The other day, I found an interesting site collecting real-time data about trends relating to demand for Digital Marketing jobs within the wider IT sector. It looks like the site, ITJobsWatch, is primarily tracking IT related employment but it also seems to crawl more general, broader web jobs (i.e. not just strictly IT / Developer jobs).
Curious as I am, I input Digital Marketing into the search to find out more about trends, job locations, salaries in jobs requiring digital skills and so on. Here are three graphics that are particularly insightful - bearing in mind it's an IT jobs site and not one dedicated to Marketing or Advertising.
Graphic 1: Digital Marketing Jobs Demand Trend
This is a very simple, easy to understand visual representation of the considerable increase in demand for Digital Marketing skills, especially in the last 5 years. Brilliant - look where it's going! The only way is up 🙂
To share an anecdote from the 'pioneer years', my first proper digital marketing job was as Head of Social Media in 2007 and the stuff we did was so new that the agency wasn't even sure about my job title. My first contract said 'Head of Social Media Networks' and in a subsequent version, 'Networks' was removed. Funny, this, especially as nowadays even 'Media' has been dropped from a number of people's titles (a few friends of mine are now 'Head of Social').
Graphic 2: Digital Marketing Salary Trend
The median (not average!) salary for jobs requiring digital marketing skills has increased slightly over the years though it currently hovers around just under £40k. To be fair, there are more high earners nowadays (which may be due to the expansion of digital in general and the associated increase of senior roles); plus, I'm sure there will be some regional variety with Londoners earning more, which isn't just true for Marketing and IT roles.
Still, I'd say £40k is attractive - especially seeing that when you work in digital and you've a true passion for it, every day is fun and you just get paid for what you love doing anyway!
And I've not yet met a Digital Marketer that doesn't ADORE her or his job.
Graphic 3: Digital Marketing Salary Histogram
The above diagram, histogram to be precise, shows the distribution and frequency of salaries for IT jobs citing Digital Marketing.
So, yes, there are those that get paid over £100k, but not too many. But then again - who NEEDS as much as £100k? And what part of your soul do you have to give in return for these amounts?
Still, it's comforting to know that there are big bucks in this industry, if that's what's important to you.
For me personally, money isn't a good enough motivation or reason for choosing a career. I always tell my students that:
- most people hate their job [this is true - I know too many of them] and that
- they should therefore find a career that they LOVE, not one they HATE but do regardless, 'for the money'
And then I use Digital Marketing as an example for a great, fulfilling career that is also fun 😀 .
Hopefully the above graphics show that it really is worth it - it's not just well paid but there are also more jobs than people, and the industry is crying out for people skilled in Digital Marketing!
If you're interested in a career in in this area, check my blog post on How to become a Digital Marketer.
Or you could take the shortcut and get officially qualified within a year, with our new Digital Marketing Masters degree - the first practice-based course in Scotland - for which applications are now open. You'll probably hear me talk more about it in the upcoming months (it's so EXCITING 🙂 ).