Digital marketing’s importance will continuously grow over the foreseeable future. It will remain critical to a marketer for several reasons: 

1. Growing Digital Population: More and more people are spending their time online; therefore, understanding the digital landscape is increasingly essential. Marketers should strive to understand digital trends, consumer behaviour, and platforms so they can strategically reach and interact with their target audience. 
2. Precise Targeting: Digital marketing allows you to target specific groups based on their demographics, psychographics and geographic location. This is important because you send tailor-made marketing communication to your ideal customer, resulting in better use of ad spend, higher conversion rates, and an increased ROI. 
3. Data-Driven Decision Making: Digital analytic tools offer a plethora of data regarding the customer. Analytics track your customer’s traffic patterns, how they interact with your marketing messages, and how engaging your content is; therefore, a marketer who knows how to analyze this data and leverage it to make informed decisions will be in high demand. 

In summary, there are many reasons digital marketing is essential to future marketers, but the above are, in my opinion, the three most important. Understanding that the majority of people are choosing to shop and engage with content online is an important concept for future marketers to understand so they can start to gain the necessary skills to target their ideal customers online and make data-driven decisions.