In the recent past digital marketing has gained a lot of popularity and has become a dream profession for millions and millions of people out there.
With the onset of the many technological advancements this profession offers, digital marketers can easily earn a six digit salary, have access to unlimited vacation and enjoy a flexible system that allows them to work from home - or travel globally as a digital nomad.
If you are someone looking out to get a as a digital marketer this year, or make a career change, or leave your 9 to 5 jobs to become a digital remote worker, or improve your skills in your current digital marketing career – this blog is for you.
Listed below are 16 key digital marketing skills that will help you grow and develop your digital career successfully and eventually be able to start your own digital marketing agency.
1. Writing and Editing : This is a very important skill every digital marketer should possess. There is not one job that can be done digitally without having the skill of writing and editing. Because of the ongoing importance of content marketing, you can go a long way with your digital marketing career if you know what exactly makes a good blog writing, or how to find and write a good piece of content, and how to rectify an incorrect one.
2. SEO : Organic search results are about 8.5x more likely to get clicked than any paid search results, which proves that it is essential to know and apply search engine optimization (SEO) in the field of digital marketing. Today, SEO "white hat" strategies include content marketing, guest blogging, and link building with social marketing and high quality content. However, you should also know the technical techniques of SEO such as updating title tags, H1 and H2 tags, and relevant keywords. Speaking of keywords, it is important as a digital marketer to know how to research keywords and how to include them within the website copy, blogs and PPC to drive better results of the products you work for.
3. Creative Skills : Most digital marketing firms today is driven by displays. Content on all social media platforms works best when paired with creativity. As a digital marketer, you need to know how to create and customize unique appearances. If you can put together a banner ad, an email ad or a social media image in Photoshop yourself you are one step closer to launch your own digital campaign. If not Photoshop there are several other Adobe programs or viral tools like Canva, Crello and other creative editing sites.
4. Socially Paid Advertising : The days of "free" social media are long lost the best way to reach your audience now on social media is by using paid advertising. Understanding how to write a copy and analysing the length and diversity of it followed by the best creative is a must. By using paid ads you can frequently monitor your engagement and change bids accordingly to grow your ads and reach the right audience or understand when it isn’t working out at all.
5. Building a digital presence : As a digital marketer, you are the face of your product whether that is due to communication, content marketing or conference presence. It is important to have a large digital presence that shows to your audience that you are active and a professional. In addition to this, by using high-quality content sites, like Medium can be of great help to build your brand and eventually understand what suits your brand’s image the best.
6. WordPress : WordPress has become the need of the hour for almost every business. It is quite essential to possess the knowledge of how Wordpress works and what features and plugins they offer. This is an important skill every digital marketer must have as it enables you to set up a website and create blogs for your business.
7. Excel Expertise : With the increase in data management and the importance of data analytics, it is even more important to become a proficient in Excel and understand how to quickly use data and build tables and graphs from the information you view for ease of access.
8. Social Media Marketing : More than half of the countries population use some form of social media and the maximum percentage of the global share of companies’ use social media marketing to promote their business. This makes social media marketing a very important skill set in a digital marketer’s life. There is so much more to social media advertising than just posting on Facebook or Instagram. You need to know how to create user engagement content across all platforms, write relevant content, create viral ads, create views and analyze access and engagement. It is essential to understand all the rapid changes in each platform and when to use different platforms for different business objectives.
9. Email Marketing & Newsletters : Email marketing is always going to be number one. Each and every individual out there is still reading the email. It is the most effective way to reach out to your customers. Any brand you work for will have a message or a motive they want to deliver - email newsletters are a great way to get in touch with your user base to expand and give access to your content.
10. Google Adwords and PPC : Several businesses are able to increase their reach and generate more revenue and product awareness through paid ads, otherwise called PPC (Pay per click). If you can do this with businesses successfully, you will catch some of the most lucrative jobs in digital advertising. To be a good at PPC, you need to be able to think scientifically and strategically, and create effective and efficient report on campaigns using Google Adwords and Google Analytics together.
11. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) : The main agenda of a digital marketing firm is to drive traffic to the website and convert that traffic to customers. CRO is the art of exploring different web pages, copying and adding call to action (CTAs) to see what transforms the best and drives maximize sales. It incorporates website design, copywriting and user experience. As a digital marketer, you need to have the skillset to do A / B testing, and be able to use tools like Optimizely to help you with your research.
12. Automation Marketing : Automation Marketing is the art of creating automated website visitor services to save your time as a marketer. It’s important to know how to set up forms, create landing pages, and launch drip campaigns that will feed your website visitors into customers. It is an important tool as it helps your sales team to get the right leads generated from the web traffic. If you know how to reach your website visitors you will be at the forefront of many digital marketers out there.
13. PowerPoint Design : In digital marketing, it is important to know how to create and use PowerPoint that does not just a text slide. You need to put the story together and clearly articulate the strategy, so that you can share your project and results with your teammates - whether that be the lower level staff or all levels of hierarchy.
14. Affiliate Marketing : Brands can make a lot of money by connecting with online influencers to raise awareness about the product and distribute or compile content. Understanding how to communicate with influencers and take them out of ignorance is an important digital marketing skill. If you know how to use tools like Trackr that helps you to find and track online promoters, you will be ahead of the game and save a lot of time.
15. HTML and CSS : To use WordPress, write and review websites, automation marketing and to understand CRO it will help you a lot if you know the basics of HTML and CSS. If you can enter the blog’s website code and update the title, it will save you a lot of time from going to a custom WordPress developer and getting your work sorted.
CREATIVE CONTENT Want to become a successful digital marketer? Here are 15 must have skills to become a successful digital marketer. All kinds of content are extremely crucial and necessary to run a digital marketing campaign.
1. Writing and Editing
2. SEO
3. Creative Skills
4. Socially paid advertising
5. To know how to build a digital presence
6. Wordpress
7. An expertise in Microsoft Excel
8. Social media marketing
9. Email Marketing
10. Google Adwords and PPC
11. Conversion Rate Optimization
12. Automation Marketing
13. Power point presentation
14. Affiliate marketing
15. HTML and CSS
Top Skills Required to Become a Successful Digital Marketer : Podcast