Top 7 Digital Marketing Skills That Will Make You Stand Out
By Stephen Pedder There was a time when digital marketing was all about website design and search engine optimization. But through the years, it has evolved to be more than just that.
The emergence of Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and other social media platforms changed the way marketing works. The digital marketing skills necessary to keep up have evolved just as much.
Ad Culture is here to equip you with the seven skills every marketer needs to know to stay at the top of their game in 2022.
7 Skills Every Digital Marketer Needs to Master
The Economist Group and Digital Marketing Institute report reveals that 74% of marketing executives around the world face talent shortages due to a lack of digital expertise needed to meet customer demands. This includes both soft and hard digital marketing skills.
What sort of skills does a digital marketer needs to master in 2022? Find out below!
1. The Ability to Analyze Data and Draw Insights From It
Marketers have more tools now to access website traffic, conversion rates, social media engagement, and other data. But simply knowing the numbers won’t suffice.
In order to stay ahead, you also need to be well-versed in analyzing how this data drives customer experience across different platforms. By tracking the customer journey, a marketer can understand what leads to conversion and what doesn’t, what campaigns customers find valuable, and which marketing efforts deliver ROI.
A digital marketer should also have the skills to spot business opportunities and spin raw data into business strategies.
2. SEO or Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization isn’t new to the ears of digital marketers, but the strategies involved are ever-changing. Considering how vital it is to the growth of an organization, you don’t want to be left behind.
An SEO specialist’s job is to research and identify relevant keywords that their target audiences tend to look up online. This is very important to marketers who consistently publish content. That’s because those keywords are used by search engines like Google to interpret content relevance. But more than this, you must also learn how to monitor search trends, evaluate algorithms, and keep a close eye on competitors.
Studying SEO gives you the ability to improve proficiency in local SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO.
Some of the SEO tools you need to be familiar with to be an outstanding digital marketer include Google Search Console, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz, Google Trends, Yoast, and Google Analytics.
3. Market Research Skills
Your target audience is your market, and understanding them is crucial to meeting your goals. Smart digital marketers research and outsource effective ways to understand how their audience behaves and reacts to what is being presented to them.
Market research is said to be the foundation of any form of digital marketing. Not taking this into consideration means losing the competition right away.
Conducting market research will help you achieve the following:
- Create an effective social media strategy;
- Update your website regularly to fit client needs and preferences; and
- Run more powerful advertisements.
4. Marketing Automation Knowledge
Marketing automation has been widely used by about 68% of marketing leaders to give precise messaging to customers. Digital marketers should expand their knowledge in this type of skill because it gives a more detailed picture of the potential customer behaviour.
When a digital marketer understands how their customers react to their marketing, they can create segmented automation that is sent to the right people at the right time, through the right channel. This helps increase your leads, sales, and conversions through holistic customer profiles.
5. Advanced Social Media Marketing
Having knowledge about the different social media platforms is a great advantage to a digital marketer. When COVID-19 struck, businesses moved their marketing strategies online, using social media platforms to reach more audiences.
Social media management platforms such as Facebook Business Manager, Buzzsumo, Buffer, and HootSuite are also insightful and data-driven. You can track metrics and find which content works the best, but this requires strong analytic capabilities.
Ultimately, social media marketing skills involve more than just posting content. Rather, it is an understanding of the efficiency of paid advertising and building engaging social communities.
6. Project Management Skills
Project management is a complex skill that requires focus and discipline. That’s because project managers need to lead and direct both internal and external teams to oversee deliverables.
The question is, how can you do that without mixing up the different projects for different clients and giving each the attention and effort necessary? The answer is mastering project management tools that will allow you to organize the hierarchy of the projects, the people who are in the project, and the deadlines that should be met.
7. Consumer Psychology
Consumer psychology focuses on how thoughts, emotions, perceptions, and beliefs affect the way people buy goods and services. This skill is important in creating strategies that effectively engage consumers.
What areas of consumer psychology and behaviour should you focus on? To drive buyer engagement, you must develop your skills in persuasion architecture, scarcity and loss aversion, and emotion-driven behaviour, among others.
Make Your Mark With These Digital Marketing Specialist Skills
The continuous evolution of digital marketing makes it challenging for marketers to stay at the top of their game. In 2022, digital marketing skills development will remain to be aggressive and data-driven.
Are you ready to make your mark with these digital marketing specialist skills? Here at Ad Culture, we’ll help you find the perfect job where you can excel and stand out. We’re here to connect skilled marketers with the right employers that will help them make the most of their potential.
Reach out to us or visit our website to know more.
