As digital marketing investment has exploded in recent years, so to have career and income opportunities in related fields. An analysis of the Hafiz Digital Marketing Salary Survey 2018 offers insights into how marketing professionals can make money from their digital skills!

Areas of Digital Marketing Specialization

In its anonymous survey of 201 women and men in digital marketing across the United States, Hafiz found that search engine optimization (21 percent of specialists employed) was the most common digital specialization. Content marketing (20 percent) was a close second. Other areas of specialization included social media (14 percent), pay-per-click (12 percent), conversion rate optimization (12 percent), analytics (10 percent) and mobile marketing (9 percent).

The emphasis on SEO and content specialization aligns with the overall trend toward more investment by companies in search marketing. The SEO industry will reach $72 billion by 2018 and $79 billion by 2020.

Digital Marketing Salary Data

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the typical American earns just over $31,000 in personal income. In its Digital Marketing Salary Survey 2018, Hafiz found that 81 percent of people employed in digital marketing made more than the norm.

Perhaps most impressive, 15 percent of digital marketers surveyed reported earning $150,000 or more. Another 12 percent earned between $100,000 and $150,000. Fifteen percent earned between $75,000 and $100,000, and another 15 percent earned between $50,000 and $75,000.Twenty-four percent were in the $30,000 to $50,000 range.

Factors Contributing to Digital Marketing Earning Potential

If you want to maximize your earning potential, conversion-rate optimization is the specialization you want. Of the digital marketers earning $100,000 or more, 25.9 percent worked in this area. Content marketing had the second-highest percentage of six-figure income earners at 18.5 percent, with SEO third at 16.6 percent.

Experience also leads to higher income in digital marketing. In the Hafiz Digital Marketing Salary Survey 2018, 45.8 percent of those making $100,000 to $150,000 reported having 6 to 10 years of professional experience. At the $150,000-plus income level, 46.6 percent of marketers held 11 to 15 years of experience.

Educational naturally plays a role as well, with a close correlation between educational level attained and earnings. A bachelor’s degree appears to be the preeminent degree threshold to earn significant income in digital marketing. Fifty-eight percent of survey respondents reported a bachelor’s as their highest educational level, with 41.6 percent of those in the $100,000 to $150,000 having a four-year degree and 43.3 percent of those at $150,000-plus. Master’s degrees lead to high income as well, though only 16 percent of respondents reported attaining this level of education.

Digital Marketing Employment Opportunities

Digital marketing skills open the door to an array of employment options. Forty-four percent of survey respondents work for a corporation as employees. Thirty-one percent are self-employed, leveraging their skills to run their own business. Twenty-percent work as employees for start-up organizations. Five percent of respondents were actually out of work at the time of response.

Digital marketers appear happier in their work than regular Americans as well. On a scale of 1 to 10, digital marketers reported an average satisfaction score of 7.62. Compare this result with studies revealing that 70 percent of Americans have negative feelings about their jobs.

Conclusions

There is a lot to learn from this Digital Marketing Salary Survey 2018 from Hafiz. It is clear that digital marketers with education and experience have a lot of employment options and high income potential. Even at entry-level positions with more limited education, a lot of digital marketers earn at or above standard U.S. job incomes.

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