Top 11 Skills Required For Successful Digital Marketers
In today’s era, digital marketing is a name that everyone knows and everyone wants to make a career in this field. If you also want to make a career in the field of digital marketing, then there are some skills in which you can be an expert. So let’s talk about those skills.
Sets Of Skills
A good digital marketer requires two different sets of skills, Hard skills and Soft skills. Hard skills are learned abilities that are sharpened through experience and education, while soft skills are more about character traits and interpersonal skills. In other words, hard skills show employers how good you’ll be at your job from a technical standpoint, while soft skills show whether you’ll be a good employee, teammate, or manager.
Now, many people focus just on improving hard skills like coding, SEO, or paid advertising, but soft skills are equally important. A 2018 study from LinkedIn shows that 57% of employers value soft skills more than hard skills. Now, in terms of what employers look for in a digital marketer will vary based on the position and responsibilities.
For example, when we hired a video editor, hard skills weighed heavier than soft. When I hired an outreach manager, soft skills weighed heavier than hard because interpersonal skills are more important than knowing how the software works. Now we’ll share five hard skills and six soft skills that employers look for when they hire digital marketers, and we’ll explain why these skills are valuable for almost any digital marketing role.
Let’s get started with the hard skills
1. Copywriting:
The first skill worth mastering is copywriting. Copy is often the bridge between the company and the customer. It lives on blog posts, landing pages, emails, and even videos, as tons of them are scripted. This makes copywriting arguably the most transferable skill in online marketing. It applies to SEO, content marketing, email marketing, outreach, social media, paid advertising, and the list goes on.
2. Search Engine Optimization:
The second hard skill is SEO. SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it’s optimizing web pages to rank higher in search engines. Now, the reason why it’s an important skill to have is because you can use it to get free, passive, and consistent traffic that doesn’t fade over time. And that’s essentially what businesses want. In addition, the principles in SEO will help you understand how the web works, particularly with Google SEO.
3. Data Analysis
The next hard skill is data analysis and interpretation. Data gives you something to analyze and your analysis will help you draw insights and those insights are what marketers use to create marketing campaigns. This cycle is pretty important because if the data is bad, then everything else after will be flawed. Now, if your analysis is incorrect, then the insights you drew from them will be invalidated and if your insights are wrong, then you might be leading your campaign in the wrong direction. So it’s critical that you understand where your data comes from and b know how to analyze and interpret it. Sometimes you’ll have great insights that come from your analysis and other times you’ll learn that there’s no conclusive evidence to work with. Both outcomes are equally important because they’re going to guide you in the right direction to save your company time, money, and effort.
4. User Experience:
The next hard skill is in user experience. While this is a common skill that designers need to have, it’s important for digital marketers to at least have a high-level understanding of UX best practices. After all, as marketers, we want to create interactions with customers and prospects so they have more meaningful and relevant experiences with our brand and content. On top of that, many marketing channels depend on user experience signals. For example, YouTube’s and pretty much every single social media network’s algorithm is driven by user experience signals. And even in Google SEO, user experience signals can impact ranking positions. The bottom line, the better experience you create for people, the better your marketing campaigns will be. And assuming your marketing campaigns are aligned with the business’s bottom line, the better the company will perform.
5. Google Sheets:
The last hard skill is expertise with Google Sheets. Now, I wouldn’t typically list software as a must-have hard skill, but knowing how to use Google Sheets beyond data entry and basic formulas is going to make you a more efficient marketer. And depending on your proficiency, it can be telling of your knowledge of logic programming. Google Sheets is arguably the most versatile tool. You can use it to create reports, analyze, interpret, and manipulate data, and create automation for monotonous tasks.
Let’s move on to the soft skills
1. Communication:
The most important one is communication. Marketing is essentially a brand’s way to communicate with customers and prospects, so you can drive interest and desire for products and services. So if you’re not able to communicate effectively, your marketing will be ineffective. Now, you might be thinking big, WHOOP. However, the repercussions of poor communication can be severe.
It can impact people’s first impressions of your company damage your brand reputation and lead to wasted time for marketers and anyone else involved in a campaign, like developers, designers, and outsourced teams. Beyond that, marketing also involves developing relationships with customers, affiliates, influencers, and brand evangelists. Fail to communicate effectively and you’ll have a very bumpy road ahead.
2. Problem Solving:
Next up are problem-solving skills. Marketing campaigns rarely go smoothly and you will run into problems and unexpected bumps along the way. The thing is, nobody wants to hold your hand through every single problem. Employers hire employees to solve problems, so naturally a big part of your job will be to solve problems with creative solutions, even if company policies or budgets may play against you. A common example in the SEO world is buying backlinks. A lot of companies have no problems doing this, but if your company has policies against these practices, you have to come up with creative ways to compete.
Leaders in an industry will often have what seems to be an infinite budget. And if you’re working at a bootstrap startup with one 100th of your competitor’s budgets, you’ll have to get extremely creative to have a fighting chance at winning, let alone surviving. The best marketing is when your product and marketing align to solve people’s problems. But that in and of itself is a problem that marketers are often tasked with solving.
3. Creativity:
The next soft skill on the list is creativity. Creativity is incredibly difficult to teach. For those who are creative, it’s going to be one of your greatest assets. When you pair creativity with the hard skills of data analysis, you end up having a very powerful combination of skills that will play in your favor as a digital marketer.
4. Teachability:
The next soft skill is teachability. Now, the reason why I think this is a critical soft skill to have is because marketing is collaborative. And if you’re the stubborn type who refuses to hear feedback from your managers and teammates, you will naturally be an awful team player. In my opinion, teachability shows humility, adaptability, and one’s desire for growth. This is why after doing hundreds of interviews, if a candidate doesn’t seem teachable, it’s a break-it kind of attribute for me. Now, that doesn’t mean you need to be a yes man and make other people feel better about themselves. It’s about being open to other’s opinions and collaboratively coming to the best ideas for your marketing campaigns.
5. Self Motivation
The next soft skill is self-motivation. This is a skill that I think separates the wheat from the chaff. Naturally, there are going to be people who show up to work and do the bare minimum. After all, we all have the guts to make money to pay the bills. But there will be a few individuals who have put in the extra time, effort, thought, and focus simply because they want to produce good work. These are self-motivated people. They’re willing to go the extra mile to make their work great. They don’t define themselves from their salary mentions or accolades, but ironically, self-motivated people with raw talent tend to get paid more and praised publicly. They’re a rare breed, and in my opinion, it’s a skill that’s nearly impossible to fake over the long haul.
6. Dependability:
And the final soft skill is dependability. Because marketing usually happens in a team setting, you need to be able to depend on your teammates to do their part. It makes marketing operations much smoother and the result is a highly effective team.
Now, as I’m sure you caught on, hard and soft skills tend to complement each other. For example, creativity is intertwined with copywriting. Problem-solving helps in SEO, and SEO helps you become a better problem solver. So whether you want to become a better marketing leader, get a performance-based raise, or get started with your first job in Internet marketing, honing these skills is going to help you achieve that.
CONCLUSION
To be a successful digital marketer, focus on improving these key skills: Communication, Creativity, Analytical Thinking, Adaptability, and Tech Savviness. I hope you like all the information we have given you in this article.
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FAQs:
Can I be a good digital marketer without being super tech-savvy?
While being tech-savvy helps, you can learn and improve your technical skills over time. Start with the basics and gradually expand your knowledge.
Is creativity that important in digital marketing?
Yes, creativity is key! It helps you think outside the box, create engaging content, and stand out in the crowded digital space.
Why is adaptability listed as a crucial skill?
The digital landscape evolves rapidly. Being adaptable ensures you can embrace new trends and technologies, keeping your strategies effective.
How can I improve my analytical thinking in digital marketing?
Practice analyzing data from your campaigns. Look at what worked and what didn't. This hands-on experience will enhance your analytical skills over time.
Do I need to be an expert in all digital marketing tools?
No, but having a good understanding of commonly used tools is beneficial. Focus on the ones most relevant to your job and learn them well.