From barely 1 percent in 1995, nearly 43 percent of the world’s population uses the internet today. Customers today increasingly make purchase decisions and transactions online. with internet users crossing 300 million and growing steadily, business over the world are taking serious note of the same. Several companies are using digital media to harness and manage their brands, expand their customer base and engage their clientele. This in turn has put forth a new demand for professionals with knowledge and experience in the digital marketing field. So, if you would like to engage with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn as a part of your job and not sneakily, digital marketing could well be your cup of tea.
Interestingly, the digital marketers suggest that since the second half of 2006 there has been a significant increase in the search interest in digital or online marketing courses across most parts of the world. However, this fast paced steady trend initiated in India in 2011, all thanks to the increasing penetration of internet and social media popularity that is foreseen to ever grow. 
Pradeep Chopra
To tell about all the available opportunities in the field of Digital Marketing, Pradeep Chopra, CEO, Digital Vidya. With 15 years of experience in this fraternity, Pradeep is a serial entrepreneur and a sought after speaker on digital marketing and entrepreneurship whose article have been published in Wall Street Journal, Inc Magazine etc.
During conversation with Pervin Malhotra, experienced Career Counsellor, Pradeep primarily cleared off the air on the question put by former i.e. ‘is there a specific career in digital marketing or are there aspects of digital marketing that can be used to enhance your career depending upon what you are currently pursuing?’ He stated that someone who is not even a graduate or who has just graduated can look at building a career in digital marketing, standalone. While if someone who has done an MBA, can look at an overall integrated marketing, where digital is a part of it. However, digital marketing is not embedded in MBA programmes. But, there are certain academic institutions that have started to do some kind of programme to include digital as a part of it. Also, for fresh graduates, it is imperative to know the fact that digital media is playing a crucial role in education. For instance. if someone wants to do a market research or study analytics, then there is lot of value that one can derive from this medium.
Pradeep emphasized on the fact that someone who has recently graduated, then that is the best time to acquire digital marketing as skills. Moreover, there are bright prospects of building a rewarding career in Digital Marketing. Besides, someone who plans to build a career in Human Resource domain, digital is playing a critical role. Moreover, the customer service representatives need to understand this medium as their customers are operating on this medium.
Interestingly enough, the chat on Careers in Digital Marketing was taken up during the Digital India Programme, that was launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on 1st July at country’s capital city with a view to create a participative, transparent and responsive government. The programme includes projects that aim to ensure that government services are available to citizens electronically and people get benefit of the latest information and communication technology.
PM @narendramodi launches #DigitalIndiaWeek on Jul 1. Follow us now & join the movement! #DigitalIndia @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/qEvgKklumx
— Digital India (@_DigitalIndia) June 29, 2015
Q&A During Interaction With Pradeep Chopra:
Ques) A person who has done his MBA and has around 4-5 years of experience is sales. How is this course beneficial to him?
Pradeep: It is important to understand that large organizations are looking at people who understand overall marketing, because their marketing budget has digital component increasing. So, they need people who come from traditional marketing and who understand digital. In my opinion, someone who is into conventional marketing or is into sales with over 5 years of experience, should not look at switching their profile because then you are going to be compared with a fresher.
At the same time, someone who is into sales and marketing, these are critical skills that will accelerate their profile and look for a profile within the existing organization where digital becomes important or an organization which appreciates digital as part of the overall digital marketing strategy. For a sales professional, it is not going to be a more as a brand as their individual presence is making a striking difference to their respective organizations. So, a sales professional when has these skills, in my opinion is much more ready to excel.
Ques) We have seen lately many people using Digital Marketing in terms of email campaign in real estate industry. What more can be deployed to create a differentiation from other people?
Pradeep: Any industry where the customers are on this medium, digital makes sense. It could be any industry like pharma companies, health care companies etc. So, what is important is if your customers are online, you need to look into where are they. Personally, I know a lot of real-estate companies that are using digital other than email, for instance search. If you look at both parts of search, paid as well as organic, because people search for when they are making a decision of buying a property, they are searching on search engines. SO, using SEO which is the organic part of digital and SEM which is the paid part of digital, it is a great opportunity to generate leads. So, other than email marketing, I think definitely SEO and SEM are important.
Similarly, if you look at social media, I know a lot of companies that use Facebook and even LinkedIn for reaching out to targeting specific audience. For instance, lot of builders have projects meant for specific target audience based on location, based on age, based on profile, based on salary bracket. This medium allows you to target to reach out to them. I think, that is where search as well as social will play a role.
Moreover, we should not treat digital marketing as an IT or software development piece to outsource because this is very core to your business and no one is going to understand your customer better than you. So typically in a start-up digital marketing has to be owned by the owner or in a large enterprise by a chief marketing officer. Then, you have a choice to either hire an agency or build an internal team. I think in both the cases, if the founder or the marketing head does not understand this medium, your efficiency in hiring right people or working with agencies is going to be inefficient. Both choices are fair; ideally, if you do it in-house over a longer period of time, you are going to get more advantage. But at the same time, when you yourself do not understand, the learning curve is likely to be higher and that makes sense to take support of external agencies.
Ques) I want to do my graduation with BCA + MCA. Is it necessary to have MBA degree to get started in digital marketing?
Pradeep: If you are really passionate about technology as an area, then a part of digital marketing is development in design area, especially today the mobile part of it. So, when you are looking at building a mobile application, which is very critical today, the UI/UX, the overall development piece, I think other than what you are learning there, the best is to develop an app by yourself, get your hands dirty, think about and start working on how can you promote it. I think in this industry, the best part is when you can experience it yourself and there is nothing which can stop you from experiencing it. I think you do not need a formal degree after BCA, if you are really passionate. The businesses that are built in this industry, are typically built by much younger people than other industries.
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