It’s in the text you’re reading on websites.
It’s behind the design of every report you download.
It’s in YouTube, TikTok and Instagram videos.
It’s the content of the newsletters landing in your email inbox.
It’s in the sponsored posts filling up your feed.
It’s the first thing you see when you make a Google search.
And the industry is booming.
Yup, thanks to evolving technology, shifting work trends and mass digitalisation accelerated by the pandemic, just about every business now cannot survive without digital marketing. But before you spit your coffee out and shake your fist ranting about how marketing is one of the ills of our capitalist society, let us show you how there’s a lot more to it today than you probably realise.
According to SEEK, there are more than 55,000 marketing vacancies in Australia and the vast majority of these are entry-level positions. As alluded to above, copywriting, graphic design, video editing, email marketing, social media marketing and search engine marketing are all parts of digital marketing.
Marketing has evolved from billboards and TV ads putting on the hard sell to be more about digital content which is actually useful to people, like an NRMA story on how to drive on sand and unbog yourself or a Qantas travel guide on Australia. And thanks to its low cost and low barriers to entry it’s also perfect for small, local and start-up businesses trying to rank on search engines or go viral on social media.
But it’s not just creative. There is the more technical side too, like controlling social media ad accounts where the sponsored posts on Facebook feeds and between Instagram stories are controlled from. There is a whole science to Facebook Ads Manager where through optimising all sorts of different variables you can shave off hundreds or thousands of dollars in costs to reach your audience.
Knowing Facebook Ads Manager is basically the new version of having Microsoft Office skills on your resume, you’ll be handy to a whole lot of businesses.
Similarly, there are professionals in search engine optimisation whose whole reason for waking up each day is to get your content on Google’s first page and thus save a tonne of money on paying for those blue ads at the top.
But if that’s making your eyelids heavy, remember you could have more fun replying to comments with emojis as a business’s social media manager.
As you can see digital marketing is varied and sure does tick a lotta boxes for Gen Zs as a fulfilling career pathway.
First off, it’s a super fun path for creative types (this writer once managed the social media accounts of a major international travel company and it was straight up a good time). If you’re good with words and people, it’s a job where you can really put these skills to good use.
Secondly, many digital marketing jobs are remote or hybrid, which means Gen Zs can work from home or while travelling or living overseas, which would sound mighty attractive after being cooped up by COVID-19 for the past couple of years.
All the equipment most digital marketers will need is a laptop and an internet connection. Add in your phone for videos and photography and you can do most digital marketing jobs making it great for freelancers. But many businesses are getting decked out with professional photography, video and podcast gear for their marketing content to stand out online.
Thirdly, the career pathway is pretty straightforward. While you can study marketing at university, it’s also something you can learn on the job, in a short paid online course or even for free via YouTube. You can also get into it by capitalising on transferable skills from industries like journalism. If you’re a writer, a graphic designer or a videographer, in today’s world you are also a digital marketer.
Finally – job security. As technology continues to transform our world, the digital marketing ball is well and truly rolling. And with Gen Zs already facing so much uncertainty, future-proofing their career sounds pretty enticing.
