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Digital Marketing is a valuable career choice, as it is rapidly becoming the most effective form of marketing for businesses to leverage. With search engines, social media, and video streaming becoming some of the most widely used resources on the internet, businesses are eager to utilize them for promotion. Whether it’s an IT support provider London businesses use, or a public-facing retail company, any business can benefit from digital marketing.
So, if you’re interested in this career path, here are some skills you should focus on developing.
1) Video Production
Video is becoming more and more popular online; there are some very decisive statistics to suggest that many consumers look favourably on brands in they have published high quality video content. Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, and sites like YouTube show that video is highly relevant.
You don’t need to be a professional videographer or filmmaker either. There are many tools out there that make it easy to create engaging video content on a low budget.
2) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization is integral to all digital marketing strategies; if a business isn’t performing SEO, they are likely missing out on getting site visitors and high quality leads.
Understand the basic concepts around SEO is very important. It is a very large field, which means people often specialise in it; so don’t feel like you need to be an expert, but having a working knowledge of SEO is definitely a prerequisite.
3) Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Marketing is a good accompaniment to SEO. While SEO is generally low cost, and focuses on boosting your website’s organic rankings, SEM usually involves things like paid advertising. It is closely linked to the principle of pay-per-click (PPC). Once again, it is a very comprehensive aspect of digital marketing, so it is something you will learn more about throughout your career – getting a basic working knowledge will give you a competitive edge as an entry level marketer.
4) Content Marketing
Just like video is a valuable resource, content is very much at the centre of digital marketing. Content marketing is the process of developing content that is designed to appeal to your target audience. Writing of this kind is engineered to drive users through the sales funnel – from discovery, all the way to purchase. Content marketing should never feel ‘salesy’, instead it should focus on educating and informing audiences. And creating value even after purchase.
5) Data & Analytics
As we have touched upon already, there are many different facets of digital marketing – such as SEO, SEM, Content Marketing, Video Marketing, etc. No matter what area you eventually specialise in. Data and analytics will play a role, so you should go into the field with a working knowledge of how data works, and how to utilize it to gain valuable insights. There are many free tools for collecting and analysing data.
6) Graphic Design Basics
Digital marketing is highly visual – content marketing is a great example of this. As a digital marketer, you will likely be in charge of creating social media posts. And possible even creating assets for webpages. Therefore, you need to have at least a basic understanding of graphic design principles. Free graphic design tools like Canva are great for creating digital marketing assets.
7) Soft Skills
As well as these types of technical skills, you should definitely consider what soft skills you have. For instance, having a creative mindset is a must; logic and problem solving is also very useful. If you have experience managing a team, but in a different field. You could definitely apply that experience to managing a marketing team. Whatever experience you have in the past. If you are pivoting into a career in digital marketing. You should assess what skills you have accrued, and how they can help you.
