The demand for talented professionals with relevant digital marketing skills has grown due to the boom in the digital marketing space.
Every business today needs robust digital marketing not just to succeed but sustain, which has made the digital marketing career a viable option for thousands of aspirants. But before jumping into a career headfirst, it’s vital that you access your skillset and customize it according to the field you are about to leap into.
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Digital Marketing Skills Every Digital Marketer Needs To Learn
This digital marketing skills list will not be a generic listicle of fundamental skills like communication and time management. However, these are the kind of skills that are essential to success in any job or industry. But today, we will focus on skills specific to winning in the digital marketing world.
While skills like research, analytics, SEO, design thinking, and content creation are central to a prolific digital marketing career, a robust arsenal of soft skills is equally if not more important.
Soft Skills Needed for Digital Marketing
Contrary to popular belief, soft skills can be learned. And if you seriously want to excel as a digital marketer, consider this a GO signal to start focusing on your soft digital marketing skills.
1. Curiosity
“If Knowledge is power than curiosity is the muscle”
Danielle Laporte
Digital marketing is a dynamic field, and there are so many things to learn, hundreds of sub-niches to explore. Curiosity is the muscle that will propel you to learn, and as long as you are learning, you are growing.
Whether it’s a new Google Algorithm update or a client rejecting your idea, curiosity will help you keep pushing to know more and, in effect, learn more. This online marketing skill is integral to your growth as a digital marketer.
2. Adaptibility
When you work in a digital marketing agency, you get an opportunity to work with a variety of diverse clients. For example, one month you are working on a travel company, the next you might have to work with a medical brand; adaptability is a skill that helps you prepare for these abrupt changes.
If you learn the art to make the most out of any client rejection, last-minute changes, or drastic Google algorithm updates, then you, my friend, possess the highest paying digital marketing skill.
3. Empathy
No marketing strategy can work with a lack of empathy.
The entire content industry runs on empathy; it’s one of the most essential digital marketing skills.
Empathy helps social media professionals create shareable content: For content writers, it assists in creating content that resonates with their target audience, and for SEM professionals, empathy helps in curating their narrative in a way that compels users to click on their ads.
Without empathy, you are just a bunch of salesmen with a losing strategy.
4. Multitasking
Digital marketing is a fast-paced industry, with digital marketers expected to be on top of everything at all times. So whether it’s creating the weekly analytics report to following the latest social media trend and, oh yes, reading the new 3000 words article on the changing landscape of Digital Marketing: you need to get it all done before time.
Did I mention the last-minute requirement from clients for a slight change?
If you don’t champion this skill of multi-tasking, you will indeed be left behind.
5. Tenacity
If you give up easily, digital marketing is not the career for you.
You may painstakingly work to rank a website, and the latest SEO update cooks your goose, or you may pitch great ideas that get rejected. You may be called in to help figure out why your AdWords account got banned.
Every day there’s something new, and that’s what keeps it all exciting!
Tenacity is one of the most prominent digital marketing skill you will ever possess.
Hard Skills Required for Digital Marketing
6. Research and Gathering Data
You will most likely need to pull data from different sources at some point. For example, you may have to do an SEO audit on a website. Whether planning a social media campaign or writing content for a beauty brand, researching skills play a significant role in everything you do as a digital marketer.
None of the digital marketing skills are as helpful as your skill to research and gather data.
7. Basics of SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is key to all levels of digital marketing, and anyone going into this field must have a basic understanding of the concept. Knowing what your target audience is searching for on Google and how it guides your digital marketing efforts is more important than you think.
I’m not asking you to master all the technical and backend stuff; leave that to the SEO professionals; just get a basic understanding of SEO and How it affects other digital marketing avenues. This skill will help you propel in whatever online marketing avenue you decide to explore.
8. Data Analytics
Data analytics is a broad term that includes many diverse types of data analysis.
Any information can be subjected to data analytics techniques to get insight that helps to improve your digital marketing strategies. Data analytics techniques can identify trends and metrics that would otherwise be lost in the sea of information. This information can then be used to optimize processes to enhance the overall efficiency of a process.
In simpler words, data analysis is simplifying data to make sense of it and get insights that guide our strategies. This digital marketing skill will be of great importance to your career as a digital marketer.
9. Social Media
I don’t have 10,000 pages to explain the importance of social media.
There is so much more to the skill of Social Media than just consistently posting Content. The quality of the Content, relevancy, and engagement with the audience are 3 other factors that marketers need to understand while creating social media strategies.
Hacking the secrets of success on social media is the same as uncovering the secret to understanding people. Social media is the human totem of this age.
Mastering this online marketing skill should be on your priority list.
10. Content Creation
If you drill down all the different avenues of Digital marketing, you will be surprised to find that Content is at the heart of everything we do as digital marketers.
From writing an engaging caption for social media to creating a video ad, the skill to create relevant and engaging content that your target audience loves is an inviolable digital marketing skill.
Blogs, website content, videos, reels, email copies, product descriptions, ads, course work, and social media content all fall under the content umbrella you need to master if you want a successful career in the digital world.
11. Design Thinking
Design Thinking skill is a term that refers to a way of approaching problems from a user-centered perspective. The approach motivates us to think in a human-centered way when solving complicated problems.
Digital Marketers should have a basic understanding of designing software such as Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.), Canva, Inkscape that would help create visual Content.
Even if you never actually have to design a creative, the basic understanding of design helps you better draft your strategies and lead a team. Although, as a team manager, you will have designers under you, being well-acquainted with design and designing software will help you better lead the team and explain your vision.
Conclusion
Honing your digital marketing skills is a great first step in your career as a digital marketer.
