I get approached with this question often. Are Interactive, Digital, and Online Marketing synonyms or does each hold a different job description? Quickly put Interactive, Digital, and Online Marketing jobs are each unique. Each requires different product and strategy knowledge. It is quite common for these titles to be used interchangeably in today’s marketing industry yet many who do so do not recognize they are making an incorrect reference. Below is a simple and straight forward breakdown.
- Online Marketing= a marketing campaign which is bound by an internet connection. The antonym of online marketing would be offline marketing which is better referred to as traditional or print advertising.
- Online Marketing Job Examples: banner advertising, remarketing/retargeting, SEO (search engine optimization), SEM (search engine marketing), social media, blogging, microsites, forums, and splash pages.
- Digital Marketing= a marketing campaign based from a digital platform. Digital defines the channel used to deliver the campaign in. The antonym of digital is analog.
- Digital Marketing Job Examples: mobile website, mobile application, mobile ads, email marketing, video marketing, texting campaigns, and podcasting.
- Interactive Marketing= encouraging active participation between the campaign and the user. This form of marketing can be implemented across both Online and Digital Marketing campaigns. The antonym to interactive is static.
- Interactive Marketing Job Examples: A Rich Media banner add which triggers you to enter your zip code so it can render a unique landing page providing a list of nearby stores in your location, a two way exchange twitter conversation, online gaming, commenting on a blog post.
Is one marketing title of higher stature than the other? Trending now, professionals strive for a digital title over an online marketing title. A digital title sets a precedent that your work experience is diverse across various products and platforms within the new media market.
Which title is most commonly used among the professionals themselves? I used the Google AdWords keyword tool to research what job title is most commonly entered to conduct a job search. To capture the most relevant results I filtered the job search under internet and media jobs:
- Interactive Marketing 40,500 global searches per month
- Digital Marketing 301,000 global searches per month
- Online Marketing 673,000 global searches per month
Ironically, we strive for the digital title yet we search online titles. I’d like to assume we are all savvy enough to cover all bases by searching all three terms if applicable. The take away, if you are an employer or hiring manager seeking to engage interactive, digital or online professionals take the time to define your target candidate and optimize your job titles and descriptions appropriately.
What will you title your next marketing position? Will your strategy be to title it accurately or to trigger the largest response in job applications by using the most popular title? Send your feedback to feedback@careerprofiles.com.
About Profiles:
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Profiles is a unique staffing firm specializing in online marketing, creative, Web & IT jobs. Since 1998, we have served the needs of our Clients and Talent by matching the best candidates with the best companies in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Author Name – Polly Marrangoni
Title – Marketing Manager
Location – Baltimore, MD
Twitter – @PollysNews
Byline – Polly Marrangoni spearheads the Marketing department for the Mid-Atlantic offices of Profiles. She has traveled and gathered over 6 years of Digital Marketing experience from successful startups in San Diego, CA to national organizations in Washington, DC.
