One of the greatest challenges of being a digital marketer is that you always need to keep your skills up-to-date, whether that’s adapting to new platforms, keeping track of trends, or learning how to use new tools.
To help you develop your abilities, here are six in-demand skills you need to know to become a better digital marketer:
Hard skills
While soft skills are tied to your personality, hard skills are learned and mastered in a classroom setting or on the job and are directly applicable to your work.
If you want to improve your digital marketing skills, then you need to focus on honing these three hard skills:
- Content creation
Creating quality content means providing useful information to your audience in the hopes of retaining existing customers and attracting new ones to your business.
Content creation done right helps you cement the reputation of your brand by establishing trust with your audience.
Whether you’re writing or editing copy, you’ll need impeccable spelling and grammar. If nit-picking grammar doesn’t come naturally to you, try improving your writing and avoid unnecessary mistakes by using tools like Grammarly.
Additionally, with Cisco reporting that video content accounts for about 82% of overall internet traffic in 2022, you’ll need to be comfortable with video marketing because it’s becoming the center of many content marketing strategies.
Even if you’re not a professional videographer, learning the basics of video creation, video editing, and how to integrate videos into your marketing plans will help you make the most out of your online presence.
- Social media marketing
The importance of social media in business shouldn’t be underestimated. Having a firm understanding of how different platforms can be used to target different demographics is a guaranteed way to help you achieve your marketing goals.
Social media marketing involves much more than just posting on Instagram, it can also involve all of the following skills:
- Storytelling
- Generating user engagement
- Email marketing
- Paid social advertising
- Marketing automation
- Influencer marketing
- Video Marketing
Social media platforms are always changing, so it’s important to stay up-to-date on the latest trends because what worked last year may not work this year. As a digital marketer, you need to be proactive rather than reactive in adapting to these changes and adjusting your social media strategy.
- Digital marketing tools and software
In the world of digital marketing, there are lots of tools and software at your disposal to help you develop your marketing strategy from beginning to end.
From design to SEO and site audits, you’ll need to master the right tools to answer your business’s needs in design, content creation, and data analytics.
Here’s a list of common marketing tools often used by digital marketers organized by function:
- Data analytics: Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Twitter analytics, Facebook Insights, Google Analytics
- SEO & SEM: Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Search Console, MozPro, Optmyzr, Spyfu
- Microsoft Office Suite: Excel, PowerPoint
- Email marketing: MailChimp, Omnisend, HubSpot, Sendinblue
- Pay-per-click (PPC): GoogleAds, Semrush, PPC Entourage, Ad Badger, Bing Ads Editor
- Project management: Asana, Trello, Monday, Zoho Projects, Basecamp
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Scoro, Sugar CRM, Salesforce, Pipedrive, WORKetc, Insightly
- Content marketing: Taboola, Outbrain, Optimizely, Seismic, Marin, BrightInfo
- Content management: WordPress, Hubspot, TYPO3, Shopify, Webflow, Joomla, Drupal
- Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): Hotjar, HelloBar, InstaPage
- Social media management: Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Zoho, MeetEdgar, Loomly, SocialPilot
- Design: Canva, Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Gravit Designer
- Coding: HTML, CSS
If you’re currently looking for a job and wondering how to make a resume that stands out, highlight the tools you’re most skilled at in your resume’s introduction to immediately show employers that you have the skills they’re looking for.
Additionally, include your certifications – even if you’re still in the process of acquiring them – on your resume to demonstrate that you’re continuing to learn and develop your marketing skills.
Soft skills
While technical skills are essential for becoming a better digital marketer, honing your soft skills also makes a big difference in taking your career to the next level (especially if you’re looking to transition into a managerial role).
Here are a few soft skills that are important for a career in digital marketing:
- Communication skills
To develop an effective marketing strategy, you need to understand how to get your ideas across in a convincing manner and create content that converts.
Hone your skills in consumer behavior to understand your target audience and craft the most effective content that converts.
If you want to improve your communication skills, try following authoritative copywriting resources. Additionally, consider analyzing other businesses’ SEO-optimized titles that elicit the best CTR, like in ads and email newsletters for example.
- Critical thinking
Critical thinking goes hand-in-hand with data analysis. Improving your critical thinking ability will lead you to make more informed decisions about your marketing campaigns, improve your design workflow, and help you develop creative campaigns that convert.
Critical thinking skills also help you analyze a situation from various perspectives and help you find creative solutions to problems at work. Additionally, they can help you communicate more effectively with colleagues, especially in regard to addressing issues on joint projects.
- Adaptability
The digital marketing landscape is constantly changing, meaning you need to be able to adapt your strategies to stay ahead of the curve. Keep up with the latest trends and best practices in the industry by reading blogs, attending conferences, and taking online courses to boost your credentials.
If you’re a digital marketing freelancer or applying to new jobs, add these soft skills to your cover letter and expand on them with concrete examples of how you’ve applied them in the workplace. This will position you as a credible digital marketer with demonstrated online marketing expertise and authority on the related subject matter.
Conclusion:
Digital marketing is a continuously and rapidly evolving field, and it can be difficult to keep up with best practices and the new directions digital marketing take. However, by focusing on honing your marketing skills in the six areas outlined above, you’ll become a better and more marketable digital marketer.
