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With the world as a potential customer base, selling on the Internet seems like a no-brainer. In practice, however, it looks more like a climb. And you might have been wearing flat-soled shoes. And you're not even trained.
According to the Digital 2020 Report, last year there were 3.8 billion people active on social media worldwide, while total Internet users exceeded 4.5 billion. Of these:
- 80 percent of people aged 16-64 have searched online for products (or services) to buy
- 90% visited an online store and
- 74% purchased online.
Lots of potential customers, but also lots of competition. So how do you get the right people to find you? The first answer is to ask a digital marketer for help. The second answer is become a digital marketer.
What is digital marketing
Before talking about the profession of the digital marketer, it is good to clarify the concept of digital marketing, to understand what you are up against.
By digital marketing we mean all those marketing activities that we are already familiar with (from the promotion of a brand to the actual marketing of a product), which, however, use digital channels (i.e., the Internet) to develop their business network.
Indeed, in order to optimize available resources, a digital marketer absolutely must be familiar with concepts such as SEM (Search Engine Marketing, which is all activities aimed at optimizing a site’s visibility on the Web) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization, which is about optimization activities of ranking a website in search engines).
A digital marketer must also be able to analyze online activity trends (through, for example, tools such as Google Analytics), be familiar with the world of advertising and be able to communicate effectively.
What does a digital marketer do
Thus, the digital marketer is a digital marketing expert, that is, a professional figure who, using all the tools mentioned above, is able to analyze the market, identify a target clientele and create targeted sales strategies to generate sales.
In addition to purely technical skills, a good digital marketer is also able to engage users emotionally through content creation (using storytelling, for example). But this is not a restrictive definition: as we shall see, each path can be different, and the digital marketer’s skills need not cover every area of digital marketing.
The ten best web marketers to follow in 2021
Much of this profession, removed from the technical skills, lies in the innovative ideas of digital entrepreneurs. Therefore, it is not possible to define a true sketch of a digital marketer, nor to outline a typical course of study. The best way to discover the secrets of web marketing is through the stories of those who have made it.
1. Veronica Gentili
Facebook Marketing Expert | Linkedin, Instagram
Co-founder of Glisco Marketing, in 2016 Veronica Gentili was certified by Facebook as a Facebook Certified Planning Professional and in 2020 as a Facebook Certified Buying Professional. She is considered one of the 50 most influential experts in Ad Tech in the world.
He has written several books: Facebook Marketing Strategies and Tactics for Businesses and Professionals (Flaccovio, 2015); Facebook Marketing Plan (Flaccovio, 2017); Advertising on Facebook and Instagram. 50 Practical Tips for Successful Ads (Flaccovio, 2019) and Professional Social Media Manager (Hoepli, 2020).
His clients include La Stampa, Tradedoubler, Arena Water Instinct, Millionaire, GEDI (formerly L'Espresso Group), K-WAY, Flying Tiger Copenhagen, Diego Dalla Palma, Assottica, and many others.
2. Marco Montemagno
Digital Entrepreneur | Linkedin, Instagram
Marco Montemagno calls himself a "self-entrepreneur," which to him means being resourceful and able to reinvent yourself day after day, experience after experience.
He has worked in TV for SkyTg24, editing the technology programs "Ioreporter" and "Reporter Diffuso." He has created several startups: Blogosphere (later sold to Sole 24 Ore), Startup School, Slashers (which encapsulates its community) and 4books, a subscription service that offers monthly summaries of four books devoted to innovation, business and technology.
He is credited with importing Social Media Week to Italy, considered among the 10 most innovative and revolutionary events in the world that aims to explore the social, cultural and economic impact of the web, digital and social networks.
3. Dario Vignali
Entrepreneur and traveler | Linkedin, Instagram
Dario "creates for a living and for fun." He is founder and co-founder of Marketers (Italy’s largest and most important community for entrepreneurs, companies and young revolutionaries), Yoga Academy, Onlab and other digital companies. In 2019, he was named by Forbes as one of the most influential under-30s in business and has also been involved in advanced training in marketing and business for more than 5 years.
On their site they collect tips for blogging, copywriting and social media marketing. They also have a podcast where they share tips on digital marketing.
4. Luca La Mesa
Social media strategist | Linkedin, Instagram
Luca La Mesa is president Procter&Gamble Alumni Italy, and was honored by P&G Alumni Global as one of the 40 most deserving under 40 worldwide. After working in Marketing for Unilever and Procter&Gamble, he specialized on the study of advanced social media marketing strategies and innovation techniques, with special interest in the world of sports.
Its clients include AS Roma | Francesco Totti #MioCapitano, Francesca Piccinini #ConLeAzzurre (most viral campaign on Twitter Italy October 2014), Superbike World Championship SBK, Pirelli, FENDI, Bulgari, Versace, Mediaset, La7 and many others.
To date, he divides his time between consulting to top brands and training in academia as a lecturer in Marketing & Social Media. Over the years he has taught in HEC Paris, Sapienza, John Cabot University, at LUISS Summer School, at Sole24 Business School and is the 1st Top Teacher in Italy of Ninja Academy. Winner for two consecutive years, as a mentor, of Wind Startup Award. Unicredit StartupLab Mentor. Co-Founder or investor in other companies and startups.
5. Gianluigi Ballarani
Entrepreneur | Linkedin, Instagram
Gianluigi’s philosophy is "I don't look for clients, I create them, and that is how he founded Hotlead, an agency specializing in Web Direct Marketing. He lives in London and operates in several countries beyond England, including Canada and Russia.
Through his experience at Hotlead, he has created marketing strategies in over 200 industries based on lead generation, or the generation of customers through the Internet. Sign Digital Marketing at the Pavia School of Economics. He has also written a book, entitled Creating Customers in which through the true story of an entrepreneur he explains, in simple and practical language, how direct marketing works on the Web.
6. Ruben Santopietro
Entrepreneur and area marketing expert | Linkedin, Instagram
Ruben Santopietro is the founder of Visit Italy, nominated at the EU Web Awards as Europe’s best portal and with a current fanbase of 242 thousand followers on Instagram alone.
In 2016 he founded Marketing Italia, a high social impact startup whose incoming model has become a case study at eight universities in Europe.
Together with his team of professionals specialized in digital marketing applied to tourism, he is in charge of promoting and enhancing Italian territories, typical products, cultures and excellences by giving travelers from all over the world the chance to live authentic experiences and learn about the best places in Italy. Marketing Italia boasts a community of more than 2 million users and more than 1,000 partners throughout the country.
7. Chiara Bacilieri
Marketing Psychologist | Linkedin, Instagram
Chiara Bacilieri works in applied marketing psychology, meaning she studies how the mechanisms of the human mind influence purchasing decisions and behavior, and how this translates into marketing and sales strategies. This knowledge is then applied to digital marketing and big data analytics to help brands establish a more "human" and empathetic relationship with customers, tailoring the customer experience to the individual differences in each buyer’s personality.
He is currently Marketing Psychology Advisor for a team of experienced AI, Data Science and consumer psychology professionals at Neosperience, a global reference technology company in Customer Analytics.
8. Rudy Bandiera
Divulgator | Linkedin, Instagram
He describes himself as an "author, creator, anchorman, online-offline lecturer and gamer." His job is to help companies and professionals understand what will happen in the future between technology, social, business and digital transformation.
He is a lecturer in Online Marketing at university masters and companies. He is the founding partner with Riccardo Scandellari of NetPropaganda s.r.l. His blog Rudybandiera.com is considered among the 50 most influential blogs in Italy in an absolute sense and among the top 15 in the field of costume and society. He was listed by Wired among the 50 Italians to follow on Twitter.
He has written four books: Create Effective Content (Flaccovio, 2019) on content creation, Share et impera (Mondadori Electa, 2017) on persuasion, The 42 Universal Laws of Digital Charisma (Flaccovio, 2015) on the human/digital relationship, and Risks and Opportunities of Web 3.0 (Flaccovio, 2014).
9. Roberto Esposito
Communication strategist | Facebook, Instagram
Roberto Esposito is certainly a figure who stands out in the Italian and international marketing scene, not only because of his age (he started out very young, and today he is 35 years old and has several businesses under his belt), but especially because of his ideas; not surprisingly, his motto is "I make my ideas happen."
At 15, Roberto created CrashDown, a portal dedicated to TV series, which grew to such an extent that it became the largest community of fans in Italy and even managed to convince Warner Bros. to produce a new season of the series Roswell. His career is studded with Guinness World Records: in 2011 for "the Facebook post with the most comments in the world" (commented on in 3 months by over 600,000 people) and again a few months later for "the post with the most comments in the world in less than 24 hours" as part of a Greenpeace International campaign.
In 2012, he founded DeRev, the company he now leads as CEO that focuses on digital communication strategies and crowdfunding (also used by public administration entities, public figures and politicians), followed by the startups Giffoni Innovation Hub and Forekeep. In 2013 he was included in the Digital Democracy Leaders by the European Parliament and Microsoft, and in 2018 he was selected among the Top 10 Italian Leaders by Leadership Arena. Creative and outside the box, he has created an early 2000 version of his own site, which is called www.otisopseotrebor.com.
10. Luca Mastella
Digital Entrepreneur | Linkedin, Instagram
Luca collaborates with Marketers, the largest community of professionals in the world of Marketing created by Dario Vignali. He is the founder of Learnn, a digital platform (or an "ecosystem," as he calls it) for those who "want to do, learn and grow." It offers highly qualified courses to acquire the skills needed today, but also job opportunities as it stimulates partnerships and contact with companies.
Bonus: useful resources for digital marketers
As we have seen from the biographies of top digital marketers, not only technical knowledge counts in this field, but also creativity and secondary skills are rewarded, which enrich personal training and professional possibilities. Here are what skills are most useful for a digital marketer, with a reference person for each skill.
Content creation
Riccardo Corsano | Linkedin, Instagram
Today, more than ever, it is important to communicate effectively. This means not only [creating accurate and direct text](/content-writing/effective writing) but, especially in digital marketing, being able to create memorable content. Chino.says, a.k.a. Riccardo Corsano, is a young content creator who addresses branding and brand communication issues on his Instagram page for both corporate and personal profiles. On his profile he shares insights, tips and techniques for communicating effectively: a most useful resource for anyone interested in the world of digital marketing.
Web Design
Giorgio Taverniti | Linkedin, Twitter
It is true: the webmaster is perhaps a somewhat different figure from the digital marketer. However, having a solid foundation in web design never hurts. One of the most useful resources is that of Giorgio Taverniti, who founded one of the most active Italian forums dedicated to SEO and web development, Giorgiotave.it, with the goal of becoming a meeting point for Italian webmasters looking for materials for their websites. In the webmaster guides section, he tries to explain the more technical aspect of websites, providing guides on html, php, web design, and search engine ranking, all combined with tutorials and ready-to-use scripts.
Over the past three years, he has trained more than 7,000 people in the classroom and online through the GT Master Club platform.
SEO
Giorgio Taverniti (again)
The web is full of content regarding SEO, however, Giorgio Taverniti’s blog does not only provide guides but also publishes "pills," news and updates on everything in this field. An essential resource not only for learning the basics, but also for staying abreast of the latest innovations.
The transition to online marketing
We talked about what digital marketing is, read the stories of influencers in this field, and discovered some secrets of web marketing. But specifically, what can digital marketing do for your business?
If you already have a business, digital marketing can complement traditional sales activities and strategy and can increase the reach of your market; taking your business to the Web will in fact allow you to break down physical barriers and reach your audience regardless of geographic area.
But let us remember that quantity does not always mean quality: having a wider audience, in fact, does not necessarily mean more sales. You will need to localize a targeted target of people interested in your product.
Once you have identified your target audience, thanks to digital marketing you will be able to monitor buyer behaviors and create ad hoc sales strategies, targeted to the real needs of your customers, and position your website so that customers find your product at the right time.
Let’s not forget that digital marketing is not just about data, numbers and percentages: a lot goes through social media. Through a strategy of [effective communication](/content-writing/ effective writing) you can differentiate and promote your brand. Direct contact with the customer and the use of techniques such as storytelling also create a personal relationship between customer and company, facilitating loyalty and a solid bond with consumers. As mentioned at the beginning, there are more than 4 billion users on the Internet: your customers are out there, you just need the right strategy.
Did you know? Localizing your website, in addition to helping you reach new users and new markets, allows you to rank better on search engines and ensures a better user experience: users in fact prefer to shop on a site available in their native language. There is always someone interested in your product, they just don't know it yet: [contact us](/contact us) and we will let them find out.
