Digital Marketing Skills, Career Opportunities & Getting Ahead in 2024
It’s no surprise that people are spending more time online, leading to more sophisticated and addictive technology. This shift means digital marketers have plenty of opportunities!
Over recent years, digital marketing has seen tremendous growth. In 2023, global digital ad spending surpassed $600 billion for the first time and is projected to reach $730 billion by 2027, according to MarketWatch.
This growth translates to exciting opportunities and numerous trends for marketers to keep an eye on.
Whether you’re a recent graduate or a seasoned professional, advances in digital marketing enable you to create personalized campaigns, derive data-driven insights, influence at scale, and leverage artificial intelligence to automate and expedite tasks.
Inspired by our recent expert webinar, this blog will explore:
- The global demand for digital marketing skills
- Essential skills for digital marketers to succeed
- Career opportunities for digital marketing graduates
- Strategies to future-proof your skills and stay ahead
The global demand for digital marketing skills
Digital marketers are in high demand, as businesses increasingly invest in digital marketing initiatives and campaigns, making it a promising career choice. However, many businesses struggle with a shortage of digital skills, hindering their ability to compete online, generate leads, and drive revenue.
Our recent research with CMOs, “The Marketing Evolution: Leadership, Transformation, Skills, Challenges & the Future,” revealed that 47% reported a shortage of data analysts, while 37% cited a lack of general digital marketing skills. The primary challenge identified was delivering greater ROI on the marketing budget.
According to LinkedIn, the most in-demand marketing skills encompass a mix of hard and soft skills. Management tops the list, followed by communication, customer service, and leadership. Analytics skills and marketing are also among the top ten, underscoring businesses’ reliance on data to drive growth.
LinkedIn 2023 Most In-Demand Skills:
Building on these insights, Marketing Week’s Career and Salary Survey asked marketers to identify the most undervalued skills—those essential yet often overlooked or under-resourced.
Most Undervalued Skills:
Marketing Strategy: Involves long-term thinking and strategic planning to ensure everyone in a business understands and follows a cohesive plan. This skill develops with experience but can be nurtured.
Brand Management: Entails understanding how to consistently communicate a brand message across unpredictable platforms like social media. It involves maintaining a consistent image, staying ahead of competitors, and keeping the message relevant.
Data Analysis: A crucial yet undervalued skill with a significant gap in the workforce. Data analysis helps companies target and personalize communication to small groups, understanding their preferences and interests. With evolving data privacy regulations, access to customer data is becoming limited but of higher quality, highlighting the need for proficient data analysis.
The digital skills gap and the growing demand for specific skills present opportunities for market
What Skills Do Marketing Graduates Need to Succeed?
I can’t predict the exact skills needed in three to five years, but being adaptable will help you take advantage of new opportunities.
AI has been a major topic recently, helping companies increase productivity and growth. Understanding and using AI can make you stand out as a valuable member of any marketing team. Many companies will start expecting some AI knowledge, so knowing tools like ChatGPT or Midjourney will be beneficial.
However, AI won’t replace marketers. New career paths are emerging thanks to AI, like ChatGPT and Midjourney. It’s about creating new things by combining old ideas and moving forward.
To get the most out of AI, you need skills like:
- Insight Generation: Knowing what data to give AI so it can help you understand it.
- Content Creation: Ensuring the AI-generated content is high quality and represents your brand well, which ties into brand management.
Thinking outside the box is also important. For example, if you’re a social media marketer, learn skills in web design, landing page optimization, or SEO. This year, boundaries between different areas are becoming more flexible as people gain more diverse skills.
A rebrand is due for soft skills
In 2024, soft skills are becoming more important to businesses and team leaders when hiring. These include attention to detail (especially in entry-level roles), curiosity, content ideation, research, project management, time management, and humility.
Soft skills are likely to be rebranded soon because communication is increasingly valued—not just between people but also between people and technology.
This focus on soft skills is a positive development and something to consider when improving your own skill set. While some soft skills come with experience, effective leadership requires effort and cultivation. There’s no shortcut to developing these essential skills
What are the Career Opportunities for Digital Marketing Graduates?
While the demand for digital marketing skills is high, so is the competition. It’s important to start or continue building your skills in this field.
There are many career paths in digital marketing, so choose what you’re most curious and passionate about. When I was leaving university, the idea of building my own LinkedIn profile was intimidating. Volunteering seemed more approachable because it allowed me to learn, try new things, and meet like-minded people. Follow your natural interests rather than trying to be the perfect candidate.
For example, if you love keyword research and data analysis, SEO might be a good fit for you. If you enjoy researching and writing content for different channels, content marketing could be a great career choice.
Here’s a digital marketing family tree to show the many roles available, from digital marketing intern to Head of Digital Marketing.
Digital Careers Family Tree:
This year and beyond, AI isn’t the only area with career opportunities. Data analytics is also a growing field, involving not just collecting data but also analyzing it across different platforms.
If you’re considering a specialization, understanding data within marketing and knowing data regulations is crucial. Many marketers lack knowledge in this area.
SEO is another fast-changing field, especially with the new Search Generative Experience. Social media marketing is also evolving with the rise of social commerce, content marketing, and paid search to drive traffic as organic reach declines.
In the end, it’s important for marketers to have a broad understanding of many aspects of digital marketing along with the general skills companies expect
How do you future-proof skills and get ahead?
Building a career takes time and effort. It requires dedication, experimentation, listening, collaboration, experience, and most importantly, continuous learning.
As a marketer, practice active listening. It’s not just about asking industry professionals questions like, “How did you get that job?” or “How did you get that pay raise?” It’s also about truly understanding customers. Listen beyond their words to grasp what drives them and what lies beneath the surface to better understand their needs.
To future-proof your digital marketing skills, focus on these four key areas:
- Data and Creativity: These are crucial in digital marketing. Develop skills in both areas.
- Networking: Marketing is all about people. Build connections, collaborate, and get to know your peers.
- Emotional Intelligence (EI) + Artificial Intelligence (AI): Combining these can create the super worker of the future.
- Continuous Learning: Take courses, use marketing tools, and show your passion for the industry.
There are many short courses available that offer new perspectives and introduce you to new concepts. Be strategic about your career path. For example, if you want to be a social media manager at a specific company in five years, identify the skills and knowledge you need to achieve that goal and start learning them now
Carve out a successful digital marketing career
Wiith so many opportunities for digital marketers it’s important to have the latest skills and knowledge. Our Professional Diploma in Digital Marketing looks at how to succeed in this new AI-driven age and explore key areas such as social media, email marketing, SEO, analytics, content marketing strategy and much more.
