Digital Marketing From Home: Remote Jobs, Skills and How to Start

Yes, digital marketing can be done entirely from home. Almost all of the work happens online, so you can either work remotely for a company or agency, or work as a freelancer with your own clients. To get started, learn the basics with a course, build a small portfolio of real work, and then apply for remote jobs or pitch freelance clients.

One of the best things about digital marketing is that there are plenty of remote or work-from-home digital marketing jobs. A digital marketer can work from home and offer services as a freelancer by starting a digital marketing agency or working remotely for a company.

Even companies that have traditionally worked in-office are shifting their marketing roles to work-from-home positions. Our agency, for example, has served clients on all continents exclusively through remote consulting for the last 20 years.

In this guide, I’ll break down the opportunities for working from home as a digital marketer and how you can get started.

Digital Marketing Jobs From Home

Here are some of the digital marketing jobs that can be done remotely.

• PPC Specialist
• SEO Specialist
• Digital Marketing Specialist
• Social Media Specialists and Managers
• Content Specialists and Marketers
• Copywriter

PPC Specialist

The PPC specialist role is an entry-level position focused on running paid advertising campaigns. The specialist is responsible for developing the campaign strategy, creating the ads, and monitoring the campaign’s success.

PPC specialists require a variety of skills, including keyword research, analytical thinking, and copywriting, among others.

SEO Specialist

An SEO specialist is an entry-level role responsible for designing and managing organic search campaigns. The position requires an extensive understanding of how search engines work and what techniques you can use to boost a website’s search engine rankings.

Some of the daily tasks include researching keywords, optimizing content, reviewing performance, and running an SEO audit.

Digital Marketing Specialist

A digital marketing specialist is an entry-level position with a broader focus. The role involves creating and executing campaigns across various digital marketing channels.

Digital marketing specialists must have a deep understanding of how digital marketing works.

Some of the day-to-day responsibilities of a digital marketing specialist include:

• Managing organic search campaigns
• Creating ads for PPC campaigns
• Reviewing and analyzing data from email marketing campaigns
• Monitoring social media platforms for followers and brand engagement
• Optimizing the brand’s website for conversions

Social Media Specialists and Managers

The social media specialist is an entry-level role responsible for increasing brand awareness, engagements, and conversions through social media channels.

As social media specialists gain more experience, they can become Social Media Managers. Social Media Managers create and oversee all the company’s paid and organic social media campaigns.

The position requires a deep understanding of how each social platform works and how their audience bases are unique. A good social media manager knows how to reach the right target audience and how to create content to engage them.

Content Specialists and Marketers

Content specialists create content that is designed to reach the business’ target audience. They have a deep understanding of SEO and know how to make content that is engaging and performs well in search engines.

Content marketing specialists can create content for websites, social media platforms, email, or other digital marketing channels. With more experience, content specialists can advance to content marketers or content managers.

These positions are responsible for creating the overall content strategy, monitoring its success, and promoting the content to the target audience.

Copywriter

Copywriting is writing intended to persuade. In digital marketing, there is plenty of work available for copywriters as businesses need to write content that converts visitors into leads and eventually customers.

Some of the types of material a copywriter creates include blog posts, landing pages, whitepapers, email newsletters, video scripts, and social media posts.

Many copywriting positions are freelancing roles that allow you to work from home.

Skills Needed For a Remote Digital Marketer

Here are some of the skills needed to work from home successfully as a digital marketer:

Writing and communication - Writing is an essential skill for digital marketers, as so much of today’s digital marketing strategies center around creating content.

If you know what makes good content, and how to create it, you can create effective campaigns for search engines and social media.

Digital marketing is highly collaborative, so being able to write well will help you communicate better with your team members.

SEO - SEO is a vital piece of any digital marketing strategy. It allows you to tap into a large relevant audience without having to pay for advertisements.

Digital marketers of all specialties must know how SEO works to be effective.

The important areas of SEO digital marketers need to master are technical, off-page, and on-page SEO. Knowing these will allow you to structure your content and website for optimal performance.

Conversion rate optimization - The end goal of any digital marketing strategy is to convert web traffic into sales. Digital marketers who understand conversion rate optimization can significantly improve their company’s campaigns.

Conversion rate optimization is testing different elements of a website or advertisement to see which combination converts the best.

This could involve adjusting copy, calls to action, images, or other design elements.

Design Skills - Strong visuals are a key part of digital marketing. They are common among social media posts and are required for various types of advertisements.

As a digital marketing professional, it’s important to know how to design your own visuals.

If you can create the graphic for a social media post or the banner ad for a PPC campaign yourself, you save your company from needing to hire another person.

You can use plenty of tools to create designs and edit images. For example, Canva. It is quick to learn and easy to use.

Technical Skills - Digital marketers need to know how to use a variety of software and tools. This includes:

• Analytics platforms like Google Analytics
• Marketing automation software like Klaviyo
• Social media management tools like Buffer
• Design tools like Photoshop
• SEO tools like SEMRush

What are the Benefits of a Digital Marketing Career?

Here are some of the many benefits of a career in digital marketing:

Great long-term opportunities

Digital marketing is here to stay as more companies shift their resources to digital sales channels. Within the domain of digital marketing, there are numerous paths you could follow, including:

• Content marketing
• Social media marketing
• PPC marketing
• Search engine marketing

Many of these positions have overlapping skill requirements, making it possible to move from one discipline to another if you choose.

Earn a solid income

Digital marketing careers pay well on average. The amount you can make working as a digital marketing professional depends on your experience, location, and specialization.

In the US, an entry-level digital marketing coordinator earns about $58,900 a year on average, and a digital marketing manager about $85,300. Pay rises with experience and specialization, and senior managers can earn well over $100,000.

Digital marketers make good money as freelancers as well. According to Credo's pricing survey, digital marketing consultants charge about $142 per hour on average, though more than 40% charge $100 per hour or less.

You can use your creativity

Digital marketing is a great career for those who like to follow their innovative ideas. You can try out all your ideas in your marketing campaigns and directly measure their success.

Work independently

Digital marketing affords plenty of opportunities to work for yourself. You can work as a freelancer and choose your own clients. Or you could start a digital marketing agency. With your digital marketing skills, it is easy to get started marketing your services online.

Work from any location

Digital marketing gives you the ability to work from anywhere. Most digital marketing tasks are completed online. This means there is no restriction on where you must live as you simply need access to the internet.

Many digital marketing agencies and companies embrace remote working as it provides several benefits to the business.

What are the Benefits of Working From Home?

Remote and hybrid work are now a normal part of digital marketing, and many agencies and companies hire marketers who work from home all or part of the week.

With today’s online tools, teams can collaborate and work efficiently despite not being in the same room.

Here are some of the benefits workers and businesses can enjoy from working at home:

Lower costs

Businesses can reduce their costs significantly by not having a physical office. With a remote workforce, there is no need to have the overhead of a lease or building maintenance costs. You also don’t need to pay for employees’ parking and commuting expenses, which is expected in some cities.

More diverse workforce

Because they’re not bound to a certain location, remote teams are often more diverse. Companies can search anywhere for workers and will often uncover new high-quality talent.

With a team from various locations, each worker offers a unique perspective, which can be used to improve the group’s performance.

Better work-life balance

Working remotely gives digital marketing professionals a better work-life balance. When you work from home it is easier to take small breaks of time in between tasks to do things you enjoy.

This could be spending time with your family or simply taking a moment to relax.

You also save time by not having to commute to an office day.

More productivity

Working remotely gives individuals the ability to maximize their productivity. When you work from home, you can remove many distractions that normally accompany an office environment. Without these distractions, the quality and output of work grow.

Plenty of online tools are available for remote workers to maximize their productivity.

Remote Job or Freelance: Which Is Right for You?

There are two main ways to do digital marketing from home, and they suit different people.

A remote job means working for one company or agency as an employee. You get a steady salary, benefits in many countries, a team to learn from, and someone else finds the work. The trade-off is less control over your hours and projects, and remote roles attract many applicants, so experience and a portfolio matter.

Freelancing means working for your own clients. You set your rates, choose your projects and decide when you work, and experienced freelancers can earn more per hour than employees. The trade-off is that you must find clients, your income can go up and down, and you pay for your own tools and benefits. Our guide on how to become a freelance digital marketer covers the details.

Many people start with a remote job to gain experience and move to freelancing, or freelance on the side while they look for a full-time role.

How to Start Digital Marketing From Home

Landing a work-from-home marketing job doesn’t have to be a struggle. Here are the steps to start a career in digital marketing from home, even if you have no experience.

Understand the digital marketing landscape

The first step is to understand the digital marketing job market and what a digital marketing career would look like.

You need to know which areas of digital marketing are in demand right now and which ones are gaining popularity. Visit popular job boards and search for digital marketing jobs.

This will also help you see the requirements for certain types of positions and how much they pay.

Choose a specialization

Once you understand the basics of digital marketing and the available opportunities, you need to choose a specific focus area.

If you enjoy writing and creating content, you can pursue content marketing. If you are more creative, you can go for social media marketing where you can design graphics and help craft the brand’s image.

After you know what area you want to focus on, you can begin building the necessary knowledge and skills.

Take a course and learn

You can start a career in digital marketing even if you do not have a college degree. The fastest way to gain the digital marketing skills you need is to take a digital marketing course.

If you want to test the water first, free courses from Google and HubSpot Academy teach the basics. When you are ready for a complete, structured path, our Digital Marketing Course covers SEO, content, social media, email and ads in one program.

Build a portfolio

Knowledge will only get you so far in digital marketing. Employers and clients want to see proof that you can get results, so practice on real projects and keep a record of what you did.

The easiest way to start is your own website or blog. It lets you practice keyword research, content, copywriting and web design, and you can point recruiters and clients to it. You can also run a small ad campaign with your own budget, manage social media for a friend's business or a local nonprofit, or create mock campaigns for brands you like. Write down the goal, what you did and the results for each one.

Get certified

A certification shows employers and clients that your skills have been tested. Free vendor certifications, such as Google Ads certifications through Google Skillshop and HubSpot Academy's marketing certifications, are a good start, and our list of digital marketing certificate programs covers more options. Add them to your resume and LinkedIn profile.

Apply for remote jobs or pitch freelance clients

After you have practiced your skills, you can begin looking for entry-level jobs and freelance work.

For a remote job, use the job boards below and filter for remote positions. For freelance work, create a profile on a freelance marketplace like Upwork, or pitch local businesses directly and show them examples from your portfolio.

Tools to Help You Work Remotely as a Digital Marketer

The wide array of available business software solutions has made it much easier for teams to work together remotely.

Let’s examine some of the tools that allow you to work from home efficiently as a digital marketer.

Slack - Slack is a communication application for teams. It is particularly useful for remote workers.

You can use Slack through your web browser, desktop app, or mobile app. There is a built-in video conferencing software you can use to conduct virtual meetings.

With Slack, you can create channels for different teams or projects. You can also start private chats and group chats.

Slack provides direct integrations for other important apps including Google Calendar, Google Drive, Zoom, Jira, Salesforce, and more.

Zoom - Zoom is a video conferencing tool that allows remote teams to have virtual meetings and audio calls with themselves and customers or clients.

Users can share their screen with other meeting participants. You can also record the video calls on Zoom for when you need to access the information again later. The link to the replay can be shared with other participants.

Zoom is free to use but you can unlock more functionality with a paid plan.

Google Workspace - Google Workspace, formerly known as G-Suite, is a suite cloud-based suite of business tools. It provides a centralized hub for accessing different Google applications such as Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, and Gmail.

Applications like Docs and Sheets are the Google equivalent to the suite of Microsoft Office programs. With these apps, remote teams can collaborate online, inside the same document.

Paypal - If you work independently either as a digital marketing freelancer or by running your own agency, you’ll need a way to bill your clients and manage your invoices.

With Paypal, you can easily request money for the services you’ve performed. You can send an online invoice which your clients can then pay with their card or through their Paypal account.

Paypal integrates seamlessly with other applications such as accounting software like Quickbooks.

Where Can You Find Remote Digital Marketing Jobs

There are plenty of places to find listings for remote digital marketing positions.

There are a variety of different online job boards you can use to find open positions. Some are dedicated solely to remote listings, others are broader and will require you to filter by location.

Here are some of the best places to find work-from-home opportunities for digital marketing:

Wellfound - Wellfound (formerly AngelList Talent) provides a job board curated with open positions at startup companies. The board is popular among tech companies but you’ll also find businesses from a diverse range of industries.

There are typically plenty of marketing positions available.

You can easily add a location filter to your job search to only show listings for remote positions.

You can apply for open positions directly on Wellfound, which sends your application straight to the startup’s founders and hiring managers.

Remote.co - Remote.co gathers the top remote job opportunities from a variety of sources and lists them on their website.

The job board covers all professions and there are always plenty of high-quality digital marketing positions on the list.

You can filter the listings based on a specific interest such as SEO, PPC, social media, etc.

When you click on a listing, you will land on the employer’s site where you can submit an application.

We Work Remotely - We Work Remotely is one of the most popular online job boards for remote positions. You’ll find listings for all major areas of digital marketing.

When you click to apply for a position, you’ll be taken to the company's external site where you can complete the application.

Indeed - Indeed is more of a traditional online job board. It lists available jobs from all over the world, both in-person and remote.

To find high-quality work from home digital marketing jobs, you can perform a search for the specific function you are looking to work in (e.g. SEO). In the location field select Remote.

This will filter the results so that only work from home positions appear.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I start digital marketing from home with no money?

Yes. You can learn the basics with free courses from Google and HubSpot, earn free certifications, and build a portfolio by helping friends, local businesses or nonprofits. Free tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Canva's free plan are enough to get started.

How much money do I need to start digital marketing?

You need very little: a computer and an internet connection. Optional costs include a paid course, a domain and hosting for your own website, and a small ad budget to practice with. Many beginners spend nothing until they land their first client or job.

Which area of digital marketing is best for beginners?

Social media marketing, content writing and SEO are the easiest to start from home because you can practice them on your own projects for free. Paid ads take a budget to practice, and analytics is easier once you understand the other channels. Pick the one you enjoy most, then add related skills.

Do I need a degree to work in digital marketing from home?

No. Many employers and most clients care more about your skills, results and certifications than a degree. A strong portfolio is often the fastest way in. See our guide on how to get into digital marketing without a degree.