Digital Marketing and E-commerce Careers Guide For students and graduates

Introduction

This paper summarize the book with the subject Digital Marketing and E-commerce Careers Guide For students and graduates. (Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2012). This book contains some main points:1.What is digital marketing, 2.What are the responsibilities of digital marketers and why should you consider becoming one, 3.The many digital marketing positions available, 4.How to prepare for your job search and land your first job - Managing your career once you've begun, 5. How manages the career in digital marketing function.

1.What is digital Marketing and E-commerce

To understand this. First, we must understand the marketing definition. In this book we quoted definition from Paul Kotler which the definitions of marketing as “The process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return”. So digital marketing can be defined as all that process involving digital technology and platform to create value for customers. Meanwhile, E-commerce refers to all of the work that goes into developing the most efficient methods for this process, including digital marketing and logistics for getting the product to the customer.

2. What digital marketers do and why you should consider joining them

To get big picture on what is digital marketer and what digital marketers do in marketing process below picture will give us the big picture of that:

Digital marketing does not remove and negate what has been done in traditional marketing but complements what we have done in traditional marketing in creating value to customers. Below is the explanation of process of digital marketing works.

Some condition also become the consideration for you to consider to join in digital marketing function:

• Digital media is becoming more and more ingrained in our daily lives.

Today is the era of digital society, where all aspects of activities are digitized from lifestyle to business affairs. Nowadays all content can be enjoyed by everyone with internet access from various devices to help improve the quality of life. There are a lot of opportunities and challenge in digital era which company must explore and face them to create value in the business and to win the competition.  The abundance of information that is easily obtained in the digital world about our target market allows us to better understand their needs and desires and create optimal value for them profitably. This is because it is supported by the presence of social media with a variety of platforms and higher access driven by high internet penetration, and penetration of gadget access be it mobile gadgets or non-mobile access.

• As a marketer, being well-versed in digital technologies will become increasingly important.

The expertise in digital marketing is needed by businesses because of the high demand for experts in this field. Currently, Ads campaigns are becoming more integrated, with television and print ads matching those seen online. Print ads interact with mobile devices via QR codes or augmented reality, and connected television provides viewers with additional content and purchasing options. 

• The digital industry is growing at a far faster rate than many other industries. This is very logical because all require this technology including digital marketing services. Companies need to connect with the digital world when the market exists in the digital world.

3. The different jobs available in digital marketing

We can make a career in digital marketing in several areas, namely 

• client side, the client-side refers to businesses who use digital marketing and e-commerce to boost their earnings.

• Agency, the party that help client side for digital marketing services and assist client side in certain digital discipline

• Vendor, the party that provide with the technology that y that allows clients and agencies to execute their digital and e-commerce strategies.

In term of discipline or function, digital marketing has many discipline or function in its role as follow:

1. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the practice of a corporation financially rewarding a publisher (an affiliate) for a sale, customer, or lead that has been proven to originate from the affiliate's website or email activity in the context of digital marketing. The word is frequently used to refer to the entire industry in question. affiliate networks, specialized agencies, and the numerous businesses (i.e. advertisers) types of affiliate publishers who promote their merchant's products and services partners. The industry is sometimes known as the "performance marketing" industry.

2. Copy writing

"The art and science of direct response copywriting entails carefully conveying words (whether written or spoken) that get people to take some type of action," according to Copyblogger.

3. Content marketing

Affiliate marketing is the practice of a corporation financially rewarding a publisher (an affiliate) for a sale, customer, or lead that has been proven to originate from the affiliate's website or email activity in the context of digital marketing. The word is frequently used to refer to the entire industry in question. affiliate networks, specialized agencies, and the numerous businesses (i.e. advertisers) types of affiliate publishers who promote their merchant's products and services partners. The industry is sometimes known as the "performance marketing" industry.

4. Customer services

Customer service online is about helping customers and potential customers solve their problems and answer their questions. Customer service can play a pivotal role within e-commerce, as customers can often easily go elsewhere. Increasingly, social media tools are being used for customer service, as companies are keen to be seen to be addressing the needs of customers on these highly visible channels

5. Conversion rate optimization

Conversion rate optimization is the process of refining and improving the experience for a website or landing page visitor with the goal of increasing the percentage of visitors that convert (i.e. perform a particular action, such as buying goods or downloading catalogue information).

6. Display advertising

Display advertising is a type of advertising that occurs on websites adjacent to the editorial content being viewed. It can consist of words, images or video. It can also occur on mobile devices, email applications, and within internet-enabled applications.

7. e-CRM

eCRM (Electronic Customer Relationship Management) is used to follow up on potential leads and manage existing customers. People working in sales and customer service will utilize eCRM tools in order to do their jobs effectively. With the amount of data and its potential for analysis, eCRM helps companies improve their profitability and reduce their customer service costs.

8. Ecommerce

E-commerce is concerned with the buying and selling of goods and services online. E-commerce applies a wide number of skills and tools in order to increase sales and profitability and effectively manage fulfilment and customer requests. In this, almost all other digital disciplines will play some role within e-commerce.

9. Email Marketing

Email marketing is about increasing sales and long term customer value through email.

10. Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is about using software and processes to replace repetitive tasks which can be done without direct input from people. Such tasks include sending email based on certain triggers such as on birthdays, product views, and basket abandonment.

11. Search Marketing - Organic/Natural (SEO)

SEO (Search Engine Optimizations) is about enhancing search engine visibility by identifying how search engines work and how people search for products and services online. This can involve identification of keywords (i.e. words people use when searching the internet for relevant information) and developing or optimizing content in order to gaining relevant links back to a website. (This is distinct from paid search marketing, which is focused on paid listings rather than ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ search results). 

12. Search Marketing - Paid (PPC)

Paid search marketing is about reaching customers through paid advertisements on search engines, a discipline sometimes also described as ‘pay-per-click’ or PPC. Paid search specialists will need to identify keywords and balance the cost of paid ads against the potential returns from sales to ensure that click throughs offer a return on investment for their company of for their clients.

13. Strategy and Planning

Strategy and planning is about devising campaigns and tactics in order to improve digital marketing efforts within an organization. People involved in this area will need a broad understanding of digital marketing so they can make the appropriate recommendations on going forward.

14. User Experience and Usability

User experience and usability are about improving the digital experience for end users, and making sure they can achieve their goals online. This often has a significant impact on the profitability of a website, as poor design can lead to decreased sales and conversions. By contrast, a high quality digital experience can lead to people spending longer on a site and converting at a higher rate

15. Web-analytic

Web analytics is about the measurement of on-site activity and collection of web usage data, analyzing that data to deliver insights which can be used to optimize web performance. It is closely linked to conversion rate optimization.

16. Mobile Marketing 

Mobile marketing is about using mobile technology to reach consumers. Whilst SMS still has its role, the growth of smartphone technology opens up new avenues of revenue and the potential to connect with customers. Mobile is particularly exciting because of its potential for highly targeted campaigns based on individual users.

17. Multi-channel marketing

Multichannel marketing is about reaching customers through a number of different channels, and joining those channels up to create a more effective and unified customer experience. Often the term is applied to retailers that sell both online and offline, but can also apply to other businesses and in some contexts refers to multiple online channels.

18. On-line PR

Online PR is the same as PR (public relations), but is concerned with the use of digital media and technology in accomplishing PR goals. This could range from monitoring brand reputation, through to engaging with a range of stakeholders through digital channels. As such, it overlaps with many other digital disciplines such as SEO and social media.

19. Social media and community management

Social media and community management involve listening to and joining conversations happening about brands, products and services online, and working with the key influencers within the relevant industry. Much of the work will involve engaging with negative comments, but also encouraging positive ones. There are a large number of different social media platforms on the market, but also important are forums and review sites.

4. How to prepare for your job search and land your first job - Managing your career once you've begun

Get yourself up early and make a time line. Start exploring job opportunities in the labor market even if you have not finished your studies. Exploring opportunities early on helps us prepare and find many opportunities. Including careers in digital industry or digital marketing function

Figure out what you desire. Figuring out what you want to accomplish is a key element of finding the proper employment for you. You may target jobs and employers with full confidence that this is the appropriate fit for you if you know exactly what you want to do and where your passion resides. This self-assurance will manifest itself in your application as energy and passion, enhancing your chances of landing any job you apply for. Some factors or consideration to think about when looking for a career that suits you, could be: Geography, interest area, salary and level of job, working culture and condition, values and the people who will work with you.

Evaluate yourself (expertise, experience and others related to existing job opportunities)

- Do I already have the skills and experience required?

- Is the CV we create enough to represent ourselves and sell? (experience, expertise etc.).

Improve the skill and experience. As the fresh graduated you don’t have any experience except the knowledge from your study and a little experience which is not related to your future job directly but it can support your careers. It’s important then showing the high passion in digital area to make you stand out than others candidate.  You also can practice and build your own experience in your life before entering the job such as get skill on website setting, explore the digital word to gain new skill related to digital activities (social media platform, program etc.). To gain experience you also can start to explore the internship program in digital function. (you can explore at small business, start-up, societies and club, charities, or crowdsourcing website)

Develop the passion in digital. When it comes to engaging with potential employers, passion and curiosity are crucial. Taking on new employees, especially graduates with little or no prior job experience, is a big risk and investment for a company. The company will not be interested in hiring you if you do not appear eager and enthusiastic during the application procedure. Demonstrate your dedication to the digital sector. This dedication will set you ahead of candidates who have not demonstrated the use of such abilities. Increasing your understanding of a subject is another method to display your enthusiasm for it. Blogs are arguably the simplest source of precise industry knowledge for this purpose. As previously said, using a tool such as Google Reader can assist you in gathering information quickly and efficiently. 

Create an online presence that is appropriate for you. Having an online presence should be viewed as both a source of opportunities and a source of danger. Make sure your online presence is productive not contra productive. Possessing a positive internet profile has numerous benefits. 

5.Finding and getting the Job

Identify the types of companies that might offer the types of employment you're looking for so you can start looking in the correct areas.

During your job hunt, you should think about the many options for applying for a position. Graduate schemes, applying for jobs directly, working through recruiting agencies, using job boards, and networking are all examples of these options.

You can also find the job directly and propose to certain company (direct to companies) or explore the vacancies via agency or head hunter services/recruitment agency or Social media flatform such as LinkedIn (Job site).

Networking also the effective alternative for you to get the opportunity in some company. This network could be from your senior at campus, lecturers etc.

6.Applying the application or CV (it’s the first impression)

In this stage, it is important you can make and write the good CV, the CV that really present you best and can show the competitive advantage rather than others. Some practical guidance for CV as follow: 

- Make sure the CV is simple and easy to read and the recruiter get the important information which is beneficial for you.

- It’s important and crucial, to highlight your strength and all the achievement also can be quantified

- Good quality technically (there is no wrong words, format etc) and make sure you use the standard document so there is no issue to open the document

7.Optimize the preparation for the Interview 

Good preparation is 50% of success. So, make sure you are ready 100% for the interview session.  Interviewing is also a learning process that everyone must go through to succeed. Experience from one interview to another will teach you how to do the right way, the right attitude, and how to have an effective interview. Failure on several occasions should not give rise to pessimistic attitudes but should always be one way to always improve quality.

Some of the interview tips below need to be considered:

1. Do research related to the company, the work offered. Know and understand well both including understanding the industry. Keep up with the latest developments in the industry

2. Make an estimate of the questions that will appear in the interview and prepare the best answer.

3. Prepare physically and mentally. Be positive, Optimist 

4. Make a good first impression and be yourself 

5. Prepare technical affairs well so that you are on time, there are no technical obstacles if it is done online etc.

8. Managing the career

Managing our career is to manage our future and is a form of our responsibility towards career success in the future. Some practical suggestions related to this include:

1. Record well all achievements in a career whether quantitatively or qualitatively. (This will be your selling point)

2. Make a career plan. A plan will help develop our next career, making us better equipped to face the challenges needed for a higher career, a broader sense of responsibility. (make a SMART objective for your careers development plan)

3. Determine what kinds of roles you'd like to play in the future (Look for internal opportunity within the company, outside of other companies/industries, or on job market platforms such as LinkedIn.

4. Have a mentor who will help us maximize our performance at every stage of our career.