Finding your way through different Digital Marketing roles

If you’re interested in starting a (new) Digital Marketing role and had a look on the job hosting websites on what kind of roles there are available in Digital Marketing, you might get overwhelmed by all the different roles and job titles. There are many different Digital Marketing roles out there, and the diversity in roles depends on the work field or specialisations, seniority level, and organisation type, size, and structure.

Different work fields

As explained in our last post ‘What’s it like to work in Digital Marketing?‘, Digital Marketing is in touch with other aspects of the business and because every organisation is set-up and managed differently, the Digital Marketing roles at organisations differ as well. The work fields within Digital Marketing range from broad work fields touching other disciplines of the business to very specialised roles.

Broad work fields, to which Digital Marketing could be part of the role:

• Generic Marking
• Marketing & Sales
• Marketing & Product

Digital Marketing work field, to which most to all aspects of Digital Marketing are included in the role. There are different names for essentially the same type of Digital Marketing work field:

• Digital Marketing
• Online Marketing
• Performance Marketing
• Growth Hacking / Growth Marketing

Specialisations are disciplines of Digital Marketing. Rather than managing multiple channels in a generic Digital Marketing role, roles in these fields are specialised and focussed on one Digital Marketing channel:

• Paid Search / Search Engine Marketing (SEM) / Pay Per Click (PPC)
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Social Media Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Programmatic Marketing
• Data Analytics / Web Analytics

Not that these work fields lists aren’t complete as different organisations come up with different names for different marketing related work fields.

Seniority in Marketing roles

Often the role or job title indicates the seniority level of the role. Just like the variety of titles used to express the same work field or specialisation, there are many different names to express the seniority level of a role. These are a selection that you might have seen when browsing job openings, listed from junior to most senior levels:

• Executive: executional role, very junior
• Coordinator: involves more responsibilities than an executive, but still relatively junior role
• Assistant: working with or below a direct manager
• Specialist or Consultant: applied to both junior and more senior positions, experience is relevant
• Manager: widely used term and could involve low to medium level or responsibilities. Team management might be included.
• Director: senior level job, often responsible for overall team and project performance
• Chief Marketing Officer (CMO): highest positioned marketing role, often in larger companies, working alongside the CEO of a business.

Impact of organisation type and size on role responsibilities

The need for and dependence on digital marketing on business performance varies per industry and per organisation type and size.

Organisation Types:

• Client side (B2B / B2C):
  • Often a more generic role
  • It helps if you love the brand
  • You’ll be part of an integrated team
• Agency
  • Offer specialist roles in the area or the agency
  • It’s a dynamic and fun environment to work in
  • The working hours vary based on live projects and pitches
  • Often the pay is relatively low, compared to similar roles on client side
  • The agency could work with clients in particular industries or work with a diverse list of clients in many different industries.

Organisation size:

• Small:
  • Marketing or Digital Marketing roles at small companies are often more generic roles.
  • Working for a small business means that it’s an agile role and could change when the business takes on a new direction.
  • It would be an independent role as there are likely not many other people in the business with knowledge and experience in marketing
  • Working in a small business makes it a more personal environment in where you’re in contact with many if not all employees.
  • The career opportunities are often not widespread and would depend on business growth
• Large:
  • In large organisations you find many people within marketing roles which makes their roles quite specific. The specialisation could come from covering a specific marketing channels, like social media management, or you’d work on a specific project or product/service.
  • You’d find people in the business with the same or similar role. You could share ideas and learn from each other.
  • Larger organisations tend to be slower paced than small organisations as the decision-making process take longer with more people involved.
  • The career opportunities in large organisations are diverse, with opportunities to work for different project or products/services, or develop upwards to a more senior role. Because many people work at large organisations, there is turnover which means that people leave naturally.

To summarise:

A role as a Digital Marketing manager at a large B2B organisation is very different to a Digital Marketing manager’s role at a small marketing agency. To find out what suits you, you’d have to find out what drives or motivates you, what suits your personality and your personal values, and how you’d like to progress in your career.

In the following blog post we’ll discuss those different career paths within Digital Marketing so that you’ll get a better understanding about in future possibilities. You can read more about “What’s it like to work in Digital Marketing” on our page for Talent as well.

For comments or questions, please reach out to Lidy (Founder of Lente) via Lidy@LENTE.com.au.