Which marketing and eCommerce roles are on the rise in Southeast Asia?

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Last year brought about new changes in the workforce, with businesses streamlining their organisation and individuals working from home. This eventually led to the need for digital and soft skills, as well as professionals upskilling and reskilling themselves to keep up with the times. As part of this change, the digital marketing space in Southeast Asia is seeing a growing need for a digital marketing specialist, according to a survey by LinkedIn.

The jobs in particular are social media manager, digital marketing specialist, social media marketing specialist, marketing specialist, and marketing analyst. The specific skills required for these jobs are social media marketing, copywriting, Google Analytics, lead generation, and digital marketing. According to LinkedIn, these roles are particularly popular in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Manila, and Bangkok.

At the same time, PR has also been catapulted into the spotlight as PR teams worked to ensure that the organisation expressed itself thoughtfully, quickly, and constructively to consumers during uncertain times. Popular roles in this space are PR coordinator, director of PR, PR specialist, PR manager, and PR officer. The skills needed include media relations, PR, press releases, event management, and social media marketing. According to LinkedIn, PR roles are highly sought after in Indonesia, particularly in Jakarta, Bandung, Denpasar, East Kalimantan, and Surabaya.

Meanwhile, 2020 was the year which saw eCommerce boom. Last year’s “Digital consumers of tomorrow, here today” by Facebook and Bain & Company said the growth of digital consumers in Southeast Asia, which was originally forecasted for 2025 in 2019, accelerated by five years within 2020 alone. Unlike several industries such as travel and hospitality, eCommerce escaped unscathed and capitalised on the lockdowns to draw more consumers.

This growing trend has led to a need for an online specialist and an eCommerce coordinator who are knowledgeable about online marketing, Shopify, eCommerce, SEO, and Amazon Seller Central. LinkedIn found that these jobs are popular in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and Manila.

With the pandemic not abating anytime soon, the demand for online entertainment and interesting content is expected to continue to rise. As such, companies are on the lookout for digital content specialists to helm the roles of editor, copywriter, podcaster, YouTuber, and video editor. These skills are highly sought after in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Manila, and Bangkok.

LinkedIn's head of Asia, talent and learning solutions, Frank Koo, said the list of jobs on the rise demonstrates that there are still opportunities for job seekers with a range of skills and experience. "By adopting a lifelong learning mindset, and being open to picking up new skills through various courses - for example, courses on digital skills or soft skills - workers can prepare themselves to take up these emerging roles," he added.

Photo courtesy: 123RF