Roles and responsibilities in digital marketing and e-commerce

Associate-level roles in digital marketing.

Below are some examples of responsibilities for associate-level roles in digital marketing. These lists aren’t comprehensive but are intended to showcase a variety of responsibilities in each role.

Digital marketing coordinator*

• Marketing associate
  • Prepare reports on marketing and sales metrics
  • Collect and analyze customer behavior metrics, such as web traffic and search rankings. 
  • Coordinate with marketing teams to generate digital advertising materials.
  • Assist with ongoing marketing campaigns
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialist
  • Develop optimization strategies to improve search rankings
  • Implement keywords for SEO 
  • Monitor metrics to understand SEO performance
  • Update links for optimization of search rankings
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM) specialist
  • Identify customer personas to enable marketing to identified audiences
  • Perform research on keywords for SEO and Pay Per Click (PPC) ads
  • Monitor metrics to optimize paid search performance
  • Identify and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for SEM
• Social media specialist
  • Develop, implement, and manage a social media marketing strategy
  • Collaborate with sales and marketing teams on social media campaigns
  • Create content to build customer connections and increase brand awareness 
  • Monitor metrics in social media campaigns for customer engagement and content optimization insights
• Email marketing specialist
  • Create email marketing campaigns to promote products or services
  • Create an archive of emails for lead generation
  • Purge non-deliverable and unsubscribed email addresses
  • Use metrics to monitor the performance of email campaigns 

Associate-level roles in e-commerce.

Below are some examples of responsibilities for associate-level roles in e-commerce. These lists aren’t comprehensive but are intended to showcase a variety of responsibilities in each role.

• E-commerce analyst*
  • Implement e-commerce strategies to support business goals.
  • Set e-commerce goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) for key attributes like audience, acquisition, behavior, and conversions.
  • Monitor and analyze e-commerce metrics. 
  • Leverage e-commerce data for operational insights.

• E-commerce specialist
  • Develop and run campaigns to increase digital sales as part of an overall digital marketing strategy.!
  • Optimize paid advertising campaigns using SEO and other tools.
  • Manage an online marketing presence, including social media platforms.
  • Monitor metrics for spikes in website traffic or sales.

Advance to roles that further your growth

Starting an entry-level role in marketing or e-commerce is exciting, but after you gain practical experience and hands-on work using tools in that role, you might be eager to advance your career.  

If you’re ready for a new role, below are a few possibilities and a sampling of responsibilities for each.

• Digital marketing manager
  • Plan and execute digital marketing, including SEO/SEM, email, social media, and display advertising campaigns.
  • Measure and report performance and return on investment (ROI) for digital marketing 
  • Plan, execute, and evaluate A/B tests and experiments
  • Evaluate and improve the end-to-end customer experience across multiple channels and customer touchpoints
• Social media strategist
  • Manage and oversee social media content
  • Measure the success of social media campaigns
  • Monitor and analyze metrics to recommend effective content optimization solutions
  • Network with industry professionals and influencers using social media
• Account manager
  • Build and maintain client relationships
  • Ensure the timely and successful delivery of advertising solutions based on customer needs and objectives.
  • communicate the progress of initiatives to internal and external stakeholders.
  • Forecast and monitor key account metrics
• E-commerce product manager
  • Conduct market research.
  • Develop a product strategy for an e-commerce business based on analytics. 
  • Define website and mobile app functionality, and deliver an optimal user experience for both.
  • Understand business objectives and coordinate efforts to increase sales.

Key takeaways

Career progression is very individualized. Sometimes it can take less than a year to be ready to advance to the next level; often it can take a few years. Here are three signs that you could be ready to progress to the next level. 

1. You consistently meet or exceed job-related performance goals.
2. You’re assigned tasks associated with a higher-level role.
3. You recently asked for more work while performing your job.

Keep in mind that your career can advance at a speed that is right for you. Always be ready and open to new opportunities by demonstrating a positive attitude and a growth mindset in whatever role you’re in!