The digital marketing industry is one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors in the world today.
Recent statistics valued the market at around 321 billion USD in 2022 – and it’s expected to get even bigger over the next five years. To put it lightly, this is an industry you want to pay attention to if you’re keen to make money.
Everyone relies on marketing in some format. Businesses need it to promote their products to paying customers. Freelancers need it to promote their services and gain clients. Even schools depend on marketing to try and lure in prospective students. The world is marketing crazy, and digital marketing is at the heart of it all.
According to Statista, 64.4% of the global population uses the internet regularly. This is partially why digital marketing is growing so rapidly. As more and more people use the internet, the demand for digital marketing tactics goes through the roof. Thus, there are many ways to make money in this industry.
Whether you choose to go down the freelance route or start a business, it’s good to know which ideas are the most prosperous. Below, you’ll find plenty of top concepts or ideas that can generate a lot of cash for budding marketers:
SEO Services
There’s no better place to start than with SEO. Some of you may be aware of this statistic, but 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine. SEO is all about optimizing sites for search engines. In turn, this helps them rank highly, boosting the chances of the site being seen and clicked on.
With so many people beginning their online journeys with a search engine, you can see why SEO services are in demand. Companies or website owners want to be seen, and SEO is the only way to do this organically. Yes, they could pay for ads, but if users have AdBlock installed, they won’t see any promoted results.
Furthermore, the ins and outs of SEO can be complicated. Did you know there are on-page and off-page SEO? Have you ever heard of things like keyword research, link building, or sitemaps? Most business owners don’t know the first thing about SEO, which is why they’ll pay top dollar for these services.
It’s well worth learning about search engine optimization as it’s such a profitable service to sell. There are different types of pricing models for SEO you can offer too; give a basic service to cater to smaller websites, then increase the features of your service as the price rises. SEO best practices change all the time, so this is one of those future-proof jobs that keeps on rewarding.
Web Design Services
You’ll see websites mentioned a lot, and they are basically what digital marketing revolves around. The goal of most marketing strategies is to drive traffic to a website. This is how most sites make money – either through selling things, generating leads, or getting lots of views on blog posts.
Consequently, there’s a massive need for professional web design services. Studies show that 48% of people look at web design as the number one way they determine a business’s credibility. In other words, if a website doesn’t look up to scratch, it’ll be hard for the owner to make money.
If you have the skills – or learn them – web design can be extremely profitable. You’re able to charge outrageous rates, and people will blindly pay them. One key area to focus on is responsiveness. With the rise in mobile searches, websites need to be more and more mobile-friendly. People that offer web design services with responsive web design as part of the package are likely to earn a lot of money.
Social Media Marketing Services
Another huge area of the digital marketing industry that you need to pay attention to. Social media marketing continues to get bigger and bigger, with new ideas and concepts introduced year after year. Back in the day, social media marketing largely revolved around creating viral posts and getting people to follow you. Now, there are things like stories, reels, videos, social media ads, and so much more.
This makes life interesting for a budding entrepreneur who’s keen to start a business. You have two different tactics when it comes to social media marketing services:
- Focus on organic social media marketing
- Focus on social media ads
Well, there is a third option – combine the two.
Organic social media marketing services will cover everything from creating social media posts to talking to followers and handling the customer service side of things. It’s a great way to help businesses grow their social presence by focusing on generating new followers. But, it can also help brands direct traffic to their website.
Social media ads are the best ads on the planet. They’re designed to be native ads, meaning they blend into their surroundings. Go on Instagram right now and scroll through your feed or flick through stories. You’ll encounter numerous ads that look exactly like organic stories or posts. Users are way more likely to look at these and be interested in them because they’re not too promotional or in-your-face. Plus, social media has excellent ad targeting, ensuring the right people see the right ads. Bottom line; if you start a social media ad agency, you could earn an absolute fortune over the years.
Content Creation Services
Content is everywhere in the digital marketing world. Looking at the business ideas above, a good handful of them will end up outsourcing content creation services to other agencies. This can include copywriting, video production, digital art, podcasts, and many other types of content.
When a website has content, it can be used to improve SEO, draw in more traffic, or even promote things via affiliate links. Put simply, there is – and always will be – a massive demand for content.
The trick to being successful with this idea is to focus on one form of content. Copywriting is perhaps the safest route to go down. Every single website will need written content in some format. Be it blog posts, product descriptions, or general website copy; every site needs this to function correctly. So, if you’re a good writer, you may have found your calling.
Alternatively, think about your own talents as a content creator. Perhaps you’ve already go a successful YouTube channel and know how to make videos. You could start a business making videos for companies around the web. This might include promo videos, instructional videos, animated videos, advertising videos, or just general video content they can use on their blog or business YouTube channel.
Regardless of what content route you go down, this is an idea that can be very rewarding.
PPC Services
PPC was briefly mentioned when we discussed SEO earlier. If you cast your mind back, you’ll remember that paid ads were spoken about on search engines. This is an example of PPC; businesses bid on ads and pay a fee whenever they’re clicked. These ads will appear at the top of search engines, giving them priority over organic results. Consequently, they’re extremely popular, especially as they blend in and aren’t over the top.
Despite AdBlock software stopping these ads from appearing, there’s still a lot of money to be made in this domain. It is partly complicated, but if you learn how to run and manage PPC campaigns, this could be a profitable venture to consider.
General Digital Marketing Services
Lastly, you could go down a more general route. Start a business offering general digital marketing services. Here, the idea is that you put together campaigns or plans for different businesses and brands. These campaigns will include all of the things we’ve mentioned before, plus any other relevant digital marketing techniques.
You handle everything for the client, which means they don’t have to go to individual vendors. It’s a big task to take on – especially if you have numerous clients at the same time. You could outsource a lot of the services to other agencies, which saves time for your company. But, the underlying marketing strategy and campaign are managed by you.
If you’re up for it – and it will require a lot of investment – this could be a fantastic business idea that makes you wildly successful.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the digital marketing industry is one to keep an eye on if you want to make money. It’s worth a fortune, and it keeps on growing. The best thing about it is that marketing services will always be needed. Sure, some of the tactics and ideas may change, but you can adapt while you work. There will always be a need for services that help companies and brands promote themselves.
Those of you with a background in digital marketing can easily make a name for yourselves in this industry. Look at the ideas and services above that you can provide to clients. Pick whichever one you like the sound of the most, and give it a go. You could start as a freelancer and maybe build a business if you get super successful.
