Last year, the Internet was the fastest growing advertising medium in the U.S. Companies increased Internet advertising spending by 39% over the year before. Branding is king, hence the need for savvy marketing campaigns to drive consumption and lead generation. Fully 40% of the online advertising dollar goes for ads on search programs like Google's AdWords, says advertising trend-spotter OnTrack Designs.

Regardless of the medium, marketing managers want to sell on a grand scale, not up close and personal. Yet a top challenge of interactive marketing is to deliver a personal feel to the consumer's e-business experience. Even in cyberspace, marketing means finding the connection between product and consumer. Marketing degrees are the first step to a lucrative marketing career, and no job path has more payoff potential than online marketing--for those who stay up-to-date with online trends.

Training to enter the e-marketplace

• A two year associates of marketing degree or AS in e-commerce introduces the student to the interactive environment. Part technical and part business, the associate marketing degree prepares the graduate to do market analysis, develop online promotions, and create and implement e-business plans.
• The real door-opener is the bachelor's degree in marketing. Working professionals who wants to enter the internet marketing field are in luck because online degrees, which are a hard sell in traditional and conventional business venues, actually put them ahead of the pack in e-business. After all, students get their online bachelor's marketing degrees in the very medium in which they plan to work. Not surprisingly, bachelor's degree programs include courses in internet applications as well as e-business management.

Advanced e-business

• Online certificate programs in e-business give managers who already have business degrees the credentials to pursue jobs in the interactive marketplace, teaching them about electronic payment systems, multimedia design, and interactive communications.
• Online master's marketing degree programs, like their bachelor degree brethren, confer tech credibility on their graduates. The master's marketing degree tells an employer its holder understands global and international marketing strategies, legal and regulatory constraints, the latest e-business technology, and market analysis techniques.

Online marketing careers

The job market in online marketing and interactive e-business took a hit in 2005 due to the sluggish economy, which in turn hurt job creation across the IT sector. Companies cut back on tech spending amidst a wave of new security concerns; identity theft scandals and phishing fears also made consumers wary of online shopping. At mid-year, 1,500 telecom jobs had been lost in 2005, added to the 11,000 lost over the course of the previous year; however, some job growth occurred in ISPs and search portals.

Nevertheless, Eric Brynjolfsson of MIT's Sloan School of Management sees these as short term setbacks in light of the long-run prospects for renewed productivity, as technological developments continue to offer new ways of online marketing. The e-business job seeker's safest bet is to think global, to research e-business management continually, and to design a self-marketing strategy. Why? Job title growth in IT changes rapidly, and position titles have multiplied faster than rabbits. Research by Marketing Improvement found 25,898 different job titles for IT managers alone--and that's just in the U.S. and Europe!

Sources:
"5 careers: Big demand, big pay," by Jeanne Sahadi. CNNMoney.com (Feb 6, 2006).
Dolezalek, Holly. "Online degrees." Training 40.5 (May 1, 2003).
Hollenbeck, Candice R., George M. Zinkhan, and Warren French. "Distance Learning Trends and Benchmarks: Lessons from an Online MBA Program." Marketing Education Review 15.2 (Summer2005).
Mandel, Michael. "Core Info Jobs Up a Meager 1,700 in May." BusinessWeekOnline (Jun 6, 2005).
Mohamed, Arif. "Careers." Computer Weekly (Dec 6, 2005).
OnTrack Designs (ontrackdesigns.com)
Strempel, Dan. "Slow IT investments have hurt job creation." Fairfield County Business Journal 44.17 (Apr 25, 2005).