Marketing is not about selling to customers; it’s about communicating with individuals. It’s understanding what resonates best with them and delivering value on those terms. Digital marketing is no different; it’s just that communication occurs over electronic platforms. While the soft skills required for marketing have not changed– communication, curiosity, empathy, for example– the hard skills for digital marketing are slightly different.
In this post, we’re going to cover five digital marketing skills that are crucial for success in today’s landscape– whether you’re looking to grow your career or business or both.
- SEO & SEM
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is key to all levels of digital marketing and as such, anyone going into the field must have at least a basic handle on it. You can certainly leave the highly technical, back-end stuff to the more technically-oriented people on the team, having a solid understanding of best practices and how to optimize all forms of content is crucial for running a successful digital marketing campaign. Search Engine Marketing is about managing digital advertising. Both SEO and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) inform your entire digital strategy on both a data and content level.
- Copywriting
Copy is written material aimed at promoting and prompting action. Given the number of online channels that exist today, copywriting is a must-have digital marketing skill. Emails, landing pages, event invitations, paid ads, social media posts, chatbots, product descriptions- these all require a copy. Copywriting is a different skill from other writing because you need to be able to capture attention, communicate value, and inspire action with a limited number of words and space. You also need to be able to shift gears easily, as the expectations and mindset of an audience vary depending on the platform.
- Data/ Analytics
No matter what facet of digital marketing you are going into, Google Analytics will probably be central to your strategy. Monitoring and reporting via such tools are pretty straightforward, but the tricky part is how to gather and use that information to help you learn more about consumer behaviour and apply it to new solutions that boost traffic and conversions. Most businesses have huge amounts of data to track, and great digital marketers need to understand how to gather and use this to their advantage. If you can show that you can do this in innovative ways and that the way you do it ends with important results, you’re going to be a valuable asset in the industry.
- Email Marketing
An email has been around for ages, and yet it still prevails as one of the most effective marketing strategies out there. It can be used to convert leads, engage dormant customers, build loyalty, and more. You can send useful content, important updates, exclusive deals, event invites– the list goes on. With finely tuned email marketing skills, you can build out your lists and perform experiments, gaining valuable insights about your audience to help drive your goals.
- Understand Design-Based Thinking & Planning
Design Thinking is a term that basically refers to a way of approaching problems from a user-centred perspective. The approach essentially encourages us to think in a human-centred way when solving large-scale complex problems. The interesting thing about this approach is that it can be used in a non-linear way– so that in some instances you may get to the testing phase and then come back to the middle phase, for instance, to re-consider ideas. Designers and developers are likely to use an approach like this, so even if you’re not one, it’s a good idea to at least have a solid understanding of it and apply it when feasible.
Conclusion
The future of digital marketing skills development will continue to be data-driven and competitive. Digital marketers will not only need to be creative in the content they produce but also need the skills and tools to measure the success of each effort. As digital marketing continues to expand, the best marketers will be life-long learners. Building your skills is a key part of success when it comes to your marketing activities. Aarna Systems, being the best digital marketing agency in India, has always focused on enhancing skills and delivering results to our clients. If you are looking for a full-service digital marketing agency, get in touch with our team right away!
