What does a Digital Marketing Manager do?

What does a digital marketing manager do? What skills does he/she have to possess and what is the difference between a digital marketing manager and an SEO?

From SEO to Digital Marketing

The term digital marketing is relatively new although the components that make up digital marketing have been around for a long time.

It’s only in the last 5 years or so that marketers, SEO’s and the industry as a whole realized that for a complete Internet Marketing strategy you need something more than SEO.

Thus the term ‘digital marketing’ started receiving more attention and as with every other profession there is always a place for a ‘manager’.

I work as a Digital Marketing Manager the last years and what I will try to explain below is what is the role of a digital marketing manager in today’s online World, what does he/she do and what is the main difference between being an SEO and a Digital Marketing Manager.

What is the difference between an SEO and Digital Marketing Manager?

An SEO is an expert in Search Engine Optimization. He can tell you how to optimize your websites for Search Engines, how to build references from other websites (aka link building) and how to make sure that your website is accessible by Google for greater exposure.

A digital marketing manager on the other hand, can do more than just SEO.

Most probably he started as an SEO consultant because in reality this is from where everything begins (in the Internet Marketing World).

But he has knowledge and skills related to the other components that make up digital marketing i.e. content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing and mobile marketing.

So, in a nutshell the difference between an SEO and a digital marketing manager is that the latest has a wider range of skills and knowledge and can design and execute a complete and comprehensive digital marketing strategy which goes beyond SEO.

What does a Digital Marketing Manager do?

So, what does a digital marketing manager do?

Some of the tasks include:

Content Marketing – In the digital world you need content in any form (text, images, video, audio, etc) because without content you cannot do anything online.

The question is what kind of content you need, who will produce the content, what are the topics, titles, content length etc etc.

These are the typical questions that the content marketing manager has to answer and if there is no content marketing manager (which is the case for most companies or agencies), then it’s the duty of the digital marketing manager.

Social Media Marketing – Social is a great tool and a fantastic way to promote your online store or business but how do you decide which social networks to use, how do you set goals and what kind of content do you publish?

What is a successful social media campaign and how do you manage your followers? Questions that the digital marketing manager has to answer with the social media manager or social media experts.

Email Marketing – Email marketing does not likely have a dedicated manager, unless you use email in more advanced ways than sending newsletters and subscription offers.

It is the job of the digital marketing manager to design the email marketing strategy for a company that is in synch with the overall digital marketing strategy.

Mobile Marketing – Mobile is no longer an option so every business that is online should have a mobile marketing strategy.

This may have to do with providing users with a mobile friendly website or even with developing mobile applications for the different markets (Apple store, Google Play, Amazon app store etc.).

The digital marketing manager should have the necessary knowledge and market insights so as to suggest the best way to approach this.

Communication, Implementation, Monitoring and Optimization

Besides designing and implementing the above strategies, a digital marketing manager is also responsible to:

Talk to the client – Communicate with the client and explain to them the benefits of digital marketing as a whole and most importantly the benefits and gains for their businesses.

Design the digital marketing strategy – Use all the tools in his arsenal to create a complete strategy for promoting a business online.

Communicate the strategy to the client and interested parties – Explain the strategy to the client and other interested parties (for example the experts and managers in his team).

Monitor the execution of the plan – Monitor the execution of the digital marketing plan making sure that everything is executed correctly and on time.

Optimize the strategy for even better results – Optimizing the strategy based on current results.

Digital Marketing Manager Salary

A recent study shows that the average salary of a Digital Marketing Manager is $77K per year but this is just an estimate.

How much you can actually earn depends on a lot of things like experience, size of the company you work for, type of clients and success stories.

Unlike ‘offline’ marketing, everything in digital marketing is measurable and digital marketing managers that have a proven record of increasing traffic and conversions of a business, are more likely to earn more than managers you only know the theoretical part.

How to become a Digital Marketing Manager?

Digital marketing is not a theoretical concept but it’s practical. It’s not enough to know the theories behind the different digital marketing techniques but you need to know how to actually implement them.

A digital marketing manager needs to have practical skills and this means that taking a course on Digital Marketing is a good starting point but not enough.

My recommendation on how to become a digital marketing manager is the following:

• Become an SEO Expert – Learn everything you can about SEO and start practicing by creating your own website.
• Understand how social media works – Spend some time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin and find out everything you can about their advertising platforms.
• Become a Google Ads Expert – Get certified on Google Ads. PPC advertising is a core component of digital marketing.
• Master email and content marketing – Good content is vital for the success of any campaign and email is still one of the most effective ways to make conversions.
• Learn how to use Google Analytics – Monitoring and reporting is part of the job responsibilities of a DM.
• Learn from experienced digital marketers – if you have the opportunity apply to work in a company with experienced managers. If not, try to follow the work of other marketers and where possible replicate their steps (not copy).

It will take time to become an expert in all digital marketing components but unlike other professions, it’s skills you can gradually acquire without the need of a special educational background.

Conclusion

A digital marketing manager is not just an expert in SEO but he/she needs to have a range of skills that relate to the different ways you can promote a website online and also skills that relate to planning, project control and team management.

In my opinion and experience, you cannot become a good digital marketing manager if you don’t have a deep knowledge of SEO.

SEO is the most important skill you need to have first and then you can build your knowledge for the rest.

If you don’t have a good SEO foundation then it will be very difficult to become a successful digital marketing manager.