White Collar Jobs in Digital Marketing: Hot or Not? On 5 Biggest Myths around Digital Marketing.
Updated on September 25th 2023
April 22nd 2021
This text was fully written by humans.
SUMMARY / KEY TAKEAWAYS
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Ever since the pandemic broke out, careers in digital marketing have been on the roll.
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However, marketing jobs are still burdened with a stigma.
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In this article, we introduce 5 biggest myths about Digital Marketing and explain why working in this area may lead to a wonderful, exciting career.
Table of Contents
- Business Development Activities Have Moved Online! White Collar Jobs in Digital Marketing On The Rise in the Times of the Pandemic.
- Digital Marketing Is On the Roll.
- Myth #1: Digital Marketing Is All About Manipulation.
- The Customer Journey.
- Myth #2: Digital Marketing Is Not For Ambitious People.
- A Job For The People of Renaissance.
- Myth #3: Online Marketing Is For Extraverts and People With The Attention Span of a Goldfish.
- Marketing Mistakes Happen to the Best.
- Myth #4: Online Marketing Is For Talking Heads Only.
- One Needs the Expertise to Create High-Quality Content.
- Myth #5: Digital Marketing Is Getting Automatized, and There All Be No Jobs Left for Humans in This Area in a Couple of Years.
- Conclusion: Why Are White Collar Jobs in Digital Marketing Hot? Is Engaging in Business Development Activities as a Marketer a Good Idea?
- How To Start a Career In Digital Marketing?
- How to Learn More About Digital Marketing?
Business Development Activities Have Moved Online! White Collar Jobs in Digital Marketing On The Rise in the Times of the Pandemic.
Ever since the pandemic broke out, the job market started changing for good.
To be more precise, the lockdown didn’t fundamentally change the white collar jobs, but rather, increased the speed at which global changes in the job market were occurring.
In particular, in the pandemic, businesses had to rapidly move almost all their business development activities online. It increased the influence of online means of communication and sales.
In 2020, the value of the global online marketing market increased by 11% as compared to 2019, and the projections for 2021 are even better. Business development strategies adapt to these changes accordingly.
What has happened in less than two years is what would have otherwise happened in the next ten or twenty years. We all had to adjust our career management strategies to the new reality. And, in this new reality, some professions have become hotter than ever — Digital Marketing Expert being one of them!
Digital Marketing Is On the Roll.
This also increased the number of white-collar jobs in Digital Marketing and an increased interest in choosing this career path. Yet due to several myths and stereotypes, this profession is still rarely considered a career of choice by most university graduates.
This article presents five popular myths related to Digital Marketing. These myths can be held accountable for this lack of popularity of digital marketing among highly educated young people. Perhaps, these white-collar jobs in Digital Marketing are much more interesting than you think and worth considering for your future career paths!
Myth #1: Digital Marketing Is All About Manipulation.
There is a common misconception about Digital Marketing — as well as marketing in general. According to this misconception, Digital Marketing is all about selling people products and services that they don’t need or want. And, conning them into making purchase decisions in every possible way. It is not true!
The truth is that Digital Marketing is actually a method of promoting products and sevices through the use of digital systems and technologies such as the Internet, computer software, mobile devices, social media and other electronic communication channels. The goal of Digital Marketing is to convey information to a specific target group of recipients and provoke them to purchase products or download applications.
Today, marketing becomes an integral part of the company’s business development strategy from the very start. Before even creating the first version of the product, the marketing process already starts — usually, by conducting market research on the target group.
Namely, today, companies only build products after making sure that consumers badly want them! Therefore, if everything is done the right way, conning is no longer necessary.
The Customer Journey.
Furthermore, Digital Marketers also analyze the online presence of the products. They also track how the potential clients interact with the website by searching for information about the product, viewing the features, and processing to purchase if convinced to buy.
It is often referred to in the business as “the customer journey.” Digital Marketers then make recommendations for how to build the website that gives the best user experience (UX). In that sense, they take part in building the front end of the client’s website. It is an important part of the business development strategy.
For this reason, today, Digital Marketers become essential team members that implement the business development plan. They influence the way the company develops the product and builds the associated infrastructure from the very start — rather than just trying to sell whatever their client tells them to sell.
Selling is just the last step of the process. If all the earlier steps were executed well, then this is the easy, straightforward part. It boils down to communicating to your target audience that you have the solution that they were waiting for. It’s not manipulation — it’s Business Intelligence and Public Communications combined.
Myth #2: Digital Marketing Is Not For Ambitious People.
Technically, there are higher education programs in marketing. However, you don’t need these studies. You don’t need years of internships to land white-collar jobs in marketing either. Does it mean that working in this space doesn’t require ambition and/or intelligence? No! It does. The top sales professionals are the smartest guys in the room.
The business development process is always complex and heavily relies on marketing. Marketing requires much more intelligence and analytic thinking than public opinion believes. As a Digital Marketing Expert, you work with multiple teams working on new solutions to problems and building new products.
To be effective, you need to understand every problem and every solution. You also need to find effective ways to communicate this solution to your target group. While at the same time, optimizing the budget.
You need to be systematic and practical in this job. This requires experimenting and tracking the results, but at the same time, staying creative, and working on your professional development. And, keeping your eyes and ears open to new trends in marketing and in the market sector where the client operates. You need to train and use your shrewd mind every day.
A Job For The People of Renaissance.
But at the same time, you need to understand people’s mentality, motivations, and needs, be empathic and stay close to pop culture.
You need to understand what the wide audience is the most fascinated with at the moment, and why.
You need to play the role of a business intelligence expert, data scientist, psychologist, sociologist, copyrighter, and author in one person. No one can say that it does not require ambition!
There is also a common misconception that people in marketing tend to be boring, materialistic, and uninspiring individuals. In fact, as in any professional environment, there are tires.
Some low-tier marketers indeed are boring and lack their mission, while others are fascinating people whom you’d love to be around. They engage in lots of business development activities and have broad knowledge in many areas. It is all about your professional development and finding the right circle.
Myth #3: Online Marketing Is For Extraverts and People With The Attention Span of a Goldfish.
Well, let’s assume that as a Digital Marketing Expert, you represent a producer of funny gadgets that are a FAD right now, or you are responsible to do community management for an incoming for-profit online event.
Then perhaps, your client will mostly be focused on generating as much online buzz as possible in the shortest possible time, and without caring too much about the distant future.
In that case, you might need to be active online and generate as much content and ongoing fast-ball communication as possible. It is, indeed, a job mostly for ADHD-like people.
However, if you represent a reputable company with a long tradition — such as, say, Rolls Royce, General Electric, or IBM. These employers will be much more careful about how they present themselves online.
They will plan every campaign in detail, and they will carefully consider the goals behind the campaign and the steps to take. They will prefer to invest in quality rather than quantity.
Therefore, they will never hire someone who shoots online content quicker than they think to take part in any of their business development activities. Making one mistake in public communications can cost a company billions of dollars worth of revenue.
Marketing Mistakes Happen to the Best.
Among famous examples, in 1985, Coca-Cola changed its flagship formula, trademark, and logo. They proudly released a brand new product: the New Coke.
According to most customers, New Coke tasted better than the original flavor. However, the release turned out to be a major marketing failure that brought losses of billions of dollars to the company.
Coca-Cola was receiving about 1,500 phone calls with complaints per day. Many complainers sounded as depressed as if their family member had just died. Americans simply didn’t want to drink soda only because it tasted well. They wanted a drink that was an integral part of the American culture. The drink that they remember from childhood.
By the way, Pepsi immediately reacted to this failure and released a TV campaign making fun of New Coke. Needless to say, they soon made billions on Coca-Cola’s mistake!
Therefore, if you are introverted and prefer to follow a plan of action at work step by step, then you might become a member of a higher tier of Digital Marketing Experts! You need to apply to brand companies and impress them with your thoughtfulness, diligence, and attention to detail.
Myth #4: Online Marketing Is For Talking Heads Only.
According to the popular myth, as a Digital Marketing Expert, you just shill for other people’s projects. Therefore, in principle, it is all about soft skills, and your knowledge about the subject matter is irrelevant.
Top marketers usually specialize in one area of the market. They have profound background knowledge of the business development strategy in that area. It allows them to well understand the innovation in the project and its place in this area of the market. Sometimes, even better the creators of the project understand their intentions!
One Needs the Expertise to Create High-Quality Content.
Moreover, online sales usually require some form of content creation. To create this content, you need to be an expert in the area. Yes, the client will provide you with some facts and figures that you might use, yet still, you need to feel confident about what you are writing about.
For example, let’s imagine that you work for the automotive industry and you need to prepare a campaign for a new model of a car. You are not a driver, you don’t own a car, you have no background in engineering, and you don’t know how a car is built. Would you prepare an effective campaign for this car? Probably not.
Therefore, only when you develop expertise in one area of industry and can combine it with business acumen and strong communication skills, you are on the way to becoming a pro in this field and building your career path!
Many university graduates from STEM sciences have the potential to be fantastic Digital Marketing Experts. Yet, they overlook the opportunity as they lack the basic understanding of what this type of job entails.
Myth #5: Digital Marketing Is Getting Automatized, and There All Be No Jobs Left for Humans in This Area in a Couple of Years.
In the era of CRMs, Google Ads, and automated Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, or Instagram campaigns that incorporate machine learning to optimize the results, one might get the impression that in a few years, human white-collar jobs in Digital Marketing will no longer be necessary.
It is the opposite. High-quality online marketing requires empathy, a sense of humor, an understanding of sentiment in society, and many other competencies that are extremely hard for computers to replace!
For example, today, the leading trend in e-commerce UX is conversational design, or, in other words, design language based on human conversation.
Namely, consumers feel more welcome and are more likely to buy products and services if they have the feeling that the software and virtual assistants they interact with, speak a human-like language. E-commerce specialists need to make sure that the customers are happy about the way they are addressed.
Therefore, an e-salesperson will most probably be one of the last professions to ever be replaced by a machine. It is true even when talking about online promotion and sales. And since sales are the key factor for business success, competent salespeople are and will remain well-paid professionals. It is quite likely that the average salaries will further surge in this area.
Funny enough, digital marketing is also one of a few areas where professionals with good (copy)writing skills are paid better than programmers. The ability to get to human emotions and buy people over with written or spoken word is a superpower that won’t be replaced by computers any time soon!
Conclusion: Why Are White Collar Jobs in Digital Marketing Hot? Is Engaging in Business Development Activities as a Marketer a Good Idea?
Today, Digital Marketing is worth attention as a possible career path for at least a few reasons:
1. Good Future Perspectives.
Effective Digital Marketing Experts are essential for companies, which results in good salaries. Every business is based on sales and it will never change. As mentioned before, good salespeople will always be valued and are highly unlikely to get replaced by machines any time soon.
2. Freedom.
The job of a Digital Marketing Expert can make you free. English is the lingua franca in marketing.
The vast majority of Digital Marketing Experts work fully online and are hired internationally. It effectively means that you can work with anyone in the world building your attractive career path. You can choose to freelance, or join one of the thousands of Digital Marketing agencies as an employee,
3. A Place For Diverse Talent.
Digital Marketing is a versatile area that can host both analytical minds and humanists. It comes in many flavors. Depending on your core competencies, you might go with Digital Marketing based on:
(a) Analytics: market research, Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, and optimizing automated online campaigns,
(b) Content creation: creating original content for websites and ad campaigns, creating audio-visual ads, Public Communications, social media management, editing, and copyrighting.
4. Startup culture.
Digital Marketing Experts are searched for as co-founders of new companies. Every startup team needs at least one hustler on board – someone who is good at leveraging the project by drawing the attention of potential investors and customers toward the product.
Therefore, if you are a pro at finding potential customers online and pitching to them, then chances are, you might be taken on board as (usually, the third) co-Founder of a new, exciting company. Or, find a person with a vision for the product and a person with technical skills, and build a team all by yourself!
How To Start a Career In Digital Marketing?
Although there are university majors in digital marketing, entering this space does not require a diploma. It is all about talent, energy and the willingness to learn every day and to work on your professional development.
It is best to look for job options that combine a few aspects of digital marketing so that you can become a versatile Digital Marketing Specialist:
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Creating content that is well understood by Google bots and attracts broad, well-targeted organic traffic,
2. Content Creation.
Creating commercial materials such as press articles, blogs, ads, infomercials, newsletters,
3. Running Online Campaigns.
Creating Google Ads, advertizing through LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Tiktok, and Facebook, to specialized affiliate marketing platforms such as Olavivo, Clickbank, MaxBounty, or sponsored ads via Revcontent – there are so many options to promote products and content online!
4. Building Partnerships With Influencers and Affiliates.
Today, following and public trust are what sells. For any company out there, building partnerships with influencers in the space is one of the pillars of market success today.
If you think of this career, then ideally, embarking on a higher education track related to digital marketing, for example, onto a PhD program in the industry, in the Digital Marketing Agency, gives the easiest possible start.
However, you don’t normally need such education; you can also get hired by a Digital Marketing Agency first and learn on the fly. In that case, it is good to develop your social media profiles well, as this is one of the first checks that the recruiter will make.
You should also have samples of your non-scientific writing at hand, from essays, and blogs, to LinkedIn and Medium articles.
How to Learn More About Digital Marketing?
Career management is difficult in times of pandemic. However, white-collar jobs in Digital Marketing can be a great choice for a future career. These are diverse jobs that give lots of opportunities for growth and professional development. Therefore, this career path can be recommended for any open-minded university graduate.
Digital Marketing is a classic example of a “lean career.” Namely, it is not a profession that you can enter by finishing a specific study program or a course, getting a specialistic license, and applying for your first job.
It is rather that you become a Digital Marketing Expert by taking simple gigs and assisting more experienced Community Managers first and learning from them in the process.
Are you interested in learning more about Digital Marketing?
1. Check Out One of the Multiple Online Courses In Digital Marketing.
Online marketing is a game, and it’s good to first test whether you enjoy this type of challenge. Online courses will help you build your first skills in Digital Marketing and get some professional certificates to back up these skills in your resume. We highly recommend the following free Coursera courses that will get you started:
1. Foundations of Digital Marketing and E-commerce.
This is the first of seven courses in the Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Certificate, which will equip you with the skills you need to apply to entry-level roles in these fields.
In this course, you’ll explore entry-level jobs in digital marketing and e-commerce and identify the roles and functions that those jobs play within an organization. You’ll also learn about the marketing funnel and how it shapes the customer journey.
Google employees who currently work in the field will guide you, providing hands-on activities and examples that simulate common digital marketing and e-commerce tasks, and helping you build your skills and prepare for the job.
2. Meta Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate.
Launch your career as a Social Media Marketer! In this course, you will get started in the in-demand field of social media marketing with a Professional Certificate from Meta.
In this course, you will learn the fundamentals of social media management and advertising and how to measure and optimize marketing campaigns across the major social media platforms. This knowledge will be crucial for your professional development.
2. Follow Some of the Digital Marketing Gurus on Social Media.
You can follow big names in digital marketing on Twitter or LinkedIn and learn straight from the best! Some ideas: Neil Patel, Jay Baer, or Susanna Gebauer.
It is also recommended to follow some popular YouTube channels dedicated to (Digital) Marketing, such as Neil Patel, Behind the Brand, or Ahrefs.
Lastly, check out quality podcasts dedicated to Digital Marketing such as The Science of Social Media Podcast or Hustle And Flowchart – Tactical Marketing Podcast,
3. Be More Attentive to Digital Marketing In “Real Life.”
We often try to ignore ads online. We subscribe to ad-free services such as Netflix, and we put on Ad Blocks to avoid any ads while working. However, this ad allergy won’t make you a good marketer…
So, let yourself watch some ads on YouTube to see what the current trends are! Are some of the video ads more entertaining or catchy to you than others? Can you see any patterns?
Why do the authors of these ads use these particular arguments to persuade you to buy their services or products? Why would it work, or not? If you enjoy back-engineering video ads, you might have a future in marketing!
You can also consider other online careers dedicated to building projects and commercialization of projects, but less directly, such as a career of a Community Manager.
For more details on community management and the reality of this job, please check our article “Community Manager: The New, Hot Job For Those Who Love People.”
Lastly, Digital Marketing is just one of many careers that you can start without a university degree. Please find more information in our article “High Paying Jobs Without Degree: How To Start a Career Without Higher Education?“
Conclusion: What Is The Future of Digital Marketing?
Well, in the times of AI, the future shape and relevance of digital marketing is a big question. As a matter of fact, marketing is one of the fields transformed the fastest by AI.
On the one hand, new AI tools are beneficial to digital marketing agencies: with AI-powered analytics, experienced marketing teams can stay ahead of consumer demand, trends and needs.
On the other hand though, the development of AI deepens inequalities between established agencies with the best access to high computational power and modern tools, and the whole rest of the marketing world.
We can be sure that in the near future, the demand for digital marketers will not drop… and according to research, it might even increase. However, to stay competitive in the today’s job market, you should become a centaur: a human empowered by a machine.
Best of luck!
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Please cite as:
Bielczyk, N. (2021, April 22nd). White Collar Jobs in Digital Marketing: Hot or Not? On 5 Biggest Myths around Digital Marketing. Retrieved from https://ontologyofvalue.com/white-collar-jobs-in-digital-marketing-hot-or-not-on-5-biggest-myths-around-digital-marketing/
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