With the number of internet users increasing in leaps with each passing year, physical marketing is becoming obsolete while digital marketing is taking a steady stand. As a matter of fact, a research conducted by Pew Research Center in 2019 says that no less than 28% of American adults stay online for the entire day, while 45% access the Internet several times a day. Naturally, the demand for digital marketers or online brand awareness generators is on a steep rise. With digital marketing skills courses springing up readily in most global universities, coaching houses and online portals, a huge number of students are aspiring to become successful digital marketers.
In such a competitive market, it is difficult to make your voice heard and have your employer take a liking to your capability. Therefore, simply enrolling for a study course and scoring good grades do not suffice anymore- there are some indispensable skills that you need to hone so that your CV has the edge over those of your fellow competitors. In the following post, the top skills that you need to be stirring on the go for becoming a digital marketer have been listed for your convenience.
What Do Digital Marketers Do?
Most brands, startup companies as well as businesses are switching from the traditional brochures, ad boards and TV commercials to creating organic traffic through digital channels such as email, social media, search engines or blogs. It is the job of a digital marketer to make sure that this promotion is done efficiently, both on the web and in mobile. Digital marketing, in itself, is a broad field that has sub-divisions of career paths such as media planners, SEO directors, ad buyers, et cetera. However, each job includes establishing amicable relations with the customers digitally, reaching out to them and collecting their data.
Skills That Are a Must for a Successful Digital Marketer
The technical skills (or hard skills) and soft skills of digital marketing skills can be subdivided into a series of teachable and inculcated learning. Hard skills are different from soft skills in that the former focuses more on measurable classroom lessons, such as writing, reading, social media handling, math and coding. On the other hand, soft skills deal with work ethics, amiability, ability to listen, speaking skills, leadership qualities, teamwork, etc.
Hard Skills
Hard skills are the ones that can be taught in class and graded. They have a predefined boundary of learning that every candidate must duly satisfy to excel in the industry. The good news is, hard skills are easy to hone if you a diligent learner, are well aware and take your subjective knowledge seriously. As a future digital marketer, here are the following hard skills that you need to expertise in.
Using Google Analytics
With the boom of electronic media, it is a child’s play to obtain tons and tons of information on your search results. However, not all of it is data you need and you, as a digital marketer, must be capable of interpreting, filtering important information, verifying it and leaching out the rest. In order to convince clients to choose your brand over the next one, you need to pay attention to detail, negotiate online media packages, analyze modern technology tools, keep up with the latest trends in the industry, provide the latest information, set up target lists and track consumer insight or conversations on social media.
Website Developing
Although most of the complicated work of digital design will be handled by the experienced developers on your team, digital marketers should have a basic knowledge of web and graphic design coding skills. For the same, you should be familiar with HTML, JavaScript, CSS and graphic designing software.
Video Making
With drastically increased traffic on YouTube, more and more brands are trusting videos to lure in their valued customers. In fact, it is a proven fact that a well-optimized video can increase the chances of your brand being offered a top rank in Google by at least 50%. Therefore, it is an advantage if a digital marketer is well-rehearsed in making a quick, simple video from scratch. Also, a video that is in-detailed and preferably features the face of your brand promoter further enhances the trust factor.
Using Search Engine Optimization
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the way of making your web content gain a superior position on the search engines, such as Google, Mozilla, etc. The more optimized your content is, the higher it will rank on search result pages and thereby attract more traffic. For implementing SEO, you need to be well-versed in at least one digital marketing tool and also understand Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), Page Authority, SEM, Domain Authority, Backlinks, Keyword Frequency, etc.
Creating Quality Content
The kind of content that a digital marketer has to create includes text, graphics, videos or even audios. For the same, you must make sure that it delivers the message of your brand well, is professional and crisp and engages your reader. You should know the technical know-how of WordPress, develop friendly relations with co-bloggers, edit content, compose emails, write social media posts as well as politely defy online damaging brand references.
Soft Skills
Soft skills are the innate employable traits that make you more customer friendly, professional and creative thinker. They are more experience-based as compared to technical skills and may employ better practice and emotional intelligence. Here are the following soft digital marketing skills you must-have.
Listening and learning
As a successful digital marketer, you must be a good listener not only to your colleagues but also to your clients and customers. Sometimes, your teammates may come up with a better strategy, and your clients’ words may hint at common public marketing intention. In order to be constantly improving, you need to have your ears open, trust the judgment of those around you and keep learning.
Polite Persuasiveness
The most important motive of marketing is convincing your clients to choose you over the rest! For the same, a digital marketer should have not only good people skills but also be persuasive. Plus, you must also be able to persuade your own team how your idea is the best, through polite arguing and by being confident.
Ability to Multitask
In the digital marketing industry, there is always a lot going on at once. You might simultaneously be creating content while also keeping abreast with the latest tweets from competing brands, optimizing solutions, pitching ideas to your juniors, etc. Your multitasking ability will be stretched to an utmost.
Offering Creative Solutions
Design thinking is the process of approaching a complex problem of public interest with a user-centred perspective. While offering a solution, you should employ a mix of analytical and creative abilities, a perfect amalgam of “art and science”. Another important aspect to keep in mind, according to Wesley Mathews of High-Level Marketing, is to not let your passion cloud your objective judgment. You should toil for what you know will work and not what you hope would work.
Tenacity and Adaptability
A digital marketer should be enthusiastic, tenuous and must have a ‘never give up’ attitude. You must be ready to fail, learn from it and move forward with a better game. There are daily mishaps in the corporate world- a rejected idea, a failed update, a changed algorithm, content plagiarism, etc. Plus, the variety of clients that your company deals with may also change. However, you need to be adaptable and treat each customer with the same respect, professionalism and empathy. Dealing with unknown clients may be as intimidating as it is exciting. In fact, you might also have to switch between job roles from content writing to SEO, video editing, website designing all at once.
Using Your Digital Marketing Skills in the Real World
The pros of the digital marketing skills world hold an array of skill sets, from an ability to provide creative solutions, critical thinking to be able to handle all digital media channels efficiently while having a knack for identifying new upcoming opportunities. Although the skills that you need for your specific job position may vary, there is a set of predefined attributes that everybody opting for the digital marketing industry should have. In order to make a mark in the corporate industry as a digital marketer, you not only need to have a steady grasp over your technical skills and soft skills but also be a positive go-getter!
