Digital Marketing to Create 1.5 lakh jobs by 2016: Experts

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Digital marketing has become the next big thing after the IT boom in the 90s. With the ever growing population of internet users, which is expected to reach half a billion in India by 2018, internet has become the core promotional medium used by companies to promote or market their products and services to the consumers.

The concept of marketing has completely changed in the past few years; it’s no longer limited to what the company wanted to tell the consumer about the product through your television or newspapers. Digital marketing has made marketing highly interactive with the consumers. Marketers have realised this change and adopted new ways of approaching the consumer with their products and services. Consumers now have access to what the others think about a particular product, making it all the more important for companies to build the trust and personal association with the consumers. It was been rightly said that in today’s time “Authenticity, honesty, and personal voice underlie much of what’s successful on the Web”.

Some of the activities that come under digital marketing are –

Search engine optimization (SEO)which refers to a process of enhancing the visibility of a website on a ‘organic’ search engine result pages, this is done by using search engine friendly elements in a website.

Search engine marketing (SEM) refers to the ‘paid search’ or paid advertising of websites by increasing visibility in search engine result pages.

Content marketing is being used by companies like Microsoft, P&G, Red Bull and Cisco System. The companies provide relevant and valuable information to the consumer with the intent of educating the consumer/ readers with the ultimate aim of gaining a loyal customer base.

Social media marketing is about spreading the word through electronic word of mouth. Here the readers are encouraged to share the information on various social networks especially through websites, news feeds and social networking websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn etc.

Display Advertising encompasses advertisements, be it textual, images, audios or videos on a website. In 2015, the value of online advertising market in India was Rs. 3575 crore.
There are various other specialisations under digital marketing other than the ones mentioned above such as inbound marketing, email marketing, affiliate marketing and video marketing.

Digital marketing entails using various digital channels such as blogs, search engines, social media, social networking, mobiles, emails etc. to market and promote a product. With the boom in the e-commerce sector all the companies are using digital marketing as a part of their marketing strategy and are hiring people for online marketing and social media marketing. In the light of these recent changes, there is an increase in scope for people who are trained in web designing, app development and social media management.

Being a digital marketer involves developing a campaign based on the client’s needs and also keeping in focus the targeted consumer’s requirements and desires.

E-commerce big guns like Flipkart, Amazon and MakeMyTrip have a prominent online presence and more companies including start-ups are joining in, making the demand for skilled digital marketers increase manifold. This has led to a 30% rise in the number of students enrolling for e-commerce courses.

Digital marketing has become a very lucrative field. A fresher can earn upto 15,000 per month with no previous experience in the field. Big brands pay upto 2.5 lakh per month to their digital marketing heads. As per Randstad India, the starting salary ranges between Rs 4.5-5.5 lakh. Globally, digital marketers earn $65, 766 and at entry level it’s around $35,000. Professionals working as freelancers are able to earn around Rs.30,000 on a monthly basis.

In the digitized world that we live in today, the demand for people with in-depth understanding and knowledge of digital marketing is on the rise. To enrol for a digital marketing course one has to hold a bachelor’s degree in any stream. People with knowledge of e-commerce, visualisation, and marketing do have an advantage over the others. There are specialisations in digital marketing that require either technical or analytical skills or completely creative ones. Various courses that are being offered are Diploma in Digital Marketing, Executive Programme in Digital Marketing (EPDM), and M.Sc. in Digital Marketing. Digital Vidya, NIIT, All India Management Association (AIMA) and Institute of Digital Marketing are some of the top institutes in India that are offering various course related to the digital marketing field. Digital marketing course that are being offered are in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Optimization (SMO), Video Marketing, Social Media Marketing (SMM), Affiliate Marketing, Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Mobile apps is being used extensively for online shopping to gaming , and the number of mobile users globally being an astounding 4.88 billion and still rising , Android App development course becoming one of the most sought after course in Bangalore , Pune and Chennai.

Hubspot is a software developed and marketed by the company Hubspot, Inc. for inbound marketing. Hubspot also gives certification in digital marketing.