, and convert connections into sales.

Digital Marketing Niches and Jobs

Digital marketing is an umbrella term that covers a wide range of digital promotion channels like email, social media, website, SEO, paid ads, mobile apps, and more. At the heart of these is algorithm-driven text and visual design that effectively connects with a specific market whether it’s through a Google ad, a social media post, a short-form video, a sponsored post or influencer collaboration, or an email. 

Let’s discuss each to help you evaluate which niche suits your interests, skills, and aptitude. This will help you understand how to upskill with a digital marketing degree and become a full-fledged professional in one or more of these disciplines. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

One important aspect of digital marketing is getting your product or service on the results pages of Google and other search engines. SEO or search engine optimization is a strategy businesses employ to make this happen. There are a gazillion websites and pages online so it can be difficult to get noticed.

SEO can help improve your website’s visibility and ranking with highly-searched keywords. If you’re successful, your webpage will be on the first page of search engine results pages or SERPs.

Mastering SEO involves learning fundamentals like search crawling, indexing, on-page, off-page, and technical SEO, and keyword research. It also means remaining updated on algorithm changes and how to leverage them, developing an SEO-driven content strategy, and interpreting analytics to enhance ranking.

Career Snapshot: SEO Specialist

Annual salary range: $37,000-$109,000

You can hone these skills by:

  • Researching SEO-related trends and algorithm updates.
  • Familiarizing yourself with ranking factors and signals that improve optimization.
  • Finding a tool that works for you.
  • Learning from SEO masters by being an apprentice or through shadowing.
  • Growing your network.
  • Testing your knowledge, measuring and improving results.

An SEO specialist should be well-versed in various types of SEO and their impact on a site’s performance. They should have a strong and updated grasp of how SERP works, be able to analyze SEO analytics, and have the ability to strategize and develop SEO-driven content.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

Pay-per-click is an advertising business model where the advertiser only pays when someone performs a specified objective, like clicking on an ad. This makes PPC cost-efficient and highly targeted. These ads push potential clients further down the marketing funnel, allowing them to sign up for a newsletter, visit a landing page, download an app, and more.

PPC ads are typically found on search engine results pages or social media platforms. It is a widely used tool because it is relatively easy and quick to develop and run, convenient to track and measure, and offers highly flexible budget and bidding while increasing visibility in relevant online sites. 

Career Snapshot: PPC Specialist

Annual salary range: $39,000-$102,000

PPC requires learning what works, including effective strategies and how to leverage ad placements on global platforms.  

Here are some things you can do to become a PPC specialist:

  • Learn copywriting techniques.
  • Familiarize yourself with PPC tools.
  • Apply and test your knowledge by creating and implementing campaigns.
  • Learn how to measure your ads’ performance and use them to make improvements.

While you can learn and polish your PPC skills along the way, additional training can expedite the process and help you stay abreast with the latest trends. 

Social Media Marketing

Over 5.17 billion or 63.7% of the world’s population use social media. Most active users browse social media feeds, looking for something interesting to engage with. For businesses and brands, this is a huge opportunity to reach out to their markets. 

Social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X, and others serve as robust channels for raising brand visibility and engaging potential customers online. Social media marketing has thus become a crucial part of countless marketing strategies.

Social media managers and strategists boost a brand’s social media reach and engagement, plan and create social media campaigns and posts, tap the right social media platform, assemble creative content teams, engage online communities, moderate online conversations and engagements, and monitor social media performance. 

Given this broad scope of work, social media managers often wear various hats to cultivate a significant social media presence. 

Career Snapshot: Social Media Manager 

Annual salary range: $35,000-$97,800

Aside from knowing the latest trends, social media managers plan, develop, and implement social media strategies. These strategies are based on companies’ budgets, objectives, and messaging whether it’s a campaign, a regular post, or handling PR challenges like online backlash or negative reviews and ratings. 

Given the requisites of this role, you can steer your career towards it by:

  • Being actively engaged in social media and keeping an eye on trends and developments.
  • Studying the nuances, strengths, and weaknesses of major and niche social media platforms. This allows them to identify the best networks for their marketing strategies.
  • Learning social media tools like HootSuite and HubSpot for a strong grasp of relevant messaging while monitoring and managing content.
  • Knowing how to analyze performance data reports and metrics so you can make data-driven marketing decisions. 

Content Marketing 

Content marketing is an umbrella term that covers any form of online content aimed at attracting target audiences. This can be done through relevant, valuable, and engaging content like blog articles, social media posts, videos, podcasts, e-books, landing pages, creative images, and more. 

Content marketing encompasses a range of digital marketing spaces like websites, social media networks, influencer collaborations, and tools that require creative and technical professionals. These may be content strategists, SEO specialists, content writers, graphic artists, video creators, mobile app developers, etc.

Career Snapshot: Content Creative 

Copywriter annual salary range:$30,437-$125,000 

Graphic artist annual salary range: $36,100-$105,600

This field requires creative skills like writing, visual design, photography, video creation, and editing. When upskilling, it helps to enhance one’s creative and technical knowledge. 

One of the biggest developments in digital marketing is the introduction of generative AI. Depending on how you look at it, AI can be a threat or an opportunity. Many agree that human talent and AI can be harnessed to create better quality content faster and in higher volumes. 

To be an in-demand creative, consider:

  • Learning the latest trends in content writing and/or graphic design by consuming and analyzing viral content.
  • Observing which content types earn the highest engagement so you can replicate, create iterations, and adapt them for your brand.
  • Accepting freelance projects to enhance your skills and diversify your portfolio. 
  • Expanding your network by collaborating and learning from other creative minds.

So, do you need a degree to perform these roles? No rules say that college degrees are a must-have but larger companies may require them more than startups and solo entrepreneurs. 

In the absence of an undergraduate or master’s degree, certificate-granting courses that focus on your chosen area of expertise will always be relevant and could give you a leg-up in getting clients or securing regular employment.

It’s important to note that these aren’t the only digital marketing roles you can choose from. Since the industry is dynamic and always changing, you’ll often see job titles, job descriptions, and functions evolving.

Planning Your Education

Currently, undergraduate and Master’s degrees for each of these specializations are rare except for the more general digital marketing role. So, if you want to market yourself as a degree holder, you can set your sights on earning digital marketing qualifications such as these:

If you’re planning on becoming a specialist in PPC, UX, social media, etc., research the topics covered by digital marketing degrees. Since they cover a wide range of lessons, many of them include these niches in their programs.

Supplementing Your Degree With Focused Training

Another route you can take is to earn a general digital marketing degree and supplement your education with specialized non-degree training. After finishing your degree, you can enroll in specialist courses like:

Meanwhile, don’t overlook the value of a relevant internship or job shadowing opportunity. While they don’t offer the same structured learning as universities, boot camps, and workshops, they provide real-life experiences that these programs can’t teach.

In some instances, you might even find that employers appreciate internships more than university degrees, making them highly sought after among aspiring digital marketing professionals.

By combining a general digital marketing degree with targeted, specialized courses, and possibly an internship, you can build a versatile and comprehensive skill set that sets you apart in the evolving digital landscape.

Boost Your Digital Marketing Career With the Right Degree

Whether you’re a newcomer looking for your first digital marketing role or a veteran who wants to sharpen your skills, a digital marketing degree can add legitimacy and credibility to your CV.  Plus, you’ll be more confident knowing that you put in the work to learn core skills.

[Company name] offers digital marketing degrees in [list competencies]. With our curriculum, you can capitalize on the digital marketing revolution while growing your career.

Send us a message to learn more.

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