With the dawn of the new year, the glaring difference in how businesses carry out marketing functions from the years prior to the unfortunate and long-winded pandemic is more apparent than ever.
Traditional marketing strategies and tools are not as sought after as they used to be, with the pandemic evidently accelerating the rise of digital marketing.
With digital marketing now at the forefront of most businesses, digital marketers play an integral role in a business’s longevity as they are required to grasp the technological advancements in the field.
Thus, it’s important that a digital marketer possesses and constantly strives to hone their skills to make their mark in this ever-competitive field. The slim margin between barely keeping a business afloat and actual success is undoubtedly in the hands of digital marketing. As such, here we have included 5 essential skills every digital marketer needs to have knowledge of as well as master.
1) Social Media
Social media needs little to no introduction, with it acting as a common ground for mass public conversation. Despite their millions of users, some digital marketers have yet to get a firm grip on the smart and effective use of these continuously booming platforms. This is where the vast majority of your target market should be, and every digital marketer must understand how to capitalise on this demographic. Consistent posts are just one of the many facets of the effective use of social media.
This, however, should not be given top priority as audiences today crave content that is relevant and current to the times. Frequent posts should have the ability to properly engage with your demographic as they grow keen on learning about what your business has to offer. Hence, it’s important that digital marketers study and take note of consumer behaviour on these platforms, then apply the data collected to successfully run campaigns. Tools such as hashtags and paid advertisements are just some of the many tools at a digital marketer’s disposal when stamping their business’s name across the many social media platforms.
2) Data Analysis
Mounds of data pass through the Internet daily, which is clearly a pool of endless possibilities for digital marketers. Then comes data analytics. This is common practise for digital marketers today, as various software packages are used to collect and process such data. Data, as such, is derived from the interactions of your target market across different platforms. Collecting this data is immensely significant in understanding what attracts your audience. As you interpret this data, you notice patterns in their behaviour.
Digital marketers are better equipped with the necessary information to carry out their functions, which, in turn, will boost consumer engagement. This not only helps gain understanding of their target market, but in addition, data analytics also allows for greater investment returns. Now, digital marketers have the data to determine whether a campaign was run successfully or not. With this, digital marketers must focus their energy on mastering tools such as Google Analytics and/or Google Ads.
3) Email Marketing
Despite being the more traditional approach to marketing when compared to the other skills on the list, email marketing still remains an effective digital marketing strategy to reach a more targeted audience. This personalised method of digital marketing seems to be neglected in favour of more technologically advanced marketing tools. However, many seem to have forgotten its benefits to the business as well as the consumer.
Email marketing, when used properly, can help build customer loyalty for years to come as it is a more intimate way of marketing your business. Consumers tend to be more committed to businesses that take their time crafting emails for the enjoyment of their customers. This shows a business’s initiative in ensuring their audience is well-updated and informed on the latest products, campaigns, and promotions they might be marketing at a said time. This form of marketing will also allow digital marketers to brush up on their email writing skills and, subsequently, improve their professional writing skills.
4) Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Search engines, as we all know, are our gateway to anything and everything on the Internet. It’s how consumers find products and services they desire, and understanding how to make use of these search engines is a digital marketing skill worth mastering. The crux of SEO is to increase your business’s visibility on the various search engines by boosting their rankings in the order in which they are displayed to the users of such search engines. The higher a business’s website is on the search engine, the higher the chances of gaining more visits to the website.
This, in turn, would increase consumer engagement where your products or services are better marketed to them. Digital marketers must be meticulous in researching the dynamics of SEO as well as the algorithms of various search engines such as Google, Bing, Firefox, and many more. Carefully creating content with relevant keywords inserted into it is just the tip of the iceberg of SEO. Thumbnails of videos and even their length are some SEO practises one should always keep in mind. The fundamentals of SEO must be embedded in the digital marketing culture of any business to increase their searchability amidst the vastness of the world wide web.
5) Customer Experience
As we have seen, monitoring, and understanding customer behaviour is crucial for all businesses. Customer Experience (CX) is key as digital marketers aim to build campaigns around the needs of their target market. CX, being a recent marketing development, studies customer engagement and uses it to push products and services in the pursuit of strengthening business relationships with these customers.
This places more of a priority on maintaining a close relationship with customers where their needs and wants are met, ultimately creating a win-win situation where business can attract more customers and see more profitable investments. Thus, businesses should pay attention to CX, which many experts predict will be a determining factor of one’s success in the near future.
While the pandemic has set the marketing industry back after many years of steady progress, it seems to have the opposite effect on the digital marketing industry, which is only growing with every passing day. The shift to more online and mobile interactions between businesses and consumers has ushered in a new era in the realm of digital marketing. As we move forward, the role of digital marketers is seemingly projected to expand as they look to shoulder more responsibilities in communicative media.
Due to this, digital marketers must learn from the market, that is, and make their own projections for the future while always remembering the fundamentals of digital marketing.
For more tips and articles, check out our Facebook page and our Instagram page.
