If you’re on the outside of the digital marketing world looking in, and considering if this is a potential career for you, you’re probably curious as to what a marketer does on a day to day basis. Well the truth is, there is no typical day. What your workday looks like will depend on the size of the company you work for, whether your company’s product or service is B2B or B2C (i.e. business-facing or consumer-facing), your company’s overall goals, where you are in your career, and the area of digital marketing you specialize in.
Of course, like most jobs, there can be a certain amount of redundancy and you might be performing the same activities every day. This can be especially true for entry-level positions—repetition builds experience, skill, and efficiency. But once you are experienced and move into senior roles, your day can become more diverse.
One thing is certain: you need to be fast at everything you do. You’ll soon realize that very few people outside the world of digital marketing know exactly what it is that you do. They have Microsoft Word and use Facebook, so many believe that digital marketing is easy and should have been done yesterday.
To provide you a glimpse into what it means to be a digital marketing professional, I am going to break it down by task instead of by day or time required. Remember, the specific details of your work depend on the overall strategy, your position and company size.
Every day starts with emails. This practice can help you to arrange your time according to priorities. In today’s office environment, many internal requests are made via email. By checking them first, you can adjust your schedule to meet any new tasks. You may also have programed reports sent to your inbox, giving you a quick look at campaign performance which allows you to see where your attention may be needed. Additionally, a swift glance at some industry eNewsletters will keep you on top of the trends without taking up too much time.
Monitor (Everything) & Respond
Google Analytics is your new best friend. Learn it, love it and monitor it throughout the day to check for performance data and determine customer patterns. Use this data to look for opportunities to increase customer satisfaction, engagement, and sales. Generating reports is a big part of digital marketing.
Observe all social media channels for activity and respond appropriately. If someone else has been given the task to act on engagement, notify them that their attention is required and verify that it has been completed.
Check referral sites (if applicable), Google Alerts and/or Mention to see who is talking about your company online. If it is positive, thank them. If it is negative, address the issue as quickly as possible. For both situations, it’s best to have a templated response previously approved by the company that you can quickly and easily customize accordingly.
Keep an eye on your competitors. Using just a few free tools, you can easily see your competitors’ strategy, best content and the untapped opportunities for you to take advantage of.
Campaign Management and Content Creation
This category covers all media outlets from social platforms to email marketing and automation to paid advertising campaigns and content marketing. All these pieces work together to meet the goals set by the digital marketing strategy. Quality planning and excellent communication are essential. More than likely, you will be responsible for one or more of the following duties.
- Write, edit, and produce original content
- Create graphics to support content
- Plan and schedule social media posts
- Build email marketing campaigns
- Develop PPC campaigns and bidding strategies
- Establish and plan A/B testing
- Prepare lead nurturing emails including effective landing pages
- Be part of the creative process: think of creative ways to promote content, events, and engage your audience
The final task of campaign management is to measure effectiveness. You will track key performance indicators (KPIs) and report on the success of campaigns. This is a big part of what digital marketing is all about.
Website Management
This area is not for the faint of heart and a working knowledge of HTML is strongly recommended. Even if you have a development team to work with, being able to communicate at their level will eliminate a lot of misunderstandings. Your job is to ensure that all pages are fully functional and maximized for SEO management. I readily use Google Webmaster Tools or work with a third party SEO consultant company like MOZ to make sure not to miss anything.
You may also be responsible for creating new content such as blog posts, product information pages and landing pages for specific campaigns. Most likely you will use a CMS such as Wordpress to update content.
Collaborate
I spend a portion of my time in meetings working with other departments (sales, HR, customer service) to coordinate, align and consistently implement the overall marketing strategy.
Influencer Outreach
Even in the digital world, networking is an essential tool for success. Research industry experts, read influencer posts and comment to create a relationship. Influencers are great partners not only because of their loyal social media following, but their industry knowledge and forward-thinking thought leadership topics yield compelling content.
Keep Current
It often feels like no other industry changes as quickly as digital marketing—there’s always a new trend, a best practice or a tool to learn about. To avoid spending hours of your day reading articles, news and browsing through blogs, I recommend subscribing to a few good industry newsletters like HubSpot, Simplilearn, Search Engine Land, Marketo, DigitalMarketer, and Social Media Examiner.
It’s likely your work week will be the standard Monday through Friday, 9 to 5. However, due to the nature of digital marketing, you may work for a company in a different time zone or with a unique work schedule. Additionally, you may need to be available some evenings and weekends especially during new product introductions, starting PPC campaigns, or launching a website. Remember, the specifics of your workday will depend on the strategy, your position and company size. To discover more of digital marketing in detail you can check out our Post Graduate Digital Marketing Program in association with IMT Ghaziabad and Meta.
