What Is a Digital Marketing Specialist?

The digital marketing industry continues growing, fueled partly by increased social media use, the boost in brand awareness and trust it provides, and the positive return on investment (ROI) that businesses enjoy. A digital marketing specialist is pivotal in helping brands build, nurture, and maintain their relationships with their intended audience by creating marketing campaigns and content. This professional’s role in aiding the success of marketing campaigns means they are in high demand within a steadily growing field. 

Continue reading to learn more about the job outlook, average salary, and advancement opportunities available for a digital marketing specialist and to explore the details that can help you decide if this is a professional path you’d like to pursue.

Read more: What Is Digital Marketing? Types, Skills, and Careers

What is a digital marketing specialist?

A digital marketing specialist uses communication skills, sales, and advertising to support a business’s marketing efforts through different digital channels. In this position, you perform market research to identify customers' needs and then work with other marketers to create content for digital and online campaigns. Some digital marketers work broadly across different avenues, while others might specialize in specific fields, like SEO, social media, or email marketing.

Read more: How to Become a Marketing Specialist

Types of digital marketing

Digital marketing refers to any type of marketing campaign or content that reaches its intended audience through digital or online channels. Digital channels can include:

• Website copy

• Blogs

• Social media content

• Emails

• Newsletters

• Videos

• Social media posts

Depending on a specific business’s needs, you might prioritize one channel or use a combination that works best to reach that business’s audience.

1. Social media marketing

Social media marketing includes marketing strategies and content that reach the intended audience through social media channels such as Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram. Remember, however, that the field of social media changes constantly: one platform might become obsolete while another becomes the next big thing. That’s why digital marketing specialists analyze different posts and content for performance and reach, then pivot or adapt strategies as necessary.

Read more: Social Listening: Definition, Tools, and Strategies for Business Growth

2. Email marketing

Email marketing reaches its target audience through email campaigns. Typical elements of an email marketing campaign include welcome emails, cart abandonment emails (sent when a user adds an item to their cart but doesn’t purchase it), seasonal marketing campaigns, and newsletters. Digital marketing specialists who use email marketing are responsible for monitoring click-through rates, which measure how many people open an email.

Read more: What Is Email Marketing? Definition, Tips, and Tools

3. Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) uses specific keywords and phrases to help a website appear in search engine results. As a digital marketing specialist, you would be responsible for researching relevant keywords and correctly using them on your employer’s website. SEO also includes content indexing, which means making sure that a website is easily readable by a search engine, and link structure, which means testing URLs and other links on a site for functionality.

Read more: SEO Marketing: What It Is and How to Get Started

4. Content marketing

Content marketing utilizes long-form pieces of content—like blog posts, podcasts, white papers, and ebooks—to reach a targeted audience. Content marketing thrives on storytelling and demonstrating authority and value. This strategy helps build long-term relationships with new and potential customers that can result in multiple purchases and repeat interactions.

Digital marketing specialist tasks and responsibilities

Digital marketing specialists create, monitor, and maintain a business’s marketing campaigns and efforts online. The specific tasks of a digital marketing specialist might include:

• Researching competitors and new advertising trends

• Developing written or visual content

• Measuring digital traffic and site performance

• Reporting on campaign results to C-suite and stakeholders

• Conducting market research and tests

As a digital marketing specialist, your day-to-day tasks will change depending on your employer’s goals. One day, you might perform research to learn about advertising trends and the next, you might use analytics to optimize digital marketing strategies.

Salary and job outlook

Since many businesses are increasing their marketing efforts online, digital marketing specialists and related jobs are in high demand and expected to continue to grow. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expects the marketing field to grow by 6 percent from 2022 to 2032, while data suggests digital marketing as a whole will grow at a CAGR of 13.1 percent between 2024 and 2032 [1, 2]. 

Digital marketing specialists in the US make an average base salary of $60,377, with opportunities to potentially earn additional pay through cash bonuses or profit sharing, according to Glassdoor [3]. With experience, that can increase significantly. Senior digital marketing managers can make an average base salary of $107,728 [4].

How to become a digital marketing specialist

To start as a digital marketing specialist, you’ll want to consider your educational background, experience, and skills. According to Zippia, about 76 percent of digital marketing specialists have a bachelor’s degree [5]. Many businesses also look for prior marketing or social media management experience. Employers typically want to make sure you’re comfortable with the different digital platforms and can demonstrate your ability with marketing campaigns. Building a website that offers examples of your work, like a copy portfolio or a set of case studies, can help make you competitive.

Skills

As with any job, you need to cultivate your skill set to succeed as a digital marketing specialist. The position requires a mix of workplace and technical skills.

Workplace skills

• Organizational skills to help manage multiple projects

• Strong writing skills to create engaging content and briefs

• Collaboration skills to help coordinate between C-suite and other departments

• Listening and communication skills to help build relationships with customers

Read more: What Are Job Skills and Why Do They Matter?

Technical skills

• Data analytics

• SEO 

• User experience

• Web development

• Content strategy

• Social media management

Education

Digital marketing specialists typically have a degree in marketing, English, communication, or business, or sometimes even in digital marketing itself. Some online platforms provide digital marketing certificates that can supplement the educational background needed to be successful in the role.

Experience

Because of the varied nature of a digital marketing specialist’s job, previous experience in marketing, advertising, content creation, or social media management can help you meet your job expectations. Experience with SEO or data analysis can also be helpful.

Paths to becoming a digital marketing specialist

Digital marketing specialists typically come from one of two career paths. The first is to gain an entry-level position once you’ve finished a four-year degree. The second is to move into the role from a similar position, like a marketing coordinator.

You'll want to have a website or portfolio to become a digital marketing specialist from a different industry. It’s critical to have a medium to display your work, including sample copy, campaigns, and other marketing materials that help demonstrate how your background fits this role. 

Can I advance into other roles?

With experience, a digital marketing specialist can advance to the role of digital marketing manager. From there, they can go into senior leadership, such as a marketing program manager or director of communications. You can also move into adjacent roles, like a digital marketing analyst. You’ll have a wide choice of roles as you advance within a digital marketing career.

Getting started with Coursera

Digital marketing is a growing field with excellent career prospects and high salaries. You’ll find scope to move from entry-level to higher-level positions and more specialist options as you build your skills and experience. 

Learn more about a digital marketing specialist role and sharpen your skills with courses like the University of Pennsylvania’s Introduction to Marketing or Meta’s Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate. You’ll find these and more digital marketing courses on Coursera.