Mastering digital marketing is no longer optional, it's essential. Uncover the 14 universal skills that are shaping the industry's landscape. From SEO to social media, these competencies are the keys to unlocking your online success.
Getting around essential digital marketing tools
Better tools can make you a better marketer.
- Try this: skim through some job boards in a specialization that’s interesting to you. You will start to see the expectations employers have of digital marketers are connected with certain tools.
How to get better at it
Develop an “inquisitive” perspective
- Not only consume content from your favorite creators on the web but analyze how they did what you like so much or what made thousands of people engage
- Only video marketing and podcast marketing don’t utilize text as the main medium, but even videos and podcasts start as text
How to get better at it
Everyone can learn to write well
- This job isn’t about creating the next blockbuster novel or film script
- It’s about developing a workshop on writing clearly and convincingly
- You can write with the help of writing assistants
- Things don’t need to be perfect
- Utility trumps creativity
How to get better at it
Ethics is an area where a person should make conscious decisions
- One thing that really matters is understanding what consequences your actions will bring in the long term.
- And don’t forget about critical thinking when seeking advice regarding work ethic
How to get better at it
Change your mindset
- Things can change quite fast in this type of work. Reacting to change is part of the game.
- Perfectionism will hinder your capability to work in smarter organizations if you are not reliable, honest, and respectful of others.
How to get better at it
Free trials or free versions of essential marketing tools
- Certification programs and educational materials
- Google Sheets is a good starting point
- Some tools are out of reach, but start with the free ones
- Design is a language. With design, you convey what your brand is about
How to get better at it
Assertiveness
- Learning to recognize and enjoy other things in life
- Healthy diet
- Realizing that perfect is not always better
- Too much pressure in digital marketing is normal
- The only way to cope with it is to find another job
How to get better at it
Understand the basic web design principles
- Learn how you can create better experiences for your users with UX design
- Start experimenting with design software
- Assertiveness
- The ability to express your opinions and stand up for your own beliefs without being hostile or aggressive
How to get better at it
Practice
- Certifications and courses don’t help you get the next job
- To hone the data skills, you need to practice
- Make your skills actionable by practicing on real problems
- A couple of courses to get you started
Final thoughts
Creativity is a craft, not an art. The former can help your ads or any type of content to stand out in the crowd, but it does not guarantee efficiency.
- Don’t strive for creativity in digital marketing at all costs. It’s about being able to discover what works and repeating it until it works.
Digital Marketing Specializations
Social media marketing, search engine optimization, email marketing, marketing automation… the list of digital marketing specializations goes on and on.
- There are certain skills that are fundamental to all of them. The sooner you start to learn these “universal” skills, the better-because those skills act as investments.
Performing experiments
Develop hypotheses and conduct experiments to validate them
- This is important because it’s the only way to get an objective answer
- Growth marketing is characterized by prioritizing data over opinions
- Experiments will come in all shapes and sizes
- Example: Google Ad Experiments
Coping with pressure
Digital marketers are hired for results
- In marketing, there is always pressure to get results.
- Planning ahead and well helps, but you won’t always be the one in charge of planning
- Bigger companies want to be the best. This means achieving better results in a shorter time.
How to get better at it
Active listening
- Fostering positive feelings
- Observe managers in your workplace and try to identify how their actions and words affected others
- Sometimes, critical thinking can be the very thing that saves you and your brand from bad marketing ideas
How to get better at it
Healthy skepticism
Understanding different marketing channels
There is a high probability you will need to work on the intersection of various digital channels (e.g., in a startup or in a small team)
- You can improve communication with other people on your team by understanding how all of them work and what to use them for
- Brands today need to embrace something called omnichannel marketing
Understanding code
Sooner or later, you will be exposed to some form of programming or markup language. Learning this skill can save you a lot of time on redundant tasks, especially when you need to perform them at scale.
- The no-code movement will make marketers less reliant on coding and more reliant on martech.
Curiosity
There’s always something new to learn
- New technologies, new tactics, new philosophies, Google’s algorithm updates, industry regulations, etc
- Stay on top of all of these things
- Digital marketing is definitely for people who like to learn
How to get better at it
Optimize information gathering
- Try following content curations
- The market and goals-those things frequently change in marketing
- On Friday, your company may be the leader in your niche, but after the weekend, some other company may start fighting for the same customers
How to get better at it
Analyze
- Uncover areas of growth opportunities
- Ideate
- Generate ideas on how to improve the focus area and turn them into an idea pipeline
- Prioritize
- Test
- Conduct the experiment and analyze the results
How to get better at it
Practice saying “no” and saying what you really want to say
- Speak up when you’d rather watch a movie at home instead of going out
- Let your partner know you won’t be able to do a specific errand; don’t be tempted to offer a full backstory
- Visit a new restaurant and ask for a table that’s in a quieter area or near a window
