Digital marketing has been trending for a while now, with many raring to be part of this industry.

If you’ve been wondering why, and what draws fresh graduates and mid-career professionals alike to want to be part of this industry, you’ve come to the right place! We share three main reasons below to help you understand what’s behind all the hype, along with a pathway that can kick start your digital marketing journey.

1) Digital Marketing talents are highly sought after  

There are plenty of opportunities in Singapore for those who possess digital marketing know-how, and here’s some proof.

• LinkedIn’s Jobs on the Rise Report[i] (2021) has revealed that social media and digital marketing roles were amongst the top 15 career categories to see the highest year-over-year growth rates in hiring here.
• NTUC LearningHub surveyed a total of 367 business leaders (senior managers or directors and above, who had direct reports) across various sectors in October 2020. Their findings were published in The New Normal of Sector Skills Report[ii], and digital marketing was the top digital skill that employers felt employees lacked.
• The World Economic Forum (WEF) has identified Digital Marketing and Strategy Specialists to be the top sixth emerging job role for Singapore[iii]. That’s not all, however: digital marketing skills come in second in WEF’s list of cross-cutting, specialized skills of the future!

Just how much do digital marketers earn?

According to the 2020 Singapore Salary Guide published by Kelly Services with data from job placements and recruitment professionals reporting[iv], digital marketing executives earned between SGD2,800-SGD 4,700 per month. Digital marketing professionals in senior roles such as Digital Marketing Specialist or Digital Marketing Manager took home SGD4,500-SGD 6,000 and SGD6,000-SGD 11,000 per month respectively.

Marketing Managers and Assistant Managers, in contrast, commanded between SGD4,000-SGD 6,000 monthly—a reflection of the importance of digital skills today.

2) You’ll never have a boring day at work

Changes are constantly afoot in the digital marketing world!

As a digital marketing professional, you’ll have to pay close attention to new technologies and continually evolving algorithms. For instance, Google had the digital world up and alert after announcing a significant algorithm update that will be completed by the end of August 2021. Digital content publishers will have to optimise their sites or pages to be more user-friendly and make sure they meet Google’s new Core Web Vitals metrics, in response, or risk losing search traffic and page rankings.

As you troubleshoot advertisement campaigns, conduct A/B testing and watch your efforts generate trackable and tangible results—increasing brand reputations and driving business growth—you’ll grow in creativity as well as adaptability.

Here’s a bonus if you choose to work in an agency setting: you’ll get exposed to different industries as well as clients with a diverse range of backgrounds. You could be working on promoting a beauty treatment one day, dish detergent the next, then vacation homes the following week. You’ll be challenged continuously and be able to better consider things from multiple perspectives, something highly necessary in today’s globalised world.

3) You’ll acquire highly transferable skills

The workplace has changed a lot from our parents and grandparents’ time: gone are the days when an individual would stay in the same role throughout their entire career. 69% of 19,000 millennials polled by ManpowerGroup, for example, across 25 countries including Singapore, have expressed that they would not stay in a role for longer than two years[v].

Today, nearly one-third of Singaporeans switch jobs every 1-3 years on average for various reasons[vi]. Many ‘traditional’ jobs have and will be displaced by ‘hybrid’ roles that require a variety of hard and soft skills[vii].

Whether you aim to explore different industries or desire to stay relevant, digital marketing skills will definitely help you become a more versatile and agile individual! 71% of employers are currently looking to hire employees with broader skill sets, and 35% view digital marketing as a valuable supplementary skill[viii]. Digital marketing professionals can also find work across a multitude of sectors—every industry needs marketing—or in marketing agencies where they’ll service different client accounts. In fact, according to information provided by LinkedIn for Marketing Week[ix], over half of the top 10 marketing skills on the rise are digital!

How can you work towards the digital marketing industry?

While there are many free resources out there that you can start out with, consider taking up a digital marketing course if you’re serious about entering this field! This allows you to obtain both an academic qualification and industry-relevant certification to bolster your chances at success.

A well-structured course like PSB Academy’s Diploma in Business Administration (Digital Marketing) will let you dive straight into learning key business and digital marketing techniques, instead of spending time doing guesswork and sifting through countless sites to hunt down exactly what you need. You’ll also get to learn from industry-experienced lecturers alongside fellow digital marketing enthusiasts, and graduate with the Google Analytics Individual Qualification ahead of your peers.

If your passion for digital marketing has grown during these 12 months, you can progress on to study the Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Digital Marketing awarded by Coventry University. Diploma graduates may enjoy direct entry into Year 2 of the programme, and study everything from consumer behaviour to creative advertising development. You’ll also work towards becoming job-hunt ready, by assembling a portfolio that you can show to prospective employers through the Digital Marketing Portfolio module.

We hope you’ve gained more knowledge about this intriguing field, and wish you a wonderful and engaging time learning and working in digital marketing. We can’t wait for you to create compelling content and campaigns that convert!

[i] https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/resources/talent-acquisition/jobs-on-the-rise-sg#trends

[ii] https://www.ntuclearninghub.com/sector-skills-report-2020/

[iii] http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2020.pdf

[iv] https://www.kellyservices.com.sg/page/resources/salary-guides/

[v] https://www.manpowergroup.com.sg/wps/wcm/connect/754983e5-6060-451e-8237-ec0c5f6d1475/Millennial+Careers+2020+Vision+%28Singapore%29.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

[vi] https://www.rgf-hr.com/rgf-talent-in-asia-2020-all

[vii] https://www.oxfordeconomics.com/recent-releases/dd577680-7297-4677-aa8f-450da197e132

[ix] https://www.marketingweek.com/steep-rise-demand-marketers-digital/