Sales, marketing, and content creation neatly tie into digital marketing, a field that focuses on online-based platforms that promote services. As online shopping has become second nature to a growing number of people, more jobs revolve around customer service and eCommerce. In this article, we will talk about new responsibilities that marketers take on as well as the hard and soft skills that help them progress in their careers.
According to the World Economic Forum report on the jobs of tomorrow, marketing is one of the seven distinct professional clusters of future professions that show the biggest growth in numbers of opportunities in 2020-2022. In this series, we discuss ways you can enter the job market in the field of your interest with the help of internships, scholarships, and gaining new skills through online courses.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing has changed the way businesses use technology for marketing. Digital marketing employs techniques that allow businesses to promote their products and services online. As people increasingly use digital devices instead of visiting physical shops, digital marketing campaigns have started implementing tools for better audience engagement, including search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), content marketing, influencer marketing, etc.
In addition to knowledge of advertising, product marketing, and graphic design, marketers also need to master skills in social media advertising, digital literacy, writing, and graphic design. To have a better understanding of the requirements and job conditions you will need to consider, let’s have a look at some of the job openings in the field of marketing.
Emerging Marketing and Sales Jobs
Emerging professions in marketing and sales are those that have experienced the most growth over the last five years. To arrive at these conclusions, LinkedIn and Burning Glass Technologies track the number of job openings posted in digital job boards and the number of professionals who are hired into new opportunities. Here are a few openings in this field:
Additional experience that you gain through your studies will demonstrate your work readiness to potential employers. To do that, consider applying for an internship or taking part in a business competition. Here are examples of the opportunities you may look into:
Marketing Opportunities
Online Marketing Challenge by Google
The challenge is an opportunity for students to get real-world experience creating and executing online marketing campaigns for real nonprofits by using a $10,000 USD monthly budget of in-kind Google Ads advertising credit through the Google Ad Grants program. The challenge is open to higher education students, regardless of major. Students must form teams of 2-5 members and register under a verified faculty member.
The Pitch – UK Student Marketing Competition
The Pitch is a nationwide competition designed to recognize and reward the marketing talent of the future. Each year, undergraduate marketing and business students take part in a real-life marketing challenge. This year’s Challenge was set by one of Europe’s leading food retailers, Lidl, providing students the opportunity to apply their learning from their degrees in teams of two or three.
Global Marketing Competition
This unique global marketing simulation competition allows students to create a company from scratch, become its general manager, and get involved in all fields from production and logistics through research, investment, and finance to advertising, promotion and distribution. The competition is open to teams from across the world and is free for all students.
Additional Learning Priorities in Marketing
Data scientists at Coursera have looked at the learning activities of individuals employed in emerging professions and have created a list of distinctive priorities for upskilling in those fields. Here are the five top courses to take as a supplement for anyone employed in marketing professions:
Digital Marketing
This course explores several aspects of the new digital marketing environment, including topics such as digital marketing analytics, search engine optimization, and social media marketing. When you complete the course, you will have a richer understanding of the foundations of the new digital marketing landscape and acquire a new set of tools to help you digitally create, promote, and price products and services. This course is part of the University of Illinois Masters of Business Administration degree program, the iMBA.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This course will teach you to optimize website content for the best possible search engine ranking. You’ll learn the theory behind Google search and other search engine algorithms. You’ll also develop practical, real-world skills that you can apply to a career in digital marketing, including on-page and off-page optimization and optimizing for local and international audiences. The course is offered by instructors from the University of California, Davis, a global leader in agriculture, sustainability, biological sciences, and technology.
The Strategy of Content Marketing
This course is a partnership between the leading content marketing authority, Copyblogger, and UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education. In this course, you will learn the core strategies that content marketers use to acquire and retain customers profitably. Specifically, you will learn how to develop, organize, and implement a content marketing strategy, write compelling copy, and build your professional brand and authority through content marketing. You will also learn how to put the ideas presented to you into action and build your own personal brand through content marketing.
Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content
This course explains how media becomes viral and helps you apply these ideas to be more effective at marketing your ideas, brands, or products. You’ll learn how to make ideas stick, how to increase your influence, how to generate more word of mouth, and how to use the power of social networks to spread information and influence. Drawing on principles from his best-selling book, “Contagious: Why Things Catch On,” Professor Jonah Berger illustrates successful strategies for you to use buzz to create virality so that your campaigns become more shareable on social media and elsewhere.
The Science of Well-Being
In this course, you will engage in a series of challenges designed to increase your own happiness and develop more productive habits. As preparation for these tasks, Yale Professor Laurie Santos reveals misconceptions about happiness, annoying features of the mind that lead us to think the way we do, and the research that can help us to change. You will ultimately be prepared to incorporate a specific wellness activity into your life successfully.
The interdisciplinary nature of future jobs allows soon-to-be graduates to receive education in traditional fields of study and acquire a competitive advantage through additional training and exposure to hands-on experience. This is the flexibility and fast learning that will help professionals apply their skills to new realities.
More on Future Jobs – Care Professions.
More about marketing you can read here.
Photos: Shutterstock / Photomontage: Martina Advaney
Support us!
All your donations will be used to pay the magazine’s journalists and to support the ongoing costs of maintaining the site.
Share this post
Interested in co-operating with us?
We are open to co-operation from writers and businesses alike. You can reach us on our email at [email protected]/[email protected] and we will get back to you as quick as we can.
