Essentially, the digital account executive role comprises being a great salesperson. If you’re an AE, as they’re often called, you’re in charge of making connections with a lot of people—and then striking the best deal to match all of your needs. However, the digital account executive scope goes far beyond that!
Beyond managing your relationship with the customers you already have and working as hard as you can to pick up new customers, there are digital account executive responsibilities that—perhaps—few people would guess from merely thinking about the job title. If you’re thinking about snapping up one of the many lucrative digital account executive jobs, you’ve come to the right place!
In this guide we’ll talk about all of the expectations and considerations you may have before you come to the role—from digital account executive duties to digital account executive skills. By the time you’ve finished reading this article, you’ll have a great idea of whether or not being an AE is the job for you!
What does a digital account executive really do? How does their day-to-day life function? Is it a good field to go into right now—what does the next decade look like for this profession? And—it’s the question everyone wants to know—just how much can a digital account executive expect to make in a year?
All great questions—and definitely ones you’ll want to know the answer to before you begin interviewing! This handy guide will walk you through everything you need to know about being a digital account executive.
Before you apply, you’ll want to know what a digital account executive actually does! In the following sections, we’ll discuss just that.
Digital account executives are in charge of making customer contacts, whether it be through cold calls or email campaigns, making deals with prospective customers to have advertising spaces in prime Internet properties, managing relationships with current customers, and making sure that everyone around them has all of the information they need at all times.
It’s definitely a kitchen-sink kind of job! But, at the end of the day, your job is to be an expert salesperson. Remember that you’re passionate about great advertising and awesome Internet properties and that your goal in life is to keep those two things together in a way that will be profitable for all concerned. Keep that in mind and you will go far!
A typical day in the life of a digital account executive can look like a lot of different things depending on how many clients the digital advertising account executive has, where in the various advertising campaigns his clients are, and even external things like what time of year it is! However, there are several consistent things that go into every digital account executive’s days.
We’ve discussed what, very generally, a digital account executive does. If you like what you’re reading, great! The next question revolves on whether you’d be a good fit for the job from the point of view of your prospective hiring manager. To help you figure this one out, we’ve provided a few metrics in the sections below.
Typically, a hiring manager for a digital account executive will want to see at least a bachelor’s education in sales or marketing; however, to be a digital account executive, experience is king. If you have at least two years in any sales, marketing, or customer service position, you’ll be able to jump easily into being a digital account executive.
However, if you don’t have any of the typical skills associated with being a digital account executive, feel free to apply anyway if you feel like you would be a non-traditional good fit for the job! That sense of initiative is prized by employers. Just make sure that you’re able to argue your candidacy well.
When you think of traditional sales roles, it’s easy to slip into a less progressive way of thinking and remember people playing hard to get and staring at customers until they sign on the dotted line. This definitely isn’t a modern (or particularly effective) way of approaching sales! Today, when companies are looking to hire a new digital account executive, they’re often looking for very specific skillsets. These skills may include:
There’s a lot that goes into being a successful digital account executive—but you don’t have to worry! Lots of these skills are things that can be learned. If you want to be a good digital account executive, think about what you currently do well, and optimize that while you seek to grow in areas in which you could use a little work.
Now’s a great time to go into digital media sales! As the number of internet properties continues to skyrocket, people will only be seeking more and more to optimize their digital products to connect with the audience and, perhaps, make a few bucks on the side. That’s something humanity has always been doing—and we’re on the cusp of an exploding field in that regard! It’ll be your job to optimize that innate need—and that’s one reason that these digital account executive jobs won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon.
This means that, if you can prove yourself competitive and good at your job, you should likely have a decent amount of job security for years to come.
Of course, the salary range for digital account executives is determined by a lot of things, from how many accounts the digital account executive is dealing with to the size of the firm they represent. However, for ballpark purposes, we can provide a few figures for estimating
One thing to know immediately is that digital account executives are often paid on commission. This means that you’ll likely receive some nominal base pay, but the rest of your salary will grow in proportion to the number of sales you make—a very typical incentive package for people working in sales. This does mean, though, that to a certain extent, the amount you make is up to you!
Of course, the quality and quantity of clients you’ll get will likely depend on the firm for which you’re working, so you should still try to work for the best firm you can find!
That said, being a digital account executive can be extremely lucrative—but data shows us that it’s mainly based on location. A digital account executive working at a small firm in a small state, therefore, might expect to earn about $80,000 per year; a digital account executive working at a substantially larger company with more clients might earn upwards of $350,000 per annum.
Now that you’ve read everything you need to know about being a digital account executive, you can determine whether this job is really for you. Think hard about your own qualifications and what you want to be doing on a day-to-day basis! Then, feel free to use the job listings right here at Digital Media Jobs to find a listing in your area that might be right for you, and then submit a quick and easy application using our recommendations and the information above. Good luck!
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https://blog.closeriq.com/2019/07/day-in-life-account-executive/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/day-life-account-executive-typical-monday-office-andrea-quinn/
https://www.mediabistro.com/climb-the-ladder/skills-expertise/what-does-an-account-executive-do/
https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/what-is-an-account-executive