A digital marketer plans and runs the online strategy that brings shoppers to a business, including search engine optimization (SEO), paid advertising, social media, content, email, and performance analysis across each task. They decide where a brand should show up online, what its core messaging is, and how best to turn visitors into customers.
Small businesses go about this work in different ways. Intuit’s 2025 Small Business Advertising Trends Report found the owner makes advertising decisions at 37% of small businesses, while 54% have a dedicated person or team (like a digital marketer) running marketing and advertising.
This guide covers what a digital marketer is, what they do, and whether or not a business owner can do their own digital marketing.
What is a digital marketer?
A digital marketer is a professional who promotes a business through online channels like search engines, websites, email, and social media. Their job is to make a brand visible in the spaces customers spend time online and give those people a reason to buy.
Unlike general marketing, which can include print, radio, and in-person events, digital marketing happens entirely online, so results like clicks, email opens, and orders can be tracked.
Here’s how digital marketing works in practice: the marketer chooses a goal, like more first-time orders, pinpoints the best channels to reach new shoppers, creates content or runs ads to promote the brand, and analyzes the results to see how the campaign performed. This becomes a cycle that repeats again and again within a marketing plan and helps to set budgets and priorities for each month or quarter.
How much of a digital marketing strategy one person can cover depends on the size of the business. The SBA Office of Advocacy reports, as of February 2026, that 82.3% of US small businesses had no employees, which means the owner is likely to act as the digital marketer at these companies. A first marketing hire can help take that over. As the business grows, that overarching digital marketer role can break down into specialist roles for each different strategy.
What does a digital marketer do?
A digital marketer plans online campaigns, implements them across different areas, and measures which ones perform the best. Intuit found that US small businesses were estimated to spend as much as $640 billion on advertising in 2025, and part of a digital marketer’s role is deciding where that spend goes.
A typical week for a digital marketer at an online store might include:
- Reviewing website metrics. Check last week’s sessions, conversion rate, and sales by channel to see what changed.
- Updating SEO. Rewrite page titles and meta descriptions on top products, or write a blog post around a popular search term.
- Running A/B tests. Compare multiple versions of a product page headline, button, or email subject line.
- Adjusting paid placements. Move more budget to ads with higher performance, like those with lower cost per acquisition, and roll back the rest.
- Sending email promotions. Schedule a campaign to a customer segment, like shoppers who bought in the past 90 days.
- Creating social media content. Record a short Reel using trending audio to promote a new line of products.
- Reporting results. Summarize key performance indicators like revenue, return on ad spend (ROAS), and new subscribers for the owner or team.
AI tools can help with that workload. In a 2025 Shopify survey, 75% of store owners said they use AI tools,* and The CMO Survey reported in March 2026 that AI use in marketing had more than tripled since 2022. Sidekick, Shopify’s AI commerce assistant available right inside the admin, can generate blog posts and product descriptions, analyze store data, and answer any questions you might have about running your online store.
As an ecommerce business grows, the digital marketing work can split across more specialized titles. Here are some common roles and what they do for an online store.
| Role title | What they own | When a store might need one |
|---|---|---|
| Digital marketing manager | Strategy, budget, and channel mix | You’re marketing on several channels and want one person accountable for results |
| SEO specialist | Keyword research, on-page SEO, and site structure | You want more traffic from search without running ads and paying per click |
| Paid media (PPC) specialist | Google Ads, Meta Ads, and other ad accounts | Your ad spend is high enough that small changes in cost per click affect profit and you need someone to manage it full time |
| Social media manager | Content calendar, community replies, and creator partnerships | You’re struggling to keep up with consistent posting, or you don’t have time to respond to comments or DMs across all your platforms |
| Content marketing manager | Blog posts, guides, and video | You want a steady publishing schedule that answers customer questions |
| Email or retention marketing manager | Email, SMS, automations, and segmentation | A large share of your revenue comes from repeat customers |
| Marketing analyst | Reporting, attribution, and testing | You manage several channels but can’t tell which one produces sales |
Learn more about digital marketing strategies, plus find a Shopify tool you can use to help with that work.
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization focuses on boosting a store’s online presence in search results by optimizing a store’s pages for search algorithms, making them easier for search engines to find and understand. A digital marketer needs to research the search terms shoppers use to find their products, then write product pages around them. They’re also responsible for fixing technical issues on the website like broken links or slow-loading pages.
In Shopify, every product, collection, page, and blog post has an editable search engine listing with a page title, meta description, and URL slug. You can also add image alt text from the media library, which describes each product image for both search engines and screen readers. Shopify generates your sitemap, robots.txt file, and canonical tags automatically.
Paid advertising (PPC)
PPC advertising means paying each time someone clicks your ad. Google places ads in Search, Shopping, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, and on third-party publisher websites, with each placement targeted by search term, location, and audience. For example, a local artisan soap company might run Google ads shown only to people in their shipping area who search for natural skincare.
From the Shopify admin, the Google & YouTube channel dashboard lets you create Performance Max campaigns that promote your products across Google’s ad placements. For Facebook and Instagram, digital marketers use Meta Ads Manager, Meta’s tool for creating ads and setting their audience, budget, and placement. A PPC specialist tracks metrics like click-through rate, cost per acquisition, and ROAS.
Social media marketing campaigns
Social media marketing involves creating and posting content on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or Pinterest, and interacting with followers. For example, a boutique shoe store owner might share behind-the-scenes videos on Instagram and reply to customer comments or DMs. Some businesses hire a social media manager to run this specific type of digital strategy.
The Facebook and Instagram by Meta sales channel syncs your Shopify product catalog to storefronts on Facebook and Instagram, so followers can browse your products on both platforms. It also connects Meta Pixel and the Conversions API so you can track which posts and ads directly led to sales.
Content marketing
Content marketing focuses on creating blog posts, videos, and guides that answer shoppers’ questions and introduce them to a brand. The goals tend to be ranking in both search results and AI tool citations, as well as having resources available for customer questions and concerns.
For example, an online pet supply store might publish tips for new pet owners that target searches like “how to train a puppy,” giving the store a chance to appear when those shoppers look for answers. Product pages count as content, too, helping online stores appear when shoppers search for specific products.
Shopify has a built-in blogging tool, so you can write, schedule, and publish posts that are optimized for search without a separate platform. Sidekick can help draft posts and product descriptions for you to edit if you want to build out an AI content creation process.
Email marketing and customer retention
Digital marketers manage a brand’s email lists and write newsletters, welcome sequences, and abandoned checkout reminders meant to turn subscribers into first-time buyers and first-time buyers into repeat customers. Segmenting the list by factors like purchase history, location, or engagement lets brands send each email to the specific group of customers it applies to. In the Shopify admin, you can build segments like this in Customers > Segments.
Adam Davis, senior marketing manager at Magnolia Bakery, says seasonal segments shape their email calendar.
“If a customer’s ordering a pie for Thanksgiving, we want to make sure that Shopify is tagging that customer as such,” he says in a Shopify Masters interview. “We import that list into our email database and send an email [next Thanksgiving] about pies to people we know who have purchased pies in the past.”
Shopify Messaging handles email and SMS communication from the Shopify admin. Stores on eligible plans get 10,000 free emails each month, then pay $1 per 1,000 additional emails. In supported countries, you can also send SMS marketing campaigns to customers who’ve opted in.
Data analysis
Digital marketers look at data and metrics like website visits, email open rates, and conversion rates to see which strategies are working. In a 2025 Shopify survey, 77% of store owners said they track total sales, while fewer than half said they track profit margin, traffic, average order value, or conversion rate.* Those metrics are still important because they can show where sales are coming from and what each order is worth, which can help shape a marketing strategy.
Shopify Analytics is available on every Shopify plan and includes a customizable dashboard plus reports on sales by channel, sessions, conversion rate, and average order value. To track a promotion across channels, go to Growth > Campaigns and use Shopify campaigns to combine newsletters, social posts, and other activities into one campaign with its own links, QR codes, and attribution data. You can also connect Google Analytics as a third-party option to get an extra view of your website traffic.
Can you do your own digital marketing?
You can do your own digital marketing, and many store owners start out that way. In the 2025 Shopify survey, 53% of store owners named word of mouth as their most common first-year growth strategy, and 35% named building a social media presence.* Both of those tactics rely more on time than on ad spend, which is something to consider when you’re also running your business.
If you want to try managing your own digital marketing until you’re ready to hire a dedicated marketer, focus on a few channels and use the tools available to you in your Shopify admin:
- Get found in search. Fill in the search engine listing and alt text for your top products, and publish blog posts that answer customer questions.
- Build an online community. Post consistently on one or two platforms, reply to comments and DMs, and sync your product catalog through Facebook and Instagram by Meta.
- Email your customers. Set up a welcome series and abandoned checkout automation in Shopify Messaging, and send segmented promotions.
- Encourage word of mouth. Partner with microinfluencers whose audiences match your customers, and give happy buyers a reason to share.
- Test and measure. Check Shopify Analytics weekly, run one A/B test at a time, and group each promotion into a Shopify campaign.
- Add paid ads with a set budget. Start small on Google or Meta, and scale only the ads with a cost per acquisition below your profit per order.
How long you can DIY your own digital marketing depends on how much time you have and your overall growth goals. When marketing starts to take so much of your time that you’re pulled away from product and operations, or your ad spend starts to grow past what you can monitor, it may be time to bring in an agency, freelancer, or full-time hire.
*Based on a 2025 survey of 500 Shopify merchants conducted in English across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Respondents were established merchants with more than two years on the platform. Results reflect the experiences of this specific sample and may not be representative of all merchants.
What does a digital marketer do FAQ
What are the duties of a digital marketer?
Digital marketers promote brands, products, and services online through multiple digital channels. They generate interest in a company through blog posts, social media ads, and email campaigns. A big part of the job involves digging into data to see which strategies are working and which aren’t.
What skills are needed for digital marketing?
Digital marketers need a mix of creative and analytical digital marketing skills. They’re comfortable with content creation such as writing, design, and video; they understand social media and advertising platforms; they have some knowledge of SEO; and they can interpret data to make decisions and adjustments.
How do I pursue a digital marketing career?
To become a digital marketer, you can learn through on-the-job training within a brand’s marketing department, pursue a formal degree in marketing, or take online courses that focus on Google Ads certification, Facebook advertising, or SEO fundamentals. Networking can also help you meet digital marketing professionals at events and through online communities, which can open doors to job opportunities.
What are common types of digital marketing?
There are many different types of digital marketing strategies, including:
- Search engine marketing. Using SEO and paid ads to appear in search results.
- Content marketing. Creating blogs, videos, and guides to attract customers.
- Social media marketing. Connecting with audiences on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
- Email marketing. Building relationships and generating repeat business through email campaigns.
What does a digital marketer do for a business?
For a business, a digital marketer is responsible for getting found online and turning visitors into customers. They decide which channels take priority, run the campaigns, and report which ones produce sales. That reporting helps guide the budget and determine when the business is ready for specialized hires.
