7 Best Digital Marketing Skills for 2022
So if you’re considering getting into digital marketing, here are seven of the most important skills you’ll need to make yourself a sought-after job candidate in the digital age:
1. SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it is the process of getting traffic from the “free”, “organic”, “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines. All major search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo have primary search results, where web pages and other content such as videos or local listings are displayed and ranked according to what the search engine deems most relevant to users.
2. Pay per click
Pay per click marketing is a way of using search engine advertising to drive clicks to your website, rather than “earning” those clicks organically. Every time your ad is clicked, sending a visitor to your website, you pay the search engine a small fee.
3. Mobile marketing
Mobile marketing is a multi-channel, digital marketing strategy aimed at reaching a target audience on their smartphones, tablets and/or other mobile devices, via websites, email, SMS and MMS, social media and apps.
4. Email Marketing
Email marketing is a very cost effective way to send communications. It’s fast, offers highly measurable results and is easy to personalize.
Email marketing can be used by businesses to keep in touch with their customer base, build relationships, and promote services or offers.
5. Social media
Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, etc., to promote a product or service.
6. Content Marketing
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach aimed at creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience – and ultimately to drive profitable customer action.
7. Analytics
Marketing analytics is the practice of managing and studying metrics to determine the ROI of marketing efforts, as well as identify opportunities for improvement.
7 technical skills that will help you in your work as an Online Marketer
The work of marketers is changing rapidly. Marketing is not what it was 10 years, or even 5 years ago. Technological progress means that marketers are also increasingly required to have (some) technical skills. HubSpot estimates that at least half of all marketing positions will also require technical skills in the coming years. So it’s time to take a broader look around you as an online marketer and make yourself future-proof.
As a marketer, which seven technical skills should you definitely understand and master?
1. Data analytics
The basis of marketing, both online and offline, is understanding the target audience. If you have a good picture of your target group, you can use your marketing campaign much more effectively. Nowadays, understanding the target group is mainly done by collecting and analyzing (large amounts of) data.
There is absolutely no need to completely put your online marketing career aside and focus entirely on analyzing data. But it is very relevant to understand how the different data analytics work, both the analytics that you use yourself and the analytics that your customers use. For example, an online marketer who works with e-commerce is much more valuable if he or she can clarify the impact marketing has had on their customers’ KPIs, rather than just looking at the SEO ranking.
2. SEO
That said, SEO remains extremely valuable to online marketers, despite some claiming that SEO is past its prime. The organic searches in particular have the potential to be much more powerful and valuable than advertisements. Especially when they land on the first page. It is estimated that nearly 40% of customers find a business through a search engine.
SEO is a skill that needs constant updates because algorithms are constantly changing. This is why larger companies have an SEO expert (or a whole team of SEO experts) in-house, instead of an online marketer who ‘coincidentally’ also knows something about SEO. However, it can still be very interesting to invest some time to understand at least the basics. Also useful if you are running a campaign for smaller companies.
3.html/css
Marketers in digital marketing positions often deal with ‘writing’, whether it be a blog or a sales page. Being somewhat familiar with HTML eases the process considerably. Placing the text will go faster and will also look nicer due to a good layout. It is also easier to talk to your (technical) colleagues if you have mastered the basics a bit.
4. WordPress or another CMS
Blogging and publishing content is very important for online marketing. As a future-proof marketer, it is crucial to be able to work in a content management system. WordPress is one of the most widely used CMS, used by 27% of the entire internet , which is almost 16 million sites. Good knowledge of WordPress is therefore quite essential as a digital marketer. Does your customer happen to be using a different CMS? Do not panic. If you know your way around one CMS, it is easy to become familiar with other systems as well.
5. (live) video
Online video marketing, and perhaps more importantly, live videos, is hailed by many marketing professionals as the future of marketing. All major social media now have a (live) video option. It is a perfect way for companies to communicate easily, interactively and ‘hip’ with their followers. Online marketers must therefore know a thing or two about videos. Not only how videos can be used as a marketing tool, but also writing a script, filming and editing.
It’s not rocket science, but you do need to take the time to familiarize yourself with video production. The wide range of video apps makes it easy to manage the entire process from your mobile phone. Live videos, which have only appeared relatively recently, are very popular among the public. It turns out that people like to spend time watching live video, make an effort to participate and enjoy participating in the conversation.
The interactivity means that the live videos score higher than ‘videos on demand’ or blogs. The tricky thing about live video is that it still has to look good. A live video is no excuse for poor image quality, or fumbling in front of the camera.
As an online marketer, you must therefore also be well prepared for a live video and arrange everything down to the last detail, just as you would for a ‘regular’ video. Be prepared for questions and think about possible answers with your team beforehand. An example of a live video that was well prepared with plenty of options for interaction and direct purchases is this video from GoPro in collaboration with REI.
6. ox and basic design skills
Most companies employ a designer or an entire design team. But that does not alter the fact that as a digital marketer you also need to know the basic principles of design. Even if it’s just to be able to photoshop a photo, or lay out a landing page. Understanding and being able to apply basic design skills makes you a better conversation partner and a versatile marketer. It is really not necessary to know all the ins and outs, but as a marketer you must be able to clarify what the standard digital customer experience looks like.