Digital Marketing is not just a career skill, but also a life skill. I have a strong notion that anyone can become a digital marketer in India. All you need is to understand the mechanism of how Google and other assets work. 

A lot of people, businesses, and content creators use Digital Marketing to grow their business, build a personal brand. 

In this blog, I will tell you how to become a Digital Marketer in India in simple ways. I will also tell you how much you can earn if you become a successful Digital Marketer in India?

How did I start?

I was one of the well-placed students of Galgotias University. After working for three months in one of the most renowned Insurance Web Aggregators, I realized that chasing sales targets every single day wasn’t for me. 

Digital marketing has been on my mind since I was in college. After quitting my campus placed job, I enrolled in a Digital Marketing certification course from the Delhi School of Internet Marketing. That is to say, choosing this program was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

The four months of digital marketing course widened my horizons. I learned a lot about websites, SEO, Online reputation management, Email Marketing, and a lot more. 

I realized how powerful these things were! In spite of not belonging to the tech background, I gave my heart and sweat in learning and executing Digital Marketing. 

To clarify, anyone can become a Digital Marketer. All it requires is a curiosity to learn and understand the web. 

Mindset matters

If you do not like spending too much time on computers, you may stop reading this blog right away. 

If you think you are already making a lot of money and you don’t have anything new to look forward to; this blog is not for you. 

This blog is for those who genuinely want to know ‘How to become a digital marketer in India?’. And they are ready to explore this amazing field. Digital Marketing is the future of marketing. As a Digital marketer, you will learn a lot of new skills. Skills that will make you powerful! You’ll be able to send your message to a large audience within a few clicks. 

Like Digital Deepak says ‘Imagine if Mahatma Gandhi had the email ID of all his followers! Instead of walking and convincing everyone to join his Satyagrah; he could have simply emailed them with all the information about the Satyagrah! 

It may not be easy to resonate this with situations back then but Emails are really powerful. 

There are several email marketing tools that enable you to send up to 5 lakh emails per month. Isn’t that powerful enough? Of course, Yes!

Change in mindset was one of the difficult transitions that I went through. I changed my accommodation and selected a single-seater PG. This new place had a big room where I could stay in peace and focus on understanding this new form of marketing.

Post pandemic, digital marketing is nowhere the same as it used to be back in 2018. Then, Digital marketing for businesses was kinda an optional thing. Only businesses with big pockets used to opt for it.  

The world has changed a lot and today we can surely say that  ‘an online business is a successful business. Without an online presence, a business will lose a lot of customers. To achieve success in this, you must have a quality product for your customers along with a seamless customer experience (on the internet). 

Digital Marketing: a life skill

Digital marketing is a life skill and everyone should learn it. A lot of content creators have created multiple sources of income using digital marketing methods. 

Digital marketing career growth begins when you start creating relevant content for your audience. It can be in the form of text, videos, infographics, etc.

Content creation is the backbone of digital marketing. Good content creates attention and curiosity. Consistently creating good content nurtures your audience and generates trust and credibility in your viewer’s mind.

Bhuvan Bam, Prajakta Koli, Deepak Kanakraju, CA Rachna Ranade are some of the famous content creators. To clarify, YouTube is one of the primary platforms for content creation. Leveraging Digital Marketing techniques, these people have built their personal brands.

Digital Marketing jobs in India

There are a lot of digital marketing jobs in India. It is an ever-changing space. Social media was not so important back in 2012 then it is right now. New opportunities grow with new innovations and technologies. 

The most prominent Digital Marketing jobs fall under the following Digital Marketing modules – 

Website Developer

Websites are pillars of an online business. A dynamic, mobile-friendly website works as an online address of a business. In the same vein professionals, like singers, dentists, and self-employed are also leveraging Digital marketing to grow their business. Hence, becoming a website developer can be a good area to start with. 

App Developer

We all love apps! These are easy to use and offer a seamless experience. An experience that is better than that of the website. 

Zomato, Uber, Ola, Paytm, Practo, Amazon, and Flipkart are some of the key platforms that offer amazing App experiences. An average App developer earns around  5-6 lakh rupees per annum.

Social Media Marketer

If you’re not tech-savvy but likes to create dynamic, appealing content; a career in Social media marketing can be a good area to start with. 

It is always preferred to become a ‘T Shaped’ Digital marketer. This means, having generalized knowledge in all the digital marketing modules but becoming a master of one thing. 

Some of the most used social media channels are Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

SEO Expert

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is an act of optimizing a webpage as per Google’s guidelines.

Whenever you search for a query (also called keyword) on Google, a lot of websites come on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

According to Google, the website that ranks the highest is the most relevant one for the search query made. Results may differ as per the location.

There are more than 200 factors recognized by Google to make a website eligible to rank on the top of the Search Engine Results Page. 

SEO experts and webmasters work hard to optimize their pages for specific keywords. Google uses its algorithm, crawler to understand several factors of a website. The website which meets all the criteria ranks on the top. 

Google aims to give a seamless experience to its visitors. Hence, Google keeps on updating its algorithm in a timely manner. 

There were times when websites were able to rank high (on SERP)  using false SEO practices (called Black hat SEO). 

However, with every algorithm update, Google now takes on such activities very seriously. It can penalize your website by degrading your rankings or can blacklist your website to ever come back on the search results again.  

People who search on Google have a higher intent of exploring and buying things. Thus, organic traffic is highly relevant and often gives a good average session duration.

Concluding, SEO is a great field to build a career in. The competition in SEO is cut-throat and with Google building rock-solid algorithms, it will certainly get more difficult. 

But, the saying goes like ‘the person who reached the mountain top doesn’t fall from the sky. 

If you have that instinct to do something adventurous and dive deep into the world of websites; a career in SEO may be the right one for you. 

Search Engine Marketing Expert

SEM or Search Engine Marketing refers to the paid advertisements on Google. 

SEM is certainly the most effective way to drive relevant traffic to your website. Whenever you search for a query on Google search; you’ll see different ads in the results.

Such results appear there through Search Engine Marketing techniques. These ads run on a certain set of keywords, in a specific location.  

SEM is a powerful module of Digital Marketing. It enables you to boost your message to the right people at the right time. 

All you need to understand is the target segment, age, and demographics of your audience. 

In the present times, SEM experts are generally known as Performance Marketers. It includes Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Quora Ads, and other forms of digital advertising. 

Lead Generation – 

Lead Generation is a crucial element of every business. Anything that can lead to sales is called a ‘Lead’. 

A Lead primary is a piece of information like a phone number or email id. When we have this, we can communicate with the lead. Also, we can nurture them through our valuable email content. Once the trust is built, the lead can be converted easily. 

Leads can be generated through several mediums. For example, Cold emailing, Facebook Ads, and word-of-mouth recommendations.

In Digital Marketing, Lead generation has to be backed by a marketing funnel for the best results. When a user goes through different areas of the funnel; trust is built. Thus, converting them becomes easy. 

As a lead generation and funnel expert; you can create different funnels that work for different industries. 

Funnel building & lead generation together can be a great area to build a career in.

Automation Expert

Marketing automation is one of the finest ways to smoothen communication with your users, prospects, and customers. 

There lie enormous opportunities in this field. An automation expert sets up and manages automation across several communication channels.

This job role demands understanding several tools such as ConvertKit, MoEngage, Zapier, and more. 

Secondly, marketing automation works best with funnels where prospects are attracted to a funnel using lead magnets. Then they are nurtured well through automated emails. Specified personas are built as per their responses to the sent emails. 

Then more personalized emails are sent to nurture the leads and convert them. This may look overwhelming at first. But, the process is really simple if automation tools are effectively used. 

AR/VR Content Creator

Social media is now a vast world. For example, Zuck recently mentioned the Metaverse. It is certain that it will open a world of new opportunities for AR/VR creators. 

Augmented Reality and Virtual reality is a new form of graphics that are responsive to human gestures, signs, and actions. The technology uses Artificial Intelligence to understand these signs and the graphics responses according to it. 

Pokemon Go was one of the kind of game that used AR & VR. We can all recall how it became a sensation because of its exclusivity. 

Also, several Instagram content creators use creative AR filters to engage with their audience. 

Brands need AR/VR graphics creators to dazzle their social media profiles. The more exclusive you create it, the better you’ll be paid for it. 

Email Marketer

Emails are very powerful. I personally like emails very much. These are easy, convenient, free (up to a limit), and can be personalized to a great extent. 

People read emails every day. Unlike social media, email content has an edge and people take email content more seriously. 

Why? They believe that a particular thing can be useful to make them reach their desired state. As a result; they sign up for it. Examples: Newsletters, Magazine Subscription, Saas product sign-ups, etc. 

Writing great email content is an art. The key is, not to make your email body too shady or flashy. Keep it simple, to the point, and provide value to your user. Give Freebies, eBooks, to make the communication engaging and valuable. 

For instance, It is always said, ‘put in 10x value in the things you do and the results will speak for themselves. 

Provide value to the lead through your email content. Nurture them well so that they start trusting you. 

Once the trust is built, you can make a sales call to convert your lead. 

Converting such a lead will not be difficult because now the lead has an idea of ‘Who you are?’, ‘What you do?’, and ‘How you can help them?’.

Content Marketer

Content marketing is the process of integrating all the digital marketing frameworks together.

Collectively, it will become a content marketing funnel. It will make your users navigate through every platform. 

• Increase brand visibility with Social media marketing.
• Increase reach using SEM and Facebook Ads.
• Drive traffic using SEO.
• Make your website visitors your users using Lead generation.
• Nurture and convert your warm leads using email marketing campaigns. 

Becoming a Digital Marketer! Is it a good career option in India?

To be honest, a career in digital marketing may be overwhelming to you initially. It will certainly bring you out of your comfort zone. Why? Because the industry is seeing its fastest growth in the present times. If you fall short in your skills and efforts; others may supersede you. 

As per Statista, the digital advertising industry is one of the most fast-paced in the world. It is expected to cross 539 billion rupees in 2024. However, it is still short of the global average. 

But nevertheless, there is enough room for growth to become a digital marketer. Indians are shopping online more than ever. Even the smallest item of use can be brought online within a few clicks. 

Some of the examples are online Doctor appointments, grocery shopping, flight tickets, leisure bookings, etc.

Also, the Government is keen on seeing more of the digital ecosystem growing all around. We all have seen great unicorns forming up. Cred, Zerodha, Vedantu are some of the examples of tech startups. The Digital footprints are the pillars of their business model. 

Digital Marketing salaries in India

Finance is a big area where all wish to succeed. So let me take you through How much you can earn as a Digital Marketer in India?

Digital Marketing salaries in India can vary as per knowledge, skills, and experience you have. 

As per PayScale, an average Digital Marketing Manager in India earns around 5 lakh rupees in a year. Newbies can crack salary packages ranging from 2 lakh to 3 lakh. However, earnings from full-time jobs are just the tip of the iceberg. 

After that, what lies inside the ocean is enormous earning potentials through Content creation, Brand Endorsements (influencer marketing), Freelancing, Affiliate income, and many more. 

An average Freelancer in India earns far more than from full-time jobs. If you Google it, the search result will certainly blow your mind. For example, one of my friends is earning more than 7 lakh rupees per month from his Gig business. In the same vein, YouTubers earn lakhs from the ads and brand endorsements on their channel.

Starting a Freelancing career in India is not that difficult. Though you’ll need to have the expertise to prove your mettle. Once you have started gaining some traction from your services, you can set up your agency business.

You can also start digital marketing for your business and scale up with better teams and excellent available tools.

Your customers will only pay you if you have expert-level knowledge of your niche. There are several Freelancing platforms you can use to get started with Freelancing. 

Conclusion

To sum up; becoming a Digital Marketer in India can be a great decision to make. You’ll get to learn a lot from other industry leaders in the process

You’ll have to be a consistent learner if you want to become a successful digital marketer. Practice everything you learn. It can be from your job, on your side-hustle, or from any prospect or client.