Digital marketing is widely considered to be one of the fastest growing jobs in the online industry. While web designers and developers are in constant demand, digital marketers are getting more attention these days because companies are focussed on targeting the right audience using the right set of tools to grow their business.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to be introduced to the world of online marketing by one of my friend. Back in 2008 digital marketing was not something you would hear everyday. I mean, there were hundreds of ways you could define this profession and most importantly where I lived it was not a widely recognized full time job yet. This was about to change big time when social media and online search would dominate how a brand interact with their customers.
Fast forward to 2016, digital marketing is surrounding each and every network that we are in. I have been working in the digital marketing industry for quite some time and I often get the question how someone can get started with digital marketing. Today I am going to share some of the skills that are necessary to get a job in digital marketing or even start your own freelance consulting service.
Data Analysis For Various Analytics Software
The first skill that you need in order to succeed as a digital marketer is data analysis. Unlike traditional marketing, digital is all about receiving data from all your marketing efforts and improving upon it. Interpreting as well as analyzing the data is crucial for the company because it gives you a direct insight as to how consumers are thinking about your brand online.
Data Analysis is something that we all had to learn as digital marketers but most of the learning curve comes from experience as well as relentless testing. If you are absolutely new to the world of data analysis then I suggest the following courses to sharpen this skill.
– Google Analytics Certification (Free)
– Google Adwords Certification (Free)
– Udemy Growth Hacking With Digital Marketing
If you seriously watch all the lectures from the following courses mentioned above then I am pretty sure you will have a sound understanding of how to measure your marketing analytics.
Prepare Marketing Automation Workflow For Any Situation
If you ask me to pick out a particular skill that is most important to make it big in the digital marketing space then it has to be this one. Marketing Automation is the future of marketing and you need to have a sound knowledge of what it’s all about.
Most importantly you should be able to analyze the tools and resources used by a company and prepare the perfect marketing automation solution for growth. If you can do that in your cover letter you are already ahead of other potential candidates. Automation also involves the ability to track a customer through the entire sales funnel and beyond so you also need to know analytics (mentioned above) to track your results.
Generating Content Strategy For Brand Growth
Content strategy is something you have to work on throughout your career as a marketer. In digital marketing content is categorized into various channels. For Example, the strategy for your social media accounts might be a little bit different from your company’s business blog. Having a constructive content strategy plan to generate more brand awareness is absolutely crucial in 2016.
Let’s assume a situation where you are all prepared for that digital marketing job interview. You arrive 10 minutes early and finally someone directs you to a room where you will be interviewed. The first thing they ask is “Give us a brief idea of how you would promote our service on Facebook?”. Unless you do a research for the company and know what strategies work for certain industries you are in for a surprise.
Mastering Google Adwords and Other Paid Advertising Platforms
One of the core job description for any digital marketing position is the ability to run and manage paid online advertising campaigns. Mostly you need to research keywords, create landing pages (or work with a web designer) and laugh campaigns for your clients.
Mastering Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads and other forms of paid placement is also something you should concentrate on. However, after using PPC (pay per click) campaigns for over 3 years now I highly recommend you master Google Adwords first. The rest of the programs and extremely similar to use and the dashboard is different for the different platforms.
You should have a sound understanding of the following principles when it comes to paid search (PPC):
- Keyword Research And Analysis
- Paid Search Strategy
- Remarketing To Engage Abandoning Users
- Generating Reports
- Video Ads and Shopping Campaigns
- PPC Advanced Bidding Strategies To Boost Placements
Email Marketing Coupled With Opt-In Strategy
In 2016 email marketing is more than creating and launching campaigns using a cloud based software. Before you can draft your campaign you should have a sound knowledge of building an email list using your inbound strategies.
List building through several opt-in methods is considered a part of the email marketing strategy these days. You should know how to create an email series using automation tools as well as segmenting your main list into various sub lists.
Staying Updated With Industry Trends & Softwares
Finally, one of the most important skill a digital marketer needs is to stay updated with industry trends and any new platform that becomes available. Unlike other industries digital marketing is fairly new and it’s changing constantly with new softwares as well as strategies to generate growth for a particular company.
Most of the softwares that you will be using will be updated with additional features, sometimes completely new ones to engage in whole different levels with your target audience. It’s important that you follow the industry very closely, join forums, chat with other digital marketers and find out how they are achieving some of the tasks. This is something you have to do thinking it’s a part of your job and overall growth as a digital marketer.
These are some of the most important skills that I could think of if you are planning to be a digital marketer in 2016. However, if you think I missed an important point please feel free to suggest using the comments section below.
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