The digital world is seeing tremendous growth every day, and matching with the pace of this change can be a difficult task. Keeping up with the dynamics of the changing digital landscape can be a huge challenge for some, especially for those who own a business and are having difficulty marketing their products or services and making sales.
However, you do not need to go through all the trouble alone when it comes to passing through digital transformation. There are professionals known as Digital consultants to provide you with the required support and achieve your objectives using their vast knowledge, and it is not required to be part of a large organization to use their services.
In addition, if you are a tech-head, and have the knowledge about the working of SEO, social media, user-friendly design, and other important virtual practices, then you might want to try working in the digital consulting industry, maybe as a side hustle or full-time job.
In this article, we have tried to put in all the information that you need to know on how to become a digital consultant, including the skills, degree, or training required for digital consulting jobs.
About Digital Consulting
Digital consulting has multiple services under its umbrella; SEO support, IT counselling, site design, and social media are a few of this expansive list of services. Despite the fact that digital consulting includes a wide range of services, it primarily depends on the effective implementation of the company strategies across digital platforms.
Usually, a digital consultant’s job description asks them to work on multiple strategies and tasks simultaneously, which makes their work of utmost importance. For example, one minute, they will be helping you with the insights into online advertising, and another minute, they might be helping with the integration of new software on the company level.
The extensive goal of digital consulting is to provide necessary guidance and support to a company in digitally implementing its plans for the achievement of its objectives. This could entail various activities, such as creating a user-friendly website, website content optimization for search engines, advising on the best social media hashtags and times to post, managing email or text marketing services, or evaluating digital marketing activities.
How to become a Digital Consultant?
If you are an enthusiast of technology and wish to support businesses of all scales in achieving their goals through digital transformation, then digital consulting is the one for you. We have specified here everything you need to know before setting your foot in the digital consulting industry, such as required training and education, the average salary you get for digital consulting, skills needed to become a digital consultant, as well as the graph of growth in this field.
Education
When put in terms of data, the majority of digital consultants, that is, around 67 percent, have a bachelor’s degree, followed by 18 percent, who have a master’s degree. About 10% of professionals in this field have an associate degree, and around 1% of consultants have doctorate degrees.
What are digital consultants required to study in order to get started in this field? Many digital consultants have a marketing, communications, or business degree. However, there are digital consultants who start on this career path from a variety of backgrounds, including economics, computer science, journalism, and graphic design.
Furthermore, you do not need to get a higher education degree to begin your journey in this field. Around 2 percent of digital consultants have a high school diploma, and there are additional certifications and training that they can take, which will help them in gaining the required skills to start their career in digital consulting.
Training
Irrespective of the type of their degrees, digital consultants can continue to better their abilities and learn more about the ever-changing digital landscape by attending different relevant training during their career journey. Securing certifications is an excellent approach to demonstrate your skills and abilities.
Among digital consultants, Google Data Analytics is one of the most reputed and preferred certifications. You may want to study and get relevant certifications for these topics as well: Digital marketing, SEO, social media, blockchain, IT, web design, and coding.
Skills
This list of digital consultant skills is an extensive one. Moreover, there are a few digital consultants who may have a specialization that they focus on, while there are others that offer all-inclusive, comprehensive consulting services. Following are the areas of focus:
- Digital strategy: This skill requires the digital consultant to effectively use technology to improve a business.
- Social Media: Digital consultants will work towards increasing the engagement and number of audiences through both organic as well as paid posts on different social media platforms.
- Marketing: Digital consultants will use their expertise in marketing through different types of content, such as email, text, social media, and others.
- User interface and web designing: Digital consultants will work towards increasing the traffic of the business’s website by making necessary updates to make the user interface more efficient and friendly.
- Project management: Digital consultants will be expected to strategize the big-picture initiatives and work on day-to-day projects.
Salary
Today digital consulting has become an in-demand service among different businesses and industries, and getting expertise in this sector means a six-figure salary. Below are the salaries at different levels:
- Entry-level salary: The entry-level digital consultants make a salary of around $70,000 per year.
- Average salary: The average salary for digital consultants is around $92,000 on an annual basis or $44 an hour.
- High-end salary: The top 10% of professionals in this field earn about $120,000 on an annual basis.
Digital consultants in these U.S. states tend to earn the highest salaries: California, Washington, Delaware, Virginia, and Rhode Island. Undoubtedly, the digital consultants in the tech capital of San Francisco earn the maximum salary for this job in the United States.
Though businesses of all types and scales can seek advantages from digital consulting, usually, large organizations in industries such as healthcare and insurance pay the highest compensation for digital consultants.
Potential Growth
There has been a continuous growth in the demand for digital consulting services among different businesses, as they are learning about the resourcefulness of digital consultation services. As per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the projected growth of digital consultants is 20 percent through 2028. In addition, a report from Statista shows that the digital consulting market was expected to reach $53 billion in 2021.
Why are Digital Consultants important?
Digital consultants can totally change the game of a business. Nowadays, around 70% of the most effective corporate marketing techniques are based on the internet, such as websites or email marketing, which are areas where digital consultants specialize.
McKinsey’s digital transformation is an ideal example here. McKinsey Digital is a leading firm that offers digital consulting services and helps businesses grow through digital consultancy. Recently, McKinsey helped a pizza retailer in increasing their sales and conversion by creating an innovative online platform, which resulted in a 40% increase in conversion and 7% sales growth.
Similarly, McKinsey Digital was associated with the development of the first fully digital bank. During its introduction, it became the most trending topic on Twitter, with over 19 million social media impressions.
Digital Consultants help in the virtual growth of businesses.
Bringing a digital consultant is the perfect solution if you want to grow your business by increasing engagement with your customers, and it will also make your business more efficient for your team. On the other hand, if you have a knack for technology and you see you have got the right skills, then you can put your expertise into use by being a digital consultant to both small, local businesses as well as larger organizations.
It does not matter if you provide digital consulting services or seek the services. It is beneficial for both parties. Digital consulting benefits firms in a variety of ways, from improved web design to more successful content marketing and, ultimately, increased lead creation and sales.
