Also, “A LinkedIn report on the most coveted marketing skills and jobs reveals that companies prefer marketers with advanced digital skills.”
There is no wonder that digital marketing skills are so important in modern marketing.
What professional qualities make these technology-driven communicators more productive and powerful in their roles? Are there any advanced or new skills you need to carve a successful career in
digital marketing?
Let’s discuss all these questions and discover all the answers here.
It takes a wide spectrum of skills to become a good digital marketer, including deep understanding, communication skills, and data analysis.
In this article, we’ll explain what are the promising hard and soft digital marketing skills you’ll need in 2022 and why they are so important for your career and business.
7 Hard Skill Sets for Digital Marketers in 2022
To succeed in digital marketing, you need hard skills (though they do not necessarily have to be technical). These skills enable experts to produce creative work that is powerful and relevant to digital marketing.
If you’re interested in learning more about digital marketing, this article can be a great point to start. We also provide links to digital marketing resources to help you explore.
-
1 Branding & Development Skills
Brand identity and development strategies play the most important role in marketing. . A digital marketer should be possessed in today’s highly competitive online markets.
According to the Hubspot great marketing giant: “The identity of a brand is the combination of what it says, the values that drive it, how it communicates the product, and how it makes their customers valuable and trustworthy. A brand identity essentially is a promise to your customers, and the personality of your business.”
Customers who perceive the personality of a company become loyal and trusted. This customer loyalty benefits the business through higher sales and higher profits. For most brands, 67% of business transactions derive from existing customers.
In digital marketing, companies develop their brand, voice, and identity for establishing their digital presence. A company’s brand personality should be apparent and consistent across the website and social media sites – Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Reflecting the company’s brand identity in the market is the responsibility of digital marketers.
In the digital sphere, a strong or consistent branding campaign can propel a company to success, boost sales and customer appreciation.
To succeed in digital marketing, aspiring marketers need to know how to conduct competitor analysis and research. The goal of this analysis is to identify a brand’s major competition and perform research into its sales, outputs, and marketing strategies to better understand.
How to get a competitive advantage? Why do customers choose you over your competitors? To conduct such research, digital marketers might look at their competitors’ online ads, examine competitors’ content, and create branding techniques.
-
Strategy for Content Creation
One of the most important skills is fine content marketing. The ideal digital marketer should be skilled in creating quality content in the form of articles, images, videos, infographics, and podcasts. Storytelling is at the heart of great content marketing, not advertising.
The first great case study comes from the toy industry. Mattel produced a classic TV series called “The Masters of the Universe” with unforgettable characters like He-Man and Skeletor I to sell toys. The toy brand sold 70 million dolls in the first two and a half years after debuting the series. A He-Man success from Mattel’s TV show taught us that content strategy is more than simply folding the web with advertisements.
From YouTube tutorials to well-written blogs, content marketing projects can be used to offer meaningful education value to customers. With digital marketing, you can create content with significant value for your customers, strengthen customer loyalty, and indirectly boost the interest of consumers in your services and products.
Moreover, Hubspot’s State of Marketing Report 2020 says that “70 percent of marketers focus on content marketing”. If you want to succeed in digital marketing, you need decent content strategy skills.
Digital marketers can gain key insights into customer preferences by using advanced data analytics tools. All types of businesses must have access to a plethora of highly performed analytical tools that allow them to identify and predict new trends about consumer preferences and tastes.
At first glance, this may not seem important, but in today’s digital era, data analytics is l becoming an essential part of your digital marketing toolbox. Marketers can easily target existing and prospective customers with the use of Big Data and advanced data analysis.
Today’s businesses have a strong commitment to analytics, which is reflected in their investment numbers. It is estimated that the analytics market will be worth $2.3 billion in 2019, according to Mordor Intelligence. In the forecast period, the market is expected to grow by 14 percent annually and reach $4.23 billion by 2025.
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are relatively young technologies in the marketing sector. AI is already being used by digital marketers to conduct advanced customer analysis and identify trends on social media. Marketing professionals can reach out to their target audiences more easily and understand their needs & interests by using AI and machine learning.
Even if your brand has the best quality products, it may never achieve its full selling potential if it does not have an effective SEO strategy. “The majority of content does not receive any traffic from Google” according to Ahrefs research article that was published in early 2020. Search engine marketing is a way for marketers to use technologies and techniques to bring clients or customers to brands.
In addition to increasing their visibility in search results and attracting more customers, many brands focus on enhancing the quality of their video, social media, and web content.
A deep understanding of SEO is crucial for digital marketers if they want to succeed in search engine-driven marketing.
The risks of exposing consumers’ personal information are high as many transactions happen online. In order to protect the customers’ data and information, digital marketers must understand privacy concerns. A single data breach or infringement can have long-term damaging effects on a company’s reputation,
A writer for Treasure Data says that digital marketing teams are facing major privacy and security challenges. Digital marketers must learn how to protect customer data and handle it. A good understanding of cyber security practices is a critical part of digital marketing.
5 Soft Skill Sets for Digital Marketers in 2022
In addition to technical skills, digital marketers should also focus on developing their interpersonal skills. Communication is very important in digital marketing; you must be able to communicate effectively with peers, target audiences, and business directors. If you plan to become a successful marketing manager, developing soft skills is equally important. Here are a few required soft skills in 2022.
A successful marketing campaign easily finds its target market. Companies must have a deep understanding of the related factors that motivate the target audience to make a purchase.
How can we achieve this comprehensive and positive understanding? The answer is “Empathy”. This involves the ability to share others’ viewpoints, or put oneself in their shoes. The purpose of empathy in digital marketing is to attain a sense of what your target audience wants or needs, and then create a brand campaign that represents your product.
Empathy and gratitude play an important role in connecting and understanding the customers.
Foster your curiosity as a digital marketer. A successful marketer has to constantly look for new ways to make a strong online presence for his company, increase leads, and promote his products or services. If you want to be unique and effective, you have to inspire curiosity and pursue your passion for learning.
Often, consumers gravitate toward brands that care about their views and well-being.
Communication is the core of marketing to persuade clients. Marketing success is based on convincing people and building trust in your services and brand.
Let us explain a key point: A persuasive campaign involves not only influencing sales but also influencing consumer perceptions before a deal. The person should feel satisfied and excited after completing a transaction.
There’s no doubt communication is key. Call me a cliche! but it’s true. Communication is one of the most important skills of any digital marketer. If you’re an experienced content marketer, you’ll be able to write copy for blogs and emails equally well, and explain the campaign plans verbally to superiors with confidence. It is worthwhile to build strong communication skills.
Communication is also highly valued because it can build strong connections with co-workers, fans, and consumers.
It is impossible to predict the future of marketing in the modern era. In the fast-moving technology industry, clients want to be updated with online trends. It may be necessary for you to rethink your campaigns and retool your strategies.
It’s important to adapt to the changes in society, even if you have to revise your ongoing strategies and plans. Being open to change will make you an effective marketer. Don’t fear change, embrace it when it comes.
A Digital Marketer combines all of these skills when he or she designs a multi-phase marketing strategy. Planning and keeping an eye on emerging trends are necessary for success in this realm, along with a forward-looking attitude. In addition, having an insatiable curiosity to focus on how things work in modern marketing, and how things are changing globally is essential.