Digital marketing is an exciting field to be in. With an incredible 150,000 digital jobs forecast by 2020 and an annual growth rate of 9%, this high-growth sector is a great choice for eager professionals looking to make their mark.
Before you embark on a career in in this domain, it’s important to do your research to find a specialization within digital marketing that you can excel at.
But where do you begin?
Worry not – we’ve got your back! Here are the absolutely must-have skills that are bound to take your digital marketing career places -
#1 Data Analysis
Studies show that 13% of digital marketing organizations have listed analytics experience as a required skill set in their job descriptions. To become an outstanding digital marketer, it is important to not only implement inbound and outbound digital strategies but also analyze them regularly and use those insights to constantly improve.
#2 Email Marketing
Email marketing used to be simple. Yeah – used to. Today, it is all about niche targeting, open rates, analyzing bounce, and optimizing conversions. But the power of email marketing as a marketing tool is often underestimated.
Social may be taking over the marketing space, and though it is great for brand awareness, a company’s most loyal customers and prospects will want to keep in close touch through mail. Most of the top performing marketing campaigns and sales will happen from a company’s email list.
Email marketing will need you to do more than just send out regular communication. You need to have the skill to optimize an email by crafting a compelling strategy, refining content based on what works best, and testing relentlessly. It is immensely important that the marketers of today understand the best ways to develop distribution lists and use the email to nurture and create more opportunities.
#3 Social media marketing
Social media is what marketing firms are focusing on now. With most of the world’s population on some social platform or the other it has become easy for marketers to target their audience. Though it may seem easy, social media marketing is in fact complex in terms of understanding the different networks and social media marketing tools that will allow marketers to leverage efforts including automation.
It is vital for digital marketers to understand the ways to develop a strong social media presence in order to bolster their brands as well as the future marketing goals.
#4 Content marketing
Marketing techniques like email, SEO, and social media will be rendered useless if these technical skills cannot be backed up by excellent writing skills for multiple platforms. Marketers with the ability to flow easily between writing press releases, emails, social posts, website copy, and proposals are in high demand.
#5 Viral Marketing
Given that content is one of the most important areas in marketing today, getting content to move at a rapid pace is something that sites like Upworthy, Buzzfeed and ViralNova have taken to a whole new level. It isn’t an essential skill, but having the ability to do this is something that will be a plus on your resume.
#6 Mobile Marketing
The sudden mobile explosion and the rise of the smart phone has left marketers in the dark. A number of brands have their websites ready but are not accessible through mobile making it hard for customers to access them. This is a marketing skill that most companies are looking for.
Marketers will need to understand the difference between mobile marketing and desktop marketing and its communication style.
#7 Search Engine Marketing
There are two parts to the equation here.
Building an earned authority to rank high on search engines takes a lot of time and there is no quick fix. However, it isn’t something to be neglected since it ends up driving the majority of your traffic over time. It takes years of content creation and constant tactical activity.
To compete for a high paying digital marketing job, it is necessary to have SEO skills, including server side settings, server response codes, and sitemaps. Furthermore, candidates should also have experience using sEMRush, Moz, and other SEO tools to identify search behaviors of the customers and the competitive landscape.
Most companies hiring digital marketers look for skills in SEM – PPC. As a potential candidate you will need to have the analytical and research skills to create and execute strong PPC plans that align to the overreaching marketing strategy of organizations.
Become a Digital Marketing Professional
- 50000+Expected new jobs in Digital Marketing
- 44%Companies prioritizing a digital-first approach
- 52%Growth in Social Media and Digital Marketing jobs
Post Graduate Program in Digital Marketing
- Joint Purdue-Simplilearn Digital Marketer Certificate
- Become eligible to be part of the Purdue University Alumni Association
8 months
Here's what learners are saying regarding our programs:
Allan Joaquin
Senior Copywriter, AMI Group
Completing the PGP in Digital Marketing course and gaining knowledge in the field allowed me to service new clients who needed consultancy on digital marketing strategies. I was also able to increase my revenue by 50%.
Michael Anastasiadis
I have recently completed Simplilearn’s Digital Marketing Program. This unique experience was full of live classes, e-learning content, real-world projects and tests. And I gained extensive knowledge regarding all basic disciplines of digital marketing: SEO, Social Media, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, PPC, and more.
#8 Visual Marketing
It is common knowledge in the marketing world that one way to get increased engagement is to share visuals. This is understood on Facebook and a couple of other studies as well which show 100% more engagement is driven by a visual post over text.
However, this isn’t a tactic that works only on Facebook – Twitter has caught up as well. An eye for creative visualization is a skill definitely worth mastering.
So there you have it – the 8 most important digital marketing skills for a digital marketer looking to get into the industry.
Simplilearn offers the Digital marketing specialist masters program that offers 9 top courses in the digital marketing field to skill up in. With an industry recommended learning path, monthly mentoring sessions, and live sessions with renowned digital marketing experts, you will have everything you need to be a digital marketing champion.