Mel Gibbons
1 July, 2021
With a broad range of channels, tools and tactics available, digital marketing is literally everywhere and has proven to be a successful way to reach audiences, create connections with current customers and build engagement with new ones, find quality leads and secure conversions — at a fraction of the cost you’d otherwise spend.
Digital marketing is not only a cost-effective way to find and reach your customers but, importantly, it is measurable and provides you with valuable insights into the performance of your strategies and the behaviour of your customers — neither of which can be so easily achieved through traditional marketing methods.
As a leading digital marketing agency in Adelaide, we’ve already published many blogs about the effectiveness of digital marketing itself, so let’s have a look at the skills required to make it all happen.
Digital marketing is a broad field with various opportunities for any savvy professional that is dedicated to staying on top of digital trends and ahead of their competitors.
Perhaps you’re considering a career change, want to become a specialist in offering digital marketing services, or you’re looking at bringing your digital marketing activity in-house.
We’ve put together an overview of the key skills you’ll need to nail or look for in someone before bringing them into your fold.
The specialist skills required to achieve success are just as broad as digital marketing itself. And depending on your objectives, focus and channels, it may be a job for more than one person. Here’s some of the skills in hot demand among digital marketing professionals.
A priority for any digital marketing expert is to undertake an in-depth analysis of and understand the existing marketing approach or strategy. Fully understanding the marketing goals and objectives of the business is essential to developing a digital strategy that not only delivers outcomes but complements other activity and strategy — and works to deliver on the overall business objectives.
Any digital marketing service expert must be able to undertake a thorough analysis of the competition. Understanding what does and doesn’t work for them will help lay a solid foundation for a successful digital marketing strategy that will gain competitive advantage. And if you know what doesn’t work for your competition you can save time, money and effort by bypassing those tactics or tweaking them for better performance.
Once insights have been gathered from research and analysis, a digital marketer must use this to develop a digital marketing plan that is achievable. Finding a good balance of aspirational and realistic is crucial to then implementing the strategies that will achieve tangible results. A comprehensive and well-prepared digital marketing plan will consider a range of subsets and specialty digital marketing strategies that a skilled digital marketer will be able to both implement and measure.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is one subset of a digital marketing plan. SEO is a long-term strategy that essentially involves optimising a website in order for it to rank highly in search engine results. Better ranking generally means better traffic and where a website is optimised well, can result in increased conversions.
Getting ahead is one thing but staying ahead is another. SEO in itself is a big task and one that should be ongoing — algorithms constantly change, technology and trends evolve, competitors enter the market and others gain competitive edge.
A digital marketing agency in Adelaide will know that optimising a website and improving its performance involves a powerful combination of UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) enhancements through implementing on-page and off-page tactics.
Social media has grown into a marketing powerhouse for countless brands across the globe thanks to its capacity to reach and engage with highly targeted audiences. A popular touchpoint for many businesses to build brand awareness, a digital marketer will build and execute a social media marketing campaign on the right platforms and targeted at the most appropriate audience.
Email marketing is a popular and effective component of digital marketing strategies as it builds an owned audience and an authentic connection with the people that keep a business thriving. Building a qualified list and using it to deliver relevant and valuable messages at the right time to get the desired results can be an artform, but one that is worth refining as it can pay dividends.
eCommerce marketing is an in-demand skillset that requires extensive knowledge of multiple platforms and how they can be leveraged to achieve sales. Ultimately, an ecommerce marketer will have the know-how and prowess to drive the performance of an online site through creating commerce calendars, developing engaging content, product scheduling, planning promotional activities and using data and insights to continually improve performance and achieve results.
Digital marketers with specialist knowledge of CRM and loyalty management are in high demand by businesses that understand the value of owned data and recognising customer loyalty — particularly those that are well versed in managing large volumes of data and reporting from various customer segments to create a loyalty platform or strategy. Data analysis and a nous for turning data into business intelligence, as well as creating or integrating platforms and systems into a one-stop marketing toolkit are fast becoming essential skills to successful digital marketing.
Also Read: Digital advertising: choosing the right platform
It’s all very well to have the know-how to analyse, research and push a campaign to market through the right channels and in the right way, but without an engaging written or visual message the technical aspects may prove ineffective.
A clever content marketer will bring creativity to the table. Refined copywriting, graphic design or art direction are skills essential for content managers to successfully support brand authenticity, develop brand awareness, foster engagement and deliver on the overall digital strategy.
The demand for strategic and savvy digital marketing experts is already high — and looks to continue increasing well into the future.
While the above is not an exhaustive list of the analytical, technical and creative skills that someone offering a digital marketing service needs to kick goals, it should provide enough insight to know that as a digital marketer, you need a broad but specialised skillset to get the job done and deliver results. It’s also important to recognise that you will need to continue to invest in ongoing learning and development to stay on top of trends and ahead of your competition.
An appealing alternative to bringing digital marketing in-house is engaging a digital marketing agency in Adelaide as you can leverage all the above skills and more.
Online Path is committed to helping our customers achieve tangible results and grow their business. Contact us today for an obligation free chat about your marketing goals and how we can help you achieve them.
Also Read: Steps to Create an E-Commerce Digital Marketing Strategy
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