Marketing has changed radically in the last decade. While it still requires solid business and traditional marketing skills, the job is increasingly about the world of digital marketing.
That’s because areas such as search engine optimization of web content, social media, and data analysis allow digital marketers the chance to better identify and target consumers who want their product.
And the demand is there. The federal government projects 10% growth in the number of marketing managers by 2026 and 23% growth for market analysts. Because of the wealth of opportunity, many MBA students are concentrating on digital marketing when earning their degree.
Successful Digital Marketers
Here are some of the areas digital marketing MBA students learn about in such a degree program. All are areas they must master to achieve business success.
Digital Marketing Content
Like the freeway at rush hour is clogged with bad drivers, the Internet is clogged with bad information. And just as you can spot a bad driver, consumers have quickly learned how to spot bad content.
That’s what makes content so important. Done properly, it offers consumers information that interests them and leads them to further explore an organization’s site. Done poorly, and consumers quickly return to their Google search results to give someone else a try.
There are four areas that must always be top of mind. Content should be:
- Original
- Relevant to consumers’ interests, providing answers to their questions
- Clear and concise
- Tell your brand’s story and differentiate products and services from those of competitors
It’s impossible in a market as open and competitive as the Internet to create something 100% new. How many ways can you write about the value of a coffee maker (or whatever the product might be)? The key is to do it in your own words and showing the value of your coffee maker when compared to every other coffee maker available.
Social Media
Businesses need to market where customers gather. Increasingly, that is on social media. There are 1.49 billion daily active users on Facebook alone. Reaching people on social media is a must.
Digital marketers must have a plan to create engaging, informative, and lively social media channels. This means not only posting content but also interacting with consumers. Find out what they want. Find out what they love and don’t love about your products and services. There has never been a better way to communicate directly with consumers.
Digital marketers must also keep up with changes in social media. For example, middle-aged users now dominate Facebook. Instagram is the current hotspot for younger audiences. Twitter cuts across all demographics. This could change by next Tuesday. For digital marketers, they must become the organization’s expert in this area.
The Customer Journey
Digital marketing allows organizations to monitor and improve the experience throughout the customer’s journey. This starts with the content they see when typing in “best coffee maker business near me” or the pay-per-click advertisement placed on Google searches. It ends with the customer experience during the checkout process.
In between, there is website content, product description pages, security information, “about us” and contact information, website design elements, calls to action, and landing pages. Analytics provide the opportunity to follow every step of the customer journey and identify what is working and what is not.
Value Proposition
This goes back to content. Digital marketers must have a strategy for offering value propositions to consumers that make their product or service stand out. Classic examples of this include offering exclusive deals, offering exclusive content for those who sign up to receive it, recommending products based on past purchases, and offering the advantages of a loyalty or rewards program. Whatever it is, a value proposition must be in place.
Testing
Digital marketers test. The guesswork that used to exist in marketing has disappeared. Data offers a clear answer to the question of what interests consumers and why and when they buy. Most marketers use A/B testing. A simple example would be changing the size, color, or location of a call to action to see what is the most effective. But it can go much deeper into determining the best customer flow through a website and determining what type of landing pages led to people making a purchase.
Data Analytics
If you have entered an MBA program with a focus on digital marketing, then obviously data is important. But many marketers might turn over the “nuts and bolts” analytics to data scientists or data analysts. Digital marketers might not need to have the ability to write software code for analytics programs, but they need a thorough understanding of the best ways to leverage data to achieve business goals and reach new markets.
Digital marketing is the future. For many businesses, it’s already here. It’s an area that offers immense growth for those who enter the field with the right education and skills. An MBA in digital marketing can prepare graduates with the skills and knowledge they need.