Digital Marketing Roles and Responsibilities

Digital Marketing Roles and Responsibilities

Marketing projects and campaigns are only as good as the people who plan and run them. As more brands and organizations realize the importance of a solid digital strategy, it's essential to define the roles and responsibilities of digital marketing that add up to make a successful digital marketing team. 

Key digital marketing team roles include:

1. Digital marketing project manager
2. Digital marketing strategist
3. Social media manager
4. Content writer/creator
5. SEO specialist
6. PPC specialist
7. Graphic designer

Digital marketing job descriptions

From social media marketing to email marketing, there is a vast range of digital marketing specializations and responsibilities. Now, we will look into the key digital marketing jobs we have already highlighted for you and what kind of digital marketing skills are needed for each of these.

Digital marketing project manager

The success of the responsibilities of digital marketing teams rests on the digital marketing project manager. Digital marketing project managers oversee marketing projects from start to finish. They use project management tools and methods to streamline marketing workflows, processes, and systems in an organization. Knowing how to coordinate cross-functional teams and work with external teams and contributors is crucial for a digital marketing project manager.

Digital marketing project managers do not work directly on marketing projects. Instead, they manage the overall marketing project and teams working on them. When delays or schedule conflicts come up, they’re the ones to estimate their impact and implement alternatives. Once a project begins, they are responsible for establishing reporting mechanisms to monitor execution and quality.

Key responsibilities of a digital marketing project manager include: 

• Conducting marketing campaign reviews and gathering customer feedback
• Keeping track of project timelines and budgets
• Assigning and monitoring tasks assigned team members
• Planning, scheduling, executing new marketing campaigns and projects
• Codifying marketing workflows to increase efficiency
• Ensuring resources are well allocated for successful project delivery
• Developing and implementing change management in digital marketing projects
• Assessing, managing, and mitigating digital marketing risks

Digital marketer

A digital marketer executes digital marketing campaigns and projects by working on assigned tasks within the set deadlines and budgets. You can consider them the operators or technicians of a digital marketing plan. 

Digital marketers must stay up to date with the best digital marketing tools on the market to help them accomplish work faster and more efficiently. The responsibilities of a digital marketing manager include:

• Executing digital marketing tasks
• Creating consistent brand messaging
• Analyzing marketing campaign performances
• Using insights from past campaigns to optimize new ones
• Engaging with online audiences
• Working with external collaborators to bring the business and marketing goals to life
• Establishing key performance indicators related to marketing strategie

Social media manager

Social media platforms are the first customer touchpoint for many prospective online customers. Thus, social media management is at the heart of digital marketing duties. Social media managers spread the organization's message on social media. They monitor brand performance by tracking audience growth, engagement, organic reach, and click rates. The digital marketing duties of a social media manager include:

• Determining posting frequency on social media
• Responding to comments and replies
• Building a strong connection between customers and the business
• Collaborating with other marketing team members 
• Building social media strategy to increase awareness and engagement on social media

Content creators

Content creators include writers, videographers, and other creators who generate online content to achieve marketing goals. Content may be text, video, audio, or other types of media. 

Most marketing teams work with a hybrid team of content creators, including in-house and outsourced contributors. They create content for many digital channels, including blogs, emails, and videos.

Content creators are indispensable to marketing teams, as their work shows the quality of a marketing campaign. Content creators' digital marketing duties leave a lasting impression on everyone who comes in contact with them. The job description of a digital content creator can include:

• Maintaining consistency with brand messaging
• Generating new, creative content ideas to market company products and services
• Creating high-quality content 
• Collaborating with other marketing teams to execute successful digital marketing campaigns
• Creating SEO-optimized content to rank high on search engines

SEO specialist

An estimated 93% of all online interactions begin on search engines like Google. With good SEO (search engine optimization) strategies, organic traffic can become an excellent source of prospects for your business. 

Many Internet users don't go past the first search results page, so having an SEO specialist on your team is critical to digital marketing success. They ensure web content is easy to read, mobile-responsive, and optimized for search. They also maximize organic reach by optimizing website and blog content with the right keywords and SEO strategy. The digital marketing duties of an SEO specialist include:

• Defining and implementing keyword strategies
• Updating headlines, image alt text, and metadata to improve search engine ranking
• Managing tools like website and Google Analytics
• Creating SEO strategies to increase website conversions
• Optimizing content to perform on search engines
• Conducting SEO audits
• Generating reports covering SEO practices

PPC specialist

A PPC (pay-per-click) specialist is useful for companies investing in paid online advertising. PPC specialists leverage paid digital marketing channels to advertise to the target market and boost organic reach. 

Marketing tools such as Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs help niche ads find the right keywords for your target audience. PPC marketing tools are powerful in driving traffic, growing an audience, and meeting marketing campaign goals. Responsibilities of digital marketing PPC managers include:

• Segmenting the target audience
• Establishing key performance metrics
• Creating paid advertising copy
• Strategizing and executing paid marketing campaigns including display advertising
• Analyzing and optimizing active paid campaigns

Running online ad campaigns requires monitoring, iterating, and optimizing your content in real-time. It's advantageous for every marketing team involved in paid advertisements to have someone dedicated to the role, whether in-house or outsourced.

Graphic designer

Design is a crucial aspect of every digital marketing campaign. Clean and beautiful visual elements are no longer "nice to have"; they can make or break a campaign's success. 

Graphic designers play a significant role in creating engaging content and striking brand assets, e.g., logos, media kits, presentations, and social media posts. Consistent branding makes your brand memorable and recognizable for customers.

Although graphic design is one of the essential digital marketing team roles, many marketing teams work with freelance graphic designers through freelance and contracting platforms such as Upwork. The digital marketing duties of a graphic designer include:

• Creating visual elements for social media posts, content marketing, and other marketing purposes
• Executing design ideas for one-off marketing projects
• Coordinating brand assets for collaborating with other brands
• Creating brand design guidelines 
• Contributing to website design

Not all digital marketing teams are the same. Some companies have more roles, including brand manager, front-end developer, and community manager. You must define what digital marketing team roles are useful for your project and create a unique team to cater to your company's needs.