Skills And Savvy You Need To Bring To A Digital Marketing Career - Margaret Buj - Interview Coach

Skills And Savvy You Need To Bring To A Digital Marketing Career Marketing is a skill and role that is ubiquitously appreciated across all industries, in both small to big businesses, and for a wide variety of reasons. As such, it can be a very lucrative career to get into with opportunities and growth pathways all over. However, it’s also a demanding job. It demands a mixture of methodology and creativity, and in digital marketing, technicality is just as important. To make sure that your CV stands out and that you have the strength to carry the role, here are the concepts and the core tools you should at least be familiar. Understanding branding First of all, you need to arrive to any business you work with having an understanding of their branding and what makes it both unique and impactful. In digital marketing, you often have to work within the constraints of a brand, to keep it consistent or help it grow. Companies that have an existing strong brand will want you to understand it, from the visual style to the voice to the brand story that reinforces it. You also should have an understanding of the different elements, such as the brand style guide that can help you establish the branding for a company that doesn’t yet have theirs nailed down. The uniqueness of it all A core part of the brand and what is likely to play a central role in any marketing strategy you put together is the unique selling proposition (also known as the unique value proposition) of the company that you’re working with. What is it that sets them apart from everyone else in the market? What niche do they hit and what pain points do they address that their competitors simply do not? Understand the importance of USPs in helping brands stay competitive and know how to work it into the messaging of the marketing strategy. A good grasp on target markets Knowing your audience is crucial to making sure that you’re saying the right thing and hitting the right points to appeal best to them. The business you work with may have a deep understanding of their audience already, but don’t be surprised if that’s not the case. A lot of business owners don’t understand how knowing their audience can shape their marketing and branding. Learning how to perform market research and to use the practice of creating the ideal customer can help you shape the voice and how you address and approach your target market all the better. It can also shape key marketing strategies like which social media platform you’re more likely to find them on and what kind of email marketing will appeal to them. Understanding the sales funnel When it comes to generating sales, you may find that many business owners and managers do not think much beyond the step of conversion. Often, their idea of marketing is the advertisement that wins them over or the landing page that convinces them. Understanding the importance of the marketing funnel can help you show them how much value there is in increasing visibility and creating familiarity and loyalty both before and after the sale. A working sales funnel greatly increases the chance of converting more customers, as well as increasing the lifetime value of the average customer. Be able to introduce the sales funnel system into businesses that don’t have them and you will wow them with how comprehensive your understanding seems. Be content with content Now, it’s time to look deeper into the tools that will actually make your digital marketing repertoire beyond the key concepts you should work by. Content marketing has become one of the most powerful tools on the internet for a good reason. This long-acting organic marketing method serves as the first step of the sales funnel, helping grow visibility and establish familiarity and authority with the brand. Online content writing courses can help you learn how to create content that leads closer to conversion. It’s important to know its benefits towards other marketing techniques like search marketing and social media marketing, as well. More and more business owners are becoming aware of the power of content, so this is a technique that should be considered mandatory for your career. The power of search Similarly, business owners and managers are becoming aware that search engines are one of the greatest sources of organic visitors that their website is going to have. Learning the basics of SEO, such as how site user experience, good PR and backlinking, and content creation can boost your ranking, is essential. However, unless you plan on specializing in search marketing, it can be far too expansive a discipline to truly learn in and out. Being able to identify key SEO agencies that you can work with in the area can help you just as much. So long as you have access to the skills you need to help your employers rank, you should be able to meet their search marketing goals. The importance of social media By comparison, social media is a lot easier to manage on your own. Whether through advertising or posting alone, understanding how to build a community on social media and how to drive sales campaigns and product/service launches through it is becoming a key part of online marketing. Having some understanding of social media management tools, learning to schedule posts, to engage with followers, and to find cross-promotion opportunities can all help create a thriving, healthy social media feed that employers are going to love. For this reason, it’s recommended that you have your own professional social media profile that you use for networking and to sell your own skills, so that managers and employers can see that you practice what you preach. Excellence in email Though it might seem a little old fashioned compared to some of the other core digital marketing techniques, email is still one of the most effective and offers some of the best return on investment, on average. Demonstrating awareness of those facts alone can show employers that you know what you’re talking about. However, learning how to compose truly professional looking marketing emails is important. Email marketing suites can make it all the easier to sharpen up every message you send, as well as to manage mailing lists to ensure consistent quality communication with those who opt into them. How to grow better One of the single best benefits of digital marketing, and one resource that not enough businesses are taking advantage of, is the sheer amount of data you can collect on the way. Not only do things like social media, search engines, and web analytics collect data on how effective your tactics are at driving clicks, engagement and conversions. Good analytics also helps you learn a lot more about your customer, such as the type of content they’re interested in, demographics they fit, where they position your brand against your competitors, and so on. Learning how to use web marketing analytics can help you deliver more than high quality marketing campaigns, but real insight on what does and doesn’t work for the brand, which can see your role growing more and more valuable with time. Where goals intersect It’s all too easy for a digital marketing professional to be a little too close to their own work and to not see the forest for the trees. Disconnects can happen between marketing and management to the point that you’re so focused on marketing goals, you don’t stop to think of whether they work with what the company is trying to achieve right now. As such, you can truly sell yourself as one of the top digital marketers if you can show an understanding of where business goals and marketing goals meet. Creating goals based on business aims, and knowing which strategies help you reach those goals can be key. For instance, a new business looking to drum up customers needs visibility, so focusing on SEO and PR could be key, while one that is aiming for new sales goals may benefit better from prioritizing advertisements and promoting content on social media. Professionalism and presentation Your employer is going to want to be assured that you can present their brand with the kind of presentation and awareness of market appeal that helps them excel. One of the best ways to do that is to add the same professional sheen and savvy to your own presentation. Looking the part in marketing is almost as important as being the part. Understanding all the key terms, being able to speak energetically about strategy, and little aspects of presentation, such as having a good dress sense and some business cards, will all make a difference. As a digital marketing mastermind, you don’t have to be an expert in every single practice out there. You do, however, have to know about it, the benefits of it, and at least be able to source those who can provide the skills you can’t bring yourself. This is the best way to ensure employers that you know your stuff enough to really help their marketing shine.