What Does a Digital Marketing Specialist Do?
Digital marketing specialist has become one of the most sought-after professions of the 21st century. As consumers flock to digital channels, companies desperately need talent that can effectively promote their brands and products online.
Global spend on digital advertising alone is projected to grow from $515 billion in 2022 to over $786 billion by 2027 according to Insider Intelligence. With digital transformation accelerating across regions, skilled digital marketing specialists have their pick of job opportunities.
But digital marketing is a broad discipline encompassing a variety of responsibilities. So what does a digital marketing specialist actually do on a daily basis? And what abilities are required to succeed in this data-driven field?
Core Responsibilities
While specific roles vary, most digital marketing positions involve some mix of the following responsibilities:
- Develop Digital Strategies: Creating integrated plans to meet business goals across key digital channels like paid search, social, content, and SEO.
- Execute Campaigns: Running ongoing campaigns across channels, managing budgets and assets, ensuring timely optimization.
- Website Management: Making site enhancements, running tests to improve conversion rates, managing content publishing.
- Performance Analysis: Compiling campaign data and analytics, uncovering insights to inform strategy shifts.
- Creative Content Production: Developing compelling creative assets including video, images, copy and more to engage audiences.
- Technology Implementation: Installing tracking pixels, tags and integrations between marketing technologies to enable attribution modeling and reporting.
- Campaign Reporting: Putting together presentations summarizing campaign performance and opportunities for leadership teams and clients.
While early-career digital marketers tend to focus on execution and analysis, specialists progress over 2-5 years into digital strategist roles charting the direction of marketing efforts. Some rise up to lead entire digital marketing departments or teams within agencies.
Essential Technical Skills
General marketing knowledge will only get you so far. To truly excel as a digital specialist, a strong grasp of key technologies is imperative, including:
Web Analytics Platforms
- Google Analytics
- Adobe Analytics
- Google Tag Manager
Advertising Platforms
- Google Ads
- Meta Business Suite (Facebook/Instagram)
- LinkedIn Campaign Manager
- Amazon Ads
Email Marketing Platforms
- Mailchimp
- Constant Contact
- Hubspot
Social Media Management
- Hootsuite
- Sprout Social
- Buffer
CRM Platforms
- Salesforce
- HubSpot CRM
- Zoho CRM
Landing Page Builders
- Unbounce
- Instapage
- Leadpages
Automation Tools
- Zapier
- IFTTT
- Workato
Having working knowledge of these martech staples empowers digital marketers to fully leverage platforms for attribution, personalization and optimization. Fluency across solutions enables connecting data streams to unlock holistic customer insights.
For digital specialists focused specifically on website analytics, data integration and reporting – intermediate SQL, Excel, Tableau, Looker or Google Sheets skills go a long way too.
Meanwhile, digital marketers concentrated on SEO, site optimization and content often benefit from basic HTML, CSS, JavaScript proficiency for technical troubleshooting.
While early-career digital marketers tend to be generalists focused on campaign execution, specialists typically specialize further as they advance. Some common career trajectories include:
| Entry Level | 2 – 5 Years Experience | 5+ Years Experience |
|---|---|---|
| Digital Marketing Associate | Paid Search Specialist | Senior Paid Search Strategist |
| SEO Specialist | SEO Team Lead | |
| Programmatic Specialist | Programmatic Marketing Director | |
| Social Media Manager | Social Media Director | |
| Email Marketing Specialist | Email Marketing Director | |
| Content Marketing Specialist | Content Marketing Director | |
| Web Analytics Specialist | Analytics Manager | |
| Digital Campaign Manager | Director, Digital Marketing | |
| Creative Services Specialist | Creative Director |
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Director and executive positions ultimately oversee entire digital marketing teams or departments guiding high-level strategy. Some seasoned specialists opt to found their own digital marketing agencies or consulting firms.
Digital marketing campaigns live and die by the data. Marketing technology stacks produce reams of metrics summarizing audience behaviors, engagement rates, lead outcomes and financial return on ad spend.
While hundreds of data points can be analyzed, digital marketing specialists focus most on these key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge campaign health:
Paid Search
- Cost Per Click
- Clickthrough Rate
- Impression Share
- Quality Score
- Conversion Rate
- Return on Ad Spend
SEO
- Organic Sessions
- Pages/Session
- Organic Bounce Rate
- Keyword Rankings
- Domain Authority
Social
- Impressions
- Reach
- Engagement Rate
- Link Clicks
- Conversions
- Open Rate
- Clickthrough Rate
- Bounce Rate
- List Growth Rate
- Unsubscribe Rate
Content
- Total Traffic
- New Users
- Pages Per Session
- Bounce Rate
- Goal Completions
Monitoring the above weekly and monthly allows digital marketing specialists to catch issues early and continuously refine tactics to improve results. Software dashboards centralize these KPIs for efficient reporting.
Specialized digital marketing skills are in such high demand that compensation is rising substantially. According to recent data from ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary for a Digital Marketing Specialist in the U.S. ranges from $56,500 to $117,000.
However, earning potential varies greatly depending on factors like geographic location, company size, industry, and years of directly-relevant experience.
Average Annual Salary for Digital Marketing Specialists
| Years Experience | Average Salary |
|---|---|
| Entry Level (0-2 years) | $48,000 – $75,000 |
| Mid-Level (3-5 years) | $66,000 – $94,000 |
| Senior (6-9 years) | $83,000 – $124,000 |
| Director (10+ years) | $103,000 – $197,000 |
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These salary ranges align closely with data from the 2022 Marketing Salary Guide tracking national averages. Similar compensation levels are projected over the next few years.
Regional nuances provide additional income upside. Specialists in areas dense with media, finance and tech companies like Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco earn high-end wages from $85k to nearly $140k.
Global financial hubs also compensate top digital talent handsomely. A Senior Digital Marketing Manager makes an average of $108k USD in London and $132k AUD in Sydney for example.
Contractor or freelance digital marketing experts also make over 20-40% higher hourly rates given overhead costs. Some independent specialists easily clear $200k+ annually over time by managing multiple clients.
All signs point to continued lucrative opportunities for digital marketing pros as spending shifts further to digital media and companies invest to keep pace. Specialists with flexible skillsets combining creative talent, analytical prowess and technical competence are best positioned to seize six-figure leadership roles.
Digital marketing roles fall under the broader market research analyst and marketing specialist occupations. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks strong job growth trends for these positions:
- Employment to grow 25% from 2020 to 2030 – over 3X national average job growth rates.
- 367,600 new positions expected over the decade as demand for data-driven marketing insights surges.
Globally, investments in digital transformation show no signs of abating. Analysts project worldwide digital ad spend will reach an incredible $1 trillion by 2025. Software, apps and digital media will only increase businesses’ needs for online customer acquisition expertise.
Emerging marketing technology used by 64% of specialists – including artificial intelligence, customer data platforms, advanced analytics, identity resolution, real-time engagement and attribution – has vast upside for improving digital campaign performance.
Savvy digital marketing specialists who stay ahead of martech and consumer trends are best positioned for leadership as more marketing budgets shift digital. Blending creative moxie, rigorous analysis and technological proficiency promises career longevity.
The takeaway is clear – forward-thinking companies are hungry for digital marketing talent. Those able to:
- Strategically map marketing plans to business goals
- Flawlessly orchestrate multi-channel digital campaigns
- Make data-informed optimizations tied to ROI
- Continually expand their martech acumen
Will find no shortage of six-figure opportunities across nearly every geography and industry.
While constantly evolving, digital marketing’s growth, earning potential and impact make it an incredibly dynamic field for those drawn to the intersection of creativity, analytics and technology. I eagerly look forward to seeing the next wave of disruptive online marketing leaders take shape.
