How Much Will Digital Marketers Make In 2017?

While traditional skills are still needed, tech-driven skills are what brands require from digital marketing talent as C-Level executives continue to shift budgets from IT departments to marketing teams. Marketing positions like the chief marketing technology officer, demand generation analyst, and UX/UI design roles will become the highest in demand during the next 12 to 18 months, according to findings of a survey released Friday.

Marketers will be expected to have search skills as well as knowledge of data tracking, demand generation, mobile optimization, and cross-channel attribution, according to Mondo's survey of more than 300 digital marketing professionals, from management to C-level executives at startups to Fortune 500 businesses.

The Digital Marketing Salary Guide identifies the latest hiring trends, new technologies, changes within the industry, and salaries. Similar to the attributes that Google expects from marketers, this shift means industry executives will need to focus on building authority and voice, elevate engagement by focusing on user design, and improve mobile offerings.

How much will chief marketing officers make? The Mondo study estimates between $40,000 and $238,000. Chief marketing technologists will take home between $140,000 and $241,000; VP of digital marketing, $96,000 to $206,000; VP of ecommerce, $133,000 to $226,000; VP of interactive, $97,000 to $185,000; VP of marketing communications, $106,000 to $203,000.  

Most of the positions focusing on organic and paid search will see a bit of a bump upward in salary in 2017. Director of SEO and SEM will vary between $103,000 and $158,000; manager of SEO and SEM, $85,000 to $126,000; and SEO and SEM analysts between $62,000 and $107,000.

Proofreaders will see a 10% increase; social media directors, 9%; and copy editors, 7%.

Behavioral tracking, progressive profiling, and customer surveys are the top three ways that marketers will use data to personalize the customer experience. Since driving qualified leads into the marketing funnel remains a priority, some 82% of marketers plan to increase the use of the data generated from their customers' behaviors to improve the user experience.

For organic and paid search, the future relies on customer engagement and user experience. Some 57% of managers attribute organic to more than half of their content reach. The future of organic search relies not only on SEO when it comes to content, but also a more informed and greater reliance on the intent, context, and usefulness of content.

Although Mondo data suggests the use of paid search continues to decline, 71% of marketers report that it remains part of their digital marketing strategy. Some 48% of surveyed marketers say paid-search budgets have either declined or remained the same.

Rather than focusing solely on SEO strategy, marketers are beginning to allocate funds to programmatic advertising on social sites and native advertising.

Phoenix, Seattle, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and Charlotte will become the hiring hot spots. Indianapolis professionals with experience related to SEO, paid search, email marketing, social media marketing, and mobile optimization, as well as app development, are in high demand. Charlotte will become one of the top cities for SEO and other specialized digital marketing roles.

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