What skills do you need in digital marketing?
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Digital marketing is a huge industry and there are a wide range of positions and responsibilities involved in creating successful digital marketing campaigns.
So what skills do you need in digital marketing? In this blog, we’ll explore the skills needed for each type of position as well as some interpersonal skills all members of a digital marketing agency need to excel.
8 essential digital marketing skills
1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO is the process of identifying and implementing strategies across content to boost search engine rankings. As an SEO executive or content writer you’ll need to understand international and local SEO and monitor search engine data. You’ll also need to analyse trends and identify new ways of gaining higher rankings on the SERPs (search engine results page).
Keyword research and optimisation are a key part of optimising organic results. At a higher level, you’ll need to understand everything about technical SEO from how to effectively link build, to site mapping and conducting technical audits.
2. Content Writing and Marketing
Content writing involves creating high-quality, compelling written content for online pages. This requires excellent attention to detail and excellent grammar and spelling skills. You’ll be expected to write a diverse range of content including blogs, emails, web copy and much more.
This content also needs to be results results-driven and Google E-E-A-T optimised in order to gain visibility and authority on search engine results pages.
3. Paid Social/Social Media Marketing
In order to succeed in boosting visibility and clicks on social media it’s essential to be on top of trends to ensure you’re creating relevant, appealing content for your target audience. This form of marketing involves creating videos, blog posts, and advertising.
Paid social media marketing requires digital marketing agencies to have experience using and understanding trends on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest and a range of other platforms.
4. PPC and Google Ads
PPC or pay-per-click advertising is a huge digital marketing strategy that involves agencies partnering with businesses and placing advertisements online to increase traffic to certain pages and platforms. Each time a customer clicks the ad, the advertising agency is paid by their partnered business.
As a member of a PPC team, you’ll need audit and analysis skills to quickly and effectively identify advertising opportunities. Data analysis is the most important element in creating successful PPC campaigns. You’ll need to carry out extensive competitor research and implement a strategy for success on each account you work on.
A deep understanding of Google Ads is an essential part of PPC and provides you with metrics from the world’s most popular search engine. Analysing these metrics and creating campaigns specifically for Google is a huge part of PPC.
5. Data Analytics
Regardless of the type of digital marketing position you take on, data analytics is an essential part of every role in this industry. From SEO to affiliate marketing, the success of a digital marketing campaign relies on the analysis of search engine data, competitors and customer demographics.
An understanding of analytics software like Google Analytics, Answer The Public and Ahrefs are integral to creating strategies that boost client visibility, performance and sales.
6. Digital PR
When it comes to digital PR, building relationships, networking and a keen eye for trends are the most important skills to have. In this position, your success relies on positive interactions with other companies, journalists and influencers. Generating ethical backlinks and publishing high-quality, engaging content is the key to gaining visibility online from a PR perspective.
7. What Personal Skills Do You Need in Digital Marketing?
Alongside a knowledge of digital market practices and experience of technical and analytical tools, in order to succeed in the digital marketing world you’ll also need to possess a range of personal skills.
Time Management
Working in the marketing industry, it’s essential to manage time effectively. You’ll be responsible for monitoring multiple clients and will need to balance a range of different tasks within a single day. Prioritising your workflow and effectively managing time is crucial to ensuring all work is complete, KPIs are met and content is signed off on time.
Communication and Persuasion
A key part of digital marketing is communicating with clients. As a marketer, your job is to convince clients that your marketing strategies will benefit them. CMS teams are responsible for retaining and bringing on new clients and their success relies on using persuasive evidence including statistics to showcase your performance.
Clients require regular feedback and guidance, whilst agencies may also need further clarification and advice on branding and tone of voice. This requires both excellent written and verbal communication skills across all platforms.
Adaptability
In such a fast-paced, high-risk stake industry digital marketers will regularly encounter barriers or urgent matters they have to attend to. This could be anything from short notice requests from clients to technical issues with software and data. As a marketer, it’s your job to find quick solutions to overcome these problems to ensure work is delivered on time and at the highest quality.
8. How to Develop Digital Marketing Skills
So now you know what skills you need for digital marketing, it’s time to get your skills up to scratch. Whilst not every one of these skills is needed for each marketing role, you should aim to broaden your awareness of overall digital marketing as this will help you understand how different positions impact each other.
Enroll in Free Courses
Many online tools and services provide their own free training courses to help you better understand their platforms. Google Analytics offers analytics academy courses that teach you about the features and processes involved in analysis and collecting data.
Stay on Top of Trends
Keeping on top of the latest marketing news and trends is a great way to develop your skills and ensure your strategies are fresh and relevant. At Embryo, we’ve got a dedicated blog for all the latest news and guides made by our expert marketers. Whether you’re looking for an explanation of technical terms or a handy compilation of useful resources, we’ve got you covered.
Work with the Experts
One of the easiest ways to develop your skills is to work with industry experts, and there’s no better way than working with our digital marketing agency. Whether you want to utilise our organic, creative or paid services or you’re looking to join an agency, you’ll be able to learn the crucial skills to succeed from our award-winning team.
