What does an E-Commerce Marketing Specialist/Manager do?

[CDUB]

I'm interested in this particular field. I would like to gather info, perhaps from someone that is a E-Commerce Manager or currently works in the realm of this position. What type of background would be good for this position, could working in this area be rewarding and what are some of the long term benefits?? Thanks for your responses

[Aidan]

Hi

I work in this area - online marketing consulting, working with small & medium sized businesses to help them gain more business by improving their marketing (whether that be online or offline, as I have experience in both)

On the e-commerce marketing side, this involves

- Website building (this depends on your technical knowledge whether or not you'd want to actually build the websites yourself, as it is fairly easy to find someone who can and outsource, but you would probably be involved in directing this)
- Social media marketing (using Facebook, Twitter, Linked, Youtube, Google+, and some more specialist social media platforms as applicable for getting a business message out there
- (SEO) Search Engine Optimisation, which means allowing the company's website to be found more easily in Google (mainly) and other search engines for targeted keywords. This can involve other tasks such as article & forum marketing, backlink building, and some others which impact on this area
- Email marketing - setting up and running / monitoring systems for contacting customers via email
- Monitoring, analysing and reporting on all of the above, and tweaking to improve

That's a fairly short synopsis of what would be involved in the role.

With regards to type of background for the position, I started in computer programming, and then moved over to project management, marketing and sales, so it's been a natural progression as it combines all of those areas. But it would suit someone from either a marketing or IT background, and you'd have to work on learning the other area (I believe that marketing is the more important of the two, as then you can understand how customers think first and then apply the IT, but that's just my opinion)

Is it rewarding? Depends what you're looking for - I'm self-employed and it can be challenging - if you like being your own boss then you can go that way in consulting. If you'd prefer the security of a regular income (nothing wrong with that), then there should be opportunities for permanent employment (not sure where you are)

One of the long term benefits is the fact that it's definitely a growing industry, so there will be more and more opportunities as time goes on.

Two downsides would be that there is a lot of competition, and it's constantly changing so you need to really work to keep up with it

I update a blog which is for small / medium sized business owners which deals with online marketing tips explained in a non-techie way , etc - feel free to keep an eye on that. There's also a free e-book on small business marketing if you'd like to download (it's about 10-12 pages) that too. My blog is at http://www.aidanbreslin.com

Hope that helps in some way - good luck with whatever you decide to do

Best regards

Aidan