Learning is often difficult and painful, but you should never stop. Medium highlighted an interesting analogy on the topic, comparing it to a coconut in such a way that it is hard and messy at first, yet rich and sweet once you get to open it. Wherever you are on the business spectrum, whether you’re a wide-eyed student or a fresh graduate, a nervous first jobber or an influential decision-maker, you should always look to absorb new skills and adapt to the ever-changing demands of society.
A huge part of training is the principle of continuously sharpening your existing skills while acquiring new ones along the way. Considering that most companies rely on technology every single day – from recognising and reaching out to their target market, to planning and developing content – knowing how to learn and adapt can get you far in life. Training in anything related to tech and digital marketing can fill skill gaps, ensuring relevancy in fast-evolving areas of knowledge.
In other words, digital marketing is not just the future—it is the now.
Why Should Brands Invest in Digital Marketing?
Based on survey results from 2015 to 2016, Statista forecasts a rise in digital ad spending in the Philippines rising to 24% of total media ad spending by 2020. With Filipinos spending an average of 10 hours per day online, it’s only natural that Philippine businesses will be looking to take advantage of this.
This simply means that more and more companies are or will be putting a premium on web advertising and online content that foster specific brand experiences and resonate with their audiences. Of course, creating a strong online presence for your brand on powerful search engines, regardless of the organisation size, tells a completely different story.
Supplementing Your Online Presence
The ranking algorithms of Google, for instance, lean towards pages or websites that have amassed huge amounts of “link equity,” meaning they already have robust digital content and links. Knowledge in technical SEO is very important nowadays to guarantee a smooth transition from end to end. Additionally, this further cements the importance of having technical knowledge on SEO and reinforces the idea that there will always be a growing demand for digital marketing professionals across almost all industries.
The Future of Digital Marketers
The demand for online marketing positions is at an all-time high and will continue to grow in the coming years, according to business news aggregators B2C. More and more top marketing executives will look to constantly raise the bar of this digital innovation, placing a high value on hiring employees with progressive skillsets. This means that an array of online marketing positions—such as those that involve growth marketing and data marketing, experience and brand, even machine learning—will be some of the most sought-after, highly required jobs in the coming decade.
Now that we have established that digital marketing is an essential part of any business’s future, let us now shift our attention to the people behind it: the experts who put in the time and effort to learn and practice the subject. Other than the aforementioned web marketing roles, this includes key positions in social media marketing, web design, etc.
Embracing Professional Development Through Digital Skills
With an ever-growing need for digital services and skills comes the expected rise in online marketing hires, which also signifies the advancement of the professional development market. Business Wire emphasises this notion, particularly in the United States, where the industry is expected to produce revenues upwards of over Php 412 billion by 2020. Based on market trends of different segments and in all geographical regions, the number is more than likely to grow, as more educational institutions around the globe are starting on the grassroots level, focusing on STEM subjects for professional development.
The study also suggests that pre K-12 educators are gradually adapting technology-based tools like VR training and digital courses to subconsciously impart the importance of professional development to their students. This only reinforces the idea that having a high-demand skillset in a constantly evolving marketplace accentuates the need for specified training and continuous education.
In Conclusion
The concepts of learning and adapting represent the pillars of your overall development. Investing your time, money, and effort into incorporating something useful like digital marketing to your existing skillset makes you a valuable member of the workforce. At the end of it all, it is always nice to knock back the satisfying, somewhat saccharine juice of professional development.
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As the Philippines continues its transition into the digital world, remote work and freelancing is becoming more popular. If you’re looking for a place to settle down and get some work done, try our article on the ‘Best Cafés to Work and Study in Metro Manila’.
Daniel Ling is a tech writer, gamer, and cat dad. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology an indeterminate number of years ago, worked for a while in the IT industry, switched to startups, and now does writing in his spare time. If you want to catch up on the latest gossip about gadget releases, he probably already knows it, and if he doesn’t then he can at least Google it pretty quick. If you challenge him to a Star Wars trivia battle, you will lose.
