Digital Marketing is becoming increasingly relevant for businesses and entrepreneurs as technology continues to develop and more business is done online. It is fundamental in increasing brand awareness and reaching customers via social media.
To succeed in the field of Digital Marketing it is necessary to have the relevant skills. Otherwise, you run the risk of producing content that is not well-tailored to your particular market and having a campaign that is sub-optimal.
The required skills can be learned through hard work and practice. Whether you are working for your own brand or for a large company, it is possible to teach yourself new skills and launch digital marketing campaigns with results.
Here are our top 10 skills digital marketers need:
1. Data Analysis
Data analytics tools give digital marketers information to help understand customers and target them with relevant messages and ads.
Data analytics is the use of software and techniques to collect and process large quantities of data from online interactions of your target customers and market.
These interactions could be online transactions, searches, website pages visited, content consumed, and other online activities relevant to you.
Once you have the data you need to know how to analyse it and use it as a foundation for marketing strategies to help create growth. A great data analysis tool that is worth learning more about is Google Analytics.
2. PPC
It’s possible to expand your influence online and reach new customers through PPC advertising, which stands for pay-per-click.
To do PPC well you need to be able to use software like Google AdWords and Google Analytics to create and optimise campaigns.
Google AdWords is easy to use. You need to copy for the ad, choose keywords you want to target, set a daily budget, and decide the start and end dates.
Google Ads will allow you to choose which people to target, whether by location or by the keywords they are searching for. You can use Google Analytics to find out the demographics of your customers and then plan your ads accordingly. To find out more you can read here how Google Ads work.
3. Writing Skills
Digital marketing is centred around content. You need to be able to connect with your customer base by writing and editing articles and blog posts. You want to give them relevant information to improve your brand’s trustworthiness and reputation, and hopefully get them to buy your products.
It is necessary for every digital marketer to be able to produce well-written content and copy. Bear in mind that writing copy is a different skill to blog writing. In copywriting, you need to be able to capture people’s attention and inspire them as to the value of your product or service with a small number of words.
Furthermore, you need to be able to incorporate SEO keywords to help boost your ranking in search engines. This will help your content be seen by a wider audience.
You also want to aim to produce many evergreen articles. These are articles where the content stays relevant for a long time after the initial publishing, so you do not have to constantly update it.
4. SEO and SEM
Well-written content needs to be found online in order to have an impact. You need to employ Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to help your content rank higher in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). The more you understand and employ SEO, the more effective your marketing campaigns will be.
Google’s algorithm for providing results on search pages is always being improved. The use of relevant keywords in content is important at the moment.
With the huge competition in all industries online it is important to stay aware of algorithm updates and other news to do with SEO. Using SEO in your content is fundamental to your marketing campaigns as a digital marketer. You can go here to read more information on SEO.
5. Social Media Tools
Knowing how to use social media tools is one of the most important skills digital marketers need.
The influence of social media on life continues to grow, and it is now a huge space for digital marketing. You need to use this to your advantage to build your customer base and let them know about your brand.
You likely have several social media accounts so are well accustomed to it. However social media services are increasingly changing to accommodate businesses and their digital marketing needs.
New tools are available to help companies reach their audience such as group pages, hashtags, paid adverts, boosted posts, and other features. Digital marketing now incorporates more elements than just posting content regularly.
6. Know how to listen to your audience
It can be easy to be so focused on producing content and promoting it that you forget to listen to your customers.
The relationship you have with your customers is important and you need to always have it in mind. They are the ones who will be promoting your business for you by reviews and word of mouth if your product or service is valuable.
Make use of social media and be aware of what they say about your products and your brand. It is also worth following what your competitors are doing and seeing how their customers perceive them.
7. Paid Social Media Advertising Skills
Many social media sites now offer businesses the tools to create and manage advertisements on their platforms. One of these is Facebook Ads. These ads will allow you to target certain users depending on criteria such as their age, gender, or interests.
To get the most out of your adverts you should look into developing skills like social media data analytics, oCPM bidding, and granular targeting of custom audiences.
The more you learn about social media ads, the more successful you will be at targeting your particular audience, and you will also avoid spending more than you need to.
8. UX skills
As more and more business is done online, marketing encompasses more than just getting someone to buy your product. Digital marketing now deals with customer experiences after the sale such as onboarding, communications, and upselling.
It is necessary for digital marketers to consider all parts of the customer experience. They need to consider user experience or UX.
This refers to the interaction between the user and a product or service. Successful user experience design will consider all the different elements that shape this interaction, such as the design of your website.
As a digital marketer, you need to think about how the experience makes the customer feel, and how easy it is for the user to accomplish what they want with your product or service.
There are many important elements of the customer experience that you should learn about, such as landing pages and the onboarding process.
You also need to think about how to best keep your past customers engaged with your brand, perhaps through email offers or newsletters. Always be sure to listen to your customers’ reviews, which can be used to improve your service.
9. CRM
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. This includes using strategies to review and improve customer experience. Understanding how customers interact with your products and your brand will help you connect to them more personally through your digital marketing campaigns.
It is important to have empathy with your customer base. Put yourself in their shoes and think about how you would like to be reached out to. Also, try to recall times when a business that you support has run a successful digital marketing campaign and what you can draw from it.
With CRM tools you can find out when a potential customer researched your product, which will help you keep their interest with targeted ads on social media platforms.
It is easy to get distracted on the internet and it is crucial to actively try to maintain your customer’s interest by reminding them of the value of your products. CRM is all about using tools to create a more effective campaign in order to keep your customers coming back. To learn more, you can take a short CRM course.
10. Mobile Marketing
Mobile phones are increasingly being used for searching and buying for products. This has led to mobile marketing where businesses are trying to find new ways to reach people on their phones. Knowing how to create content for mobile devices and tablets is essential.
Video Advertising on mobiles is constantly growing. More people are watching content on their devices than on TV so businesses are investing accordingly. Being able to design an engaging mobile ad that will send users to your website is an invaluable skill.
Conclusion
Digital marketing is invaluable in the information age. All the relevant skills to help you succeed can be learned through hard work.
The internet has all the information you need and the tools to put it into practice. With these 10 skills digital marketers need, you will be on your way towards building a successful career in a rapidly growing field.
You can go to Graduate Coach to read more interesting articles such as why the future job market is digital and 12 marketing graduate schemes.
Featured image by Photo by Canva Studio from Pexels
;)