What Is a Digital Marketing Specialist and What Do They Do?

With the Internet playing an important role in how businesses operate and reach their customers, taking steps to improve how you show up in the digital space is vital. 

One of the first and most important steps a business will take to improve its digital impact is to hire a digital marketing specialist.

What is a digital marketing specialist?

A digital marketing specialist is a professional who helps businesses reach and engage with potential and existing customers online. Digital marketing specialists leverage various marketing channels, from search engines to email, to help companies reach people most interested in their products or services.

What does a digital marketing specialist do?

Digital marketing specialists often have many responsibilities that help the business meet its marketing objectives and drive customer engagement. They may be responsible for creating a marketing strategy and goals, running marketing campaigns, and creating the relevant content for those campaigns.

Depending on their role, a digital marketing specialist may:

• Identify new customer bases and ways to reach them
• Raise brand awareness to let prospects know what the business is, what services or products it offers, and where it operates
• Build brand authority to create trust
• Create marketing assets and collateral, such as blogs and videos
• Monitor and analyze marketing campaign performances to find ways to improve results
• Ensure the marketing strategy aligns with company goals and objectives

Key skills digital marketing specialists have

While some digital marketing specialists specialize in one particular aspect of digital marketing, others take on a broader role that requires them to wear several hats. Depending on their responsibilities, a digital marketing specialist may have to take on the role of a:

• Search engine optimization (SEO) specialist, which requires finding and effectively using keywords in copy, creating SEO-friendly content, and optimizing the business website for search engines.
• Copywriter, who writes quality copy that engages the reader and accurately reflects the business’s voice. 
• Editor and proofreader, whose responsibilities include fine-tuning any copy and checking it for inaccuracies, grammatical errors, and more.
• Graphic designer, who creates digital graphics for the business’s marketing collateral.
• Paid ads specialist, who creates online ads, runs them on platforms such as Google Ads, and optimizes their performance. 
• Website designer, who creates and maintains websites that accurately represent the brand, are easy to use, and help visitors become customers.
• Social media specialist, who engages the community and shares important updates with your audience

Many digital marketing specialists are also skilled with platforms like Google Analytics, Google Ads, Semrush, and Ahrefs, amongst others.

Does every business need a digital marketing specialist?

Every business can benefit from having a digital marketing specialist — it really comes down to budget. 

For a small business, a digital marketing specialist may not be a need simply because it’s not in their budget to hire one, despite the benefits. They may be able to get by doing the digital marketing on their own.

A larger business, however, needs a digital marketing specialist to manage their marketing and ensure their messaging gets across properly.

Some businesses may even hire an outside digital marketing agency to help their in-house digital marketing specialist handle the workload.

Should I hire a digital marketing specialists or outsource my marketing to an agency?

When it comes to getting help with your marketing, you can either hire an in-house digital marketing specialists or outsource to a digital marketing agency.

Here are some factors to consider when trying to decide which is better:

• Cost: Hiring an in-house digital marketing expert comes at the expense of salary, benefits, onboarding, and other hiring costs. An agency is typically a monthly investment that you pay for the services you’re offered.
• Workload: You need to consider how much work you need done for your marketing when looking at a digital marketing specialist vs. a marketing agency. If you need a lot of marketing work done, the agency might be a better fit. If you have smaller projects, a digital marketing specialist can get the job done.
• Resources: If you need a lot of tools, for example, you’ll have to pay for those in addition to the cost of hiring a digital marketing specialist.  Many agencies will include tools as part of their monthly cost.

Need more than a digital marketing specialist?

Digital marketing specialists can have many different responsibilities, all of which are ultimately geared toward helping the business sell its products or services. Whether it’s a copywriter, a graphic designer, or an all-round specialist, digital marketing specialists can help a business achieve its goals.

But sometimes you need more than just a digital marketing specialist to execute your marketing.

That’s where an agency, like the one behind SEO.com, can help. With 25+ years of experience in digital marketing, we know what it takes to create digital campaigns that drive real results.

To see how we can elevate your marketing, contact us today!