So you decided to pursue a digital marketing career path and are curious about what your career may look like in a few years?
Or, maybe, you're still deciding if a digital marketing career path is the right track for you.
Either way, we've got you covered! In this article, we'll be sharing:
- 1Digital Marketing Careers To Pursue
- 2The Digital Marketing Career Path: Roles, Skills, & Progression
- 3Digital Marketing Salaries (Entry-Level, Mid-Level, & Senior Level)
- 4Level-Up Your Game: How To Step Into A New Digital Marketing Role
Digital Marketing Careers To Pursue
There are several different career opportunities you can explore in the digital marketing field. However, different industries might require more expertise in specific areas.
For example:
- A digital marketing role at a tech startup might focus heavily on social media campaigns, content marketing, and SEO to drive traffic and engage users.
- A digital marketing role at a retail company could emphasize e-commerce strategies, customer journey mapping, and email marketing to boost sales and customer retention.
- A digital marketing role at a non-profit organization could offer opportunities in digital fundraising, community engagement, and advocacy campaigns to support cause awareness and donor contributions.
Not all companies will demand every specialty, but every specialty has a place within many different companies!
So, if you're thinking about which digital marketing career you should pursue, it might be a good idea to first consider what kind of company you would like to work for.
Maybe you'd like to work for a company in big tech.
Maybe you're aiming for a recognized brand in retail.
Or, maybe, you'd like to join a non-profit.
You will find different digital marketing opportunities with different scopes and setups. Having clarity about where you'd like to be within a certain time frame is key to deciding which path is right for you.
Most skills you need for a digital marketing career are transferable across different roles, industries, and companies. The purpose of the exercise is so you can look at the opportunities on your horizon and decide where you'd like to be in the short term and eventually down the road!
💡 Pro Tip:
If you're struggling to find out where you'd like to be, check out the article “What Should I Do With My Life? A Step-By-Step Guide” and read it from top to bottom. If “digital marketing” still feels like the right path, head back here and continue reading!
Once you've set your mind on your career path, it's time to understand what roles might be a good fit for you.
The Digital Marketing Career Path: Roles, Skills, & Progression
We've selected the most common digital marketing roles for each level and their job descriptions. Take a look below!
Entry-Level Digital Marketing Roles
Most people begin their digital marketing careers in specialist roles, such as:
Digital Marketing Coordinator
This role offers broad exposure to different digital marketing activities and doesn't usually require extensive experience.
📝 Digital Marketing Coordinator Job Description: Responsible for supporting various digital marketing campaigns, managing social media profiles, and analyzing metrics to adjust strategies accordingly.
✅ Skills Required: Proficiency in social media platforms, basic knowledge of SEO and content creation, and data analysis skills.
⬆️ Possible progression: Digital Marketing Coordinators can progress into a Digital Marketing Specialist role.
SEO Assistant
This role requires a basic understanding of search engine optimization principles and practices.
📝 SEO Assistant Job Description: Responsible for assisting with keyword research, optimizing website content, and monitoring search engine rankings to improve traffic.
✅ Requirements: Knowledge of SEO tools like Google Analytics and SEMrush, attention to detail, and analytical skills.
⬆️ Possible progression: SEO Assistants can progress into an SEO Specialist role.
Content Marketing Assistant
This role generally requires creativity and the ability to produce engaging content that aligns with company goals but doesn't typically require extensive experience.
📝 Content Marketing Assistant Job Description: Responsible for assisting with the creation and distribution of content across various digital channels to engage audiences and support marketing goals.
✅ Requirements: Strong writing and editing skills, familiarity with content management systems, and understanding of content marketing strategies.
⬆️ Possible progression: Content Marketing Assistants can progress into a Content Marketing Manager role.
Mid-Level Digital Marketing Roles
As you gain experience, mid-level roles often involve more responsibility and the opportunity to lead projects or teams. Some common mid-level digital marketing roles include:
Digital Marketing Specialist
At this level, professionals are responsible for planning and executing digital marketing campaigns, analyzing their effectiveness, and making adjustments to optimize results.
📝 Digital Marketing Specialist Job Description: Responsible for managing multiple digital marketing channels, creating engaging content, and using data analytics to drive campaign success.
✅ Skills Required: Advanced knowledge of digital marketing tools and platforms, strategic planning skills, and strong analytical abilities.
⬆️ Possible progression: Digital Marketing Specialists can advance to roles like Digital Marketing Manager.
SEO Specialist
This role focuses on improving a website's search engine visibility and involves deep knowledge of SEO strategies and practices.
📝 SEO Specialist Job Description: Responsible for developing and implementing comprehensive SEO strategies, conducting site audits, and optimizing on-page and off-page elements for better rankings.
✅ Skills Required: Expertise in SEO, including technical SEO, content optimization, and link building, as well as proficiency with SEO tools.
⬆️ Possible progression: SEO Specialists can move into positions such as SEO Manager.
Content Marketing Manager
This role is more specialized than entry-level roles and requires the ability to oversee the entire content marketing process, from strategy to execution.
📝 Content Marketing Manager Job Description: Responsible for developing a content strategy, managing a team of content creators, and ensuring that the content aligns with the overall marketing goals.
✅ Skills Required: Strong editorial skills, strategic planning, proficiency in content management, and leadership abilities.
⬆️ Possible progression: Content Marketing Managers can progress to roles like Head of Content.
Senior-Level Digital Marketing Roles
Senior-level roles involve greater strategic oversight and leadership, often requiring professionals to guide larger teams and make high-level decisions.
Digital Marketing Manager
Digital Marketing Managers are responsible for developing the overall digital marketing strategy and ensuring that all marketing efforts support the company's objectives.
📝 Digital Marketing Manager Job Description: Responsible for leading the digital marketing team, overseeing all digital campaigns, managing budgets, and analyzing the performance to drive continuous improvement.
✅ Skills Required: Leadership, strategic planning, deep understanding of digital marketing channels, and strong analytical skills.
⬆️ Possible progression: Digital Marketing Managers can move up to roles such as Director of Marketing.
SEO Manager
This role requires deep expertise in SEO and is responsible for leading the SEO strategy and implementation to enhance website visibility and traffic.
📝 SEO Manager Job Description: Responsible for managing the SEO team, developing SEO strategies, and working closely with other departments to ensure SEO best practices are integrated across all content and digital marketing efforts.
✅ Skills Required: Advanced SEO knowledge, strategic planning, leadership, and strong collaboration skills.
⬆️ Possible progression: SEO Managers can advance to roles like Head of SEO.
Head of Content
This role oversees the entire content strategy for an organization and manages a team of content professionals.
📝 Head of Content Job Description: Responsible for developing and executing the content strategy, managing large content projects, overseeing the creation of multimedia content, and ensuring the content meets the strategic goals of the organization.
✅ Skills Required: Leadership, strategic thinking, proficiency in content creation and management, and strong project management skills.
⬆️ Possible progression: Heads of Content can move up to executive roles such as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).
Digital Marketing Salaries (Entry-Level, Mid-Level, & Senior Level)
Now that we’ve covered the most common digital marketing career paths, you might be asking yourself what the pay range is for each role.
To answer this question, let’s head over to one of our favorite tools for salary research: Glassdoor.
Glassdoor is one of the world’s top job and recruiting websites, where users can anonymously provide information about their companies – including their current salary. Glassdoor provides an average salary range for various roles based on the information sent by its users.
According to Glassdoor, the base salary for the most common digital marketing roles in 2025 are:
Digital Marketing Roles:
- Digital Marketing Coordinator (Entry-Level): $46K – $71K / year base pay
- Digital Marketing Specialist (Mid-Level): $48K – $82K / year base pay
- Digital Marketing Manager (Senior-Level): $68K – $120K / year base pay
SEO Roles:
- SEO Assistant (Entry-Level): $38K – $65K / year base pay
- SEO Specialist (Mid-Level): $50K – $90K / year base pay
- SEO Manager (Senior-Level): $59K – $106K / year base pay
Content Marketing Roles:
- Content Marketing Assistant (Entry-Level): $39K – $62K / year base pay
- Content Marketing Manager (Mid-Level): $62K – $107K / year base pay
- Head of Content (Senior-Level): $71K – $132K / year base pay
Level-Up Your Game: How To Step Into A New Digital Marketing Role
Whether you're looking for an entry-level job in digital marketing or aiming to advance in your digital marketing career, it's important to know that you don't necessarily need a graduate degree or specialization to move up the digital marketing career ladder. Your unique experience and skills can go a long way, as long as you learn how to sell them!
Here are a few tips and tricks that will help you land your next digital marketing role.
1. Run A Resume Scan To Find Out Skill Gaps In Your Target Role
Wondering if you are the right fit for that target role you've been eyeing?
We've got you covered.
Here's a simple, step-by-step guide to find out if you have the skills to land a job in digital marketing:
- 1Copy the job description of the digital marketing role that sparked your interest
- 2Head over to ResyMatch.io (or use our shortcut below)
- 3Grab a copy of your most updated resume
- 4Upload your resume on the left side
- 5Paste the job description on the right side
- 6Hit “Start Resume Scan”
Boom! ResyMatch will compare and score your resume against the job's description and identify missing skill gaps, such as:
ResyMatch will also make sure your resume is ATS compatible (ATS is a software that recruiters often use to track candidates through the hiring process). And of course, ResyMatch will provide suggestions and outline best practices you can use to edit and improve your resume!
Use our shortcut below to get started:
Scanning...
2. Update Your Resume With Compelling Resume Bullets
After you've compared your resume against your target job description, you will likely find yourself in one of two scenarios:
1. You have some missing skills that you'll need to master before taking on a new role — if that's the case, you can take action and start building those skills through online courses and a portfolio strategy.
OR…
2. You have already mastered most of the skills — if that's the case, all you need to do is update your resume with compelling resume bullets, leveraging the keywords found in your resume and job description scan.
To get started, you'll want your resume bullets to have just the right amount of hard and soft skills, action words, measurable results, and common words.
This means a compelling resume bullet for someone applying for a digital marketing role might look something like this:
Boosted social media engagement by 30% through targeted ad campaigns, leading to a 20% increase in brand awareness.
This bullet focuses on hard and soft skills specific to digital marketing, while also showcasing measurable results!
To help you write the perfect resume bullet, we've created ResyBullet.io, a free resume bullet analyzer that helps you write your resume in a way that grabs attention and illustrates value. Simply copy and paste your resume bullet below to begin your analysis:
ResyBullet will analyze and score your resume bullet and give you actionable insights for improvement.
Here's how our resume bullet scored on ResyBullet:
If you're a visual learner, check out our video that walks you through the step-by-step of writing a crazy-effective resume bullet:
3. Build A Visually Appealing, ATS-Friendly Resume
Now that you've updated the content on your resume, it's time to transfer it over to an awesome layout that's also ATS-friendly.
We recommend using a resume template so you can save the time you'd normally spend designing your resume and instead allocate it to your job search.
You can use ResyBuild.io, a free AI resume builder, to easily build and customize your resume in no time. Just pick one of the templates below and get started:
Free Job-Winning Resume Templates, Build Yours In No Time.
Choose a resume template below to get started:
Choose from 8 proven templates and easily create, edit, and customize your resume. ResyBuild's AI assistant also helps you craft personalized, job-winning bullets in a single click. Simply add your experience, hit “Optimize,” and watch the magic happen.
4. Don't Apply Online — Do This Instead
The most common next step in the process is to start applying for digital marketing roles.
While applying online can absolutely be the next step in your job search, the truth is, it will only get you so far. In fact, only 2% of resumes submitted for the average open role end up reaching the interview stage.
Sure, optimizing your resume will boost your chances of being a part of that 2%.
But some estimates, like this one from the Wall Street Journal, show that 80% of hires come from referrals.
This means your best shot at landing the role you've been eying is through networking.
And no, we're not talking about attending conferences, events, and meetups. We're talking about a fresh approach that really builds relationships and gets your resume to the top of the resume pile at companies like Microsoft, Google, Uber, and more.
You can read all about it in our flagship guide for effective job searching:
Read More: How To Get A Job Anywhere Without Applying Online
Final Notes
Whether you're just starting out or looking to advance in your digital marketing career, getting clarity on the possibilities ahead of you can help you navigate your career with more ease.
Just don't forget: your career path isn't set in stone. Jobs and career goals will often evolve with life transitions. Always remember that your career should adapt to fit your life and not the other way around.
