The digital marketing industry is a very broad term, and it can be quite challenging for newbies to navigate. There are so many fields and terms, and it’s constantly evolving. So, how can you stay a step further from the competition and climb the ladder faster to the top, and still stay up to date with all the changes?
Below we compiled the critical skills for digital marketing to keep you in the loop of the constantly evolving digital industry. To further help you out, we’ve included a list of the marketing tools available online that are essential to digital marketing. Let’s dive in!
Marketing For Newbies: Essential Digital Marketing Skills
Newbies in marketing quite often make crucial mistakes that can cost them time, money, and effort. To avoid making those mistakes, here are some essential digital marketing skills every modern-day marketer should know.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is a crucial skill in the world of digital marketing, now more so than ever. SEO is a way to improve and increase website traffic through search engines. SEO can be on-site and off-site, but for starters, you should focus on the optimization of all types of content with the appropriate keywords.
It’s important to truly understand how to optimize all content forms in order to tap into increase traffic and create successful marketing campaigns. There are many affordable digital marketing courses that can help you become an expert in SEO for organic and SEM for paid results.
Content Marketing Skills
Another thing to consider when it comes to skills for digital marketing is content. Content is the core of digital marketing and it requires a deep understanding of your target audience and how to engage with it. Your content is a crucial part of the game and high-quality content will definitely take your business to the next level. The most challenging part about the content is that it takes many forms, from emails, blogs, videos to technical documents, and so on.
Once you understand what your target audience is, you can structure your content to fit their needs and give them proper value. Find a way to utilize it and engage with your customers. Also, make sure you develop strategies based on your overall business objectives. Like most marketing-related things you can find content as part of many digital marketing courses. Remember, content is king in the digital marketing world!
Data Analysis Skills
No matter what aspect of digital marketing you go into, Google Analytics will always be critical to your digital marketing strategy. Monitoring and reporting through such tools are pretty straightforward. Still, the most tricky part about data analysis is the information you need to collect. It needs to help you understand the consumer’s behavior so you need to know what type of data will allow you to do just that. You should also know how to apply this strategy to new solutions that will drive traffic and conversion to your business.
Both big and small companies have a huge amount of data to track, and prominent digital marketers should understand how to collect and use it as an advantage. Almost every company tries to find people that already know how to “read” this data and know how to use it when it comes to improving business strategy. It will be a valuable asset in the industry if you do this innovatively and with significant results.
Design-Thinking and Planning Skills
Design thinking term refers to the way of approaching problems from a user-centered perspective. Design thinking allows us to think well when solving complex problems and it’s not a term exclusive to designers as it can be applied everywhere.
This process has five key phases: empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing. Because it’s mainly focused on the end-users, design thinking fits so well in digital marketing. Solid knowledge of design thinking is crucial in digital marketing, so if you don’t have one, make sure you gain and apply it when possible.
Basic Technology Skills
Because the industry today is really driven by technology, you need to take control and understand it quickly. If you’re a Millennial or younger, this will probably come naturally to you and won’t take you long to learn. Still, older generations are hard to teach, but with a little effort, they can learn specific technologies and learn about the most used software and tools in their focus area.
Understanding the web coding basics will present you with an idea on how to use CMS or Content Management System, such as WordPress. In this way, you will reach your professional fulfillment. There are many digital marketing courses online that cover this aspect as well.
Be Persuasive
Great digital marketing leaders should always have great communication skills with people as well as combine problem-solving and analytical thinking in a creative way. In this way, they will help their team develop innovative campaign ideas in order to move businesses onward.
And being persuasive takes the biggest part. Can you convince someone to buy something? Or, prove to other leaders that your idea is the most effective? It is not so much a matter of arguing but having the confidence that you know what you are doing and demonstrating it in detail. Persuasiveness sells, which is the reason why this particular skill is needed in digital marketing.
Highlights Unique Skill Sets
Not all marketing leaders can be put in a box as while there are some specific skillsets all should have, nothing is set in stone. The digital marketing field is big enough to have people from all walks of life. It is vital that you take advantage of your unique mix of skills to remain competitive in the industry and be always one step further than your competitors.
For example, it may be difficult to find someone who knows SEO strategy and is able to assume the management role. Or, someone who has a degree in computer science and loves social media.
Professional digital marketers need to adapt and learn quickly. They need to be even ready to swing in different digital careers as they will work with diverse teams and clients.
While there are a plethora of things you’ll need to do and pose to be competitive in the digital marketing field, it’s essential not to forget to take advantage of all of your skills including soft and hard as you move into exciting new positions in the future. Digital marketing is constantly evolving, and if you want to stay on top, you should be evolving too!
Be Analytical and Creative
The person in charge of running a marketing team must have the perfect balance between being open to new proposals, daring to try, never conform, being realistic, and determining the impact that their actions can cause. The ingenuity to write deep into the vocabulary to be used when attracting a new customer will be essential to the excellent performance of a marketing manager.
You must have writing skills to reach the potential client’s mind, persuading them with information that meets their needs. And, in addition, it must have the ability to handle figures. Marketing is not just about creative ideas but also about analysis, strategies, and planning. It is essential to know how to draw conclusions from outcome studies and take advantage of them.
Adapting to Changes
The world of marketing is undergoing a constant process of evolution. Therefore, it is important to be vigilant and follow the trends to a T. The marketing manager must be able to innovate, study the demand, and make the required changes so that the company is always up to date and ahead of the competition. This is one of the primary skills for digital marketing. So, make sure you have it when getting into the world of marketing.
Web Traffic Management
No traffic, no business. Therefore, it is crucial to know how to attract our potential customers, understand what they are looking for, and communicate with them in the right way and on the right channel. If we don’t make our business visible, no one will buy it.
Good marketers should at least have an overview of the main sources of traffic they can use to attract their customers. In addition, you need to understand how they work and how to optimize those traffic sources.
Video marketing
Eight out of ten brands are currently using video marketing. Video marketing is one of the essential skills for digital marketing. The video may not be used at the company you’re working at, but your competition is likely to use it. In addition, the type of content most consumed by users is video.
Without the need to be an expert in video creation, marketing should be able to use it in its strategies, know how to incorporate it into social networks, define the appropriate format and the role it will have for its customers to relate to their brand.
Knowledge of Marketing Funnel
It is not enough just to have a large offer today; it is necessary to establish an optimal relationship with the customer. An online marketing professional must know the conversion funnel of their business. It is the process that a user performs from the moment you first get their attention until you turn them into a customer or even a recurring customer.
This is a relationship with potential customers that a marketing professional must master to get the best possible performance.
What Are the Best Digital Marketing Tools Online?
With the use of digital marketing tools online, you can automate actions and tasks. Also, optimizing dissemination flows and centralizing different activities will be the easiest task for you. We’ve outlined the best marketing tools online that you should consider for your business growth, especially significant in marketing for newbies.
HubSpot
HubSpot is number one when it comes to Marketing Automation. This tool can help you out with marketing, sales, and service as it has all the integrations you’d need to fully automate your processes. The marketing section can help you out with lead generation, marketing automation, and analytics, among other things.
RD Station
Much like HubSpot, RD Station is an all-around tool for marketers. It helps with capturing and nurturing leads, data analysis, and even email campaigns. Also, the tool improves user experience by enhancing the company’s or brand’s website with proper integrations.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is directly focused on networks. It’s a tool that works as a content and publication manager. Thanks to Hootsuite, users can schedule their posts, and keep their profiles up-to-date and moving.
Canva
Canva is an excellent tool thanks to the tool of Graphic design it has. It is a flexible software with easy tools. It’s based on a drag-and-drop principle, so there’s no need for prior knowledge of other design software. It also comes with a lot of templates, so it’s definitely a must-have tool for modern-day marketers.
Hotjar
Have you ever heard about Hotjar? Probably not. Although this tool is not as famous as others, it’s definitely one of the best marketing tools online. With the use of heatmaps, it allows you to analyze how the users navigate through your website. Imagine having whole-packed information about your user’s habits and how they use your website.
Feedly
Feedly is an excellent alternative, when it comes to managing blogs and spreading content on social media, mainly Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. The best thing about this tool is that it has a mobile app that can be used in “dead” hours or minutes. Whether you are waiting for the bus or resting, you can still schedule your content!
SEMrush
SEMrush is a perfect tool for professionals who are into Inbound Marketing, specifically those in Content Marketing projects. The provider is a splendid tool for keyword analysis and an opportunity detector for good search engine positioning.
