Digital Marketing: What are the Most Valued Skills in the Industry?
Marketing skills have greatly evolved over time. Arguably, marketing is one of the most dynamic studies in the industry. Strategies for search engine optimization (SEO), social media, content creation, etc., are constantly shifting and evolving. Because of this, it is important for marketers to know what skills make them valuable and what strategies will provide them with results.
The team at Lyv Marketing is here to help you grow these skills and keep up to date with the ever-changing marketing landscape. Read this week’s blog to learn more about what marketing skills are important to keep in your tool box.
Data Storytelling
Data is a very important tool in all aspects of marketing, digital and otherwise. It tells you what works and what doesn’t. It guides our decisions and what we spend our time creating. You can collect data from an array of different outlets, including but not limited to…
Websites
Direct sales
Social media platforms
Email marketing campaigns
All of these platforms provide marketers with different information that they then have to make sense of. That is where the storytelling element comes in. Data isn’t a useful tool unless we can shift it into something that drives results. Being able to understand and communicate what this data means and what to do with it is an indispensable skill for digital marketers.
Brand Development
Starting a conversation with your consumers and building a relationship with them on a platform that is sure to be overcrowded is a very important piece of digital marketing. Maintaining an identity and brand reputation across social platforms is a great way to achieve this goal. However, this requires an understanding in not only content creation, but also in writing copy and staying active on your pages.
Because of what this can do for your brand trust and provide you with a real return on your investment, it is paramount that digital marketers keep up with it. Brand development doesn’t happen overnight. It takes place over time, with consistent and quality content and engagement.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
In such a digital time, online advertising is very important to a business’s success. Search engine marketing refers to promoting your website by increasing its visibility in search engine results through paid advertising and organic traffic. Search engine marketing encompasses both a paid and unpaid model:
Search engine optimization (SEO): organic marketing that occurs through driving more traffic to your website by optimizing it to appear higher in search results
Pay-Per-Click (PPC): you pay when a user clicks directly on your ad that shows up in their search results, on their social media, or somewhere else digitally
SEM is valuable because of the direct results it can provide if done correctly. Because of that, it is a great skill for digital marketers to have. It does a great job of driving in customers that may not be looking for your website directly, but are using key words that will lead them to your website. SEM can be a tricky aspect of the business to harness, but once you do, it could make a huge difference in your strategy.
Social Media
This one might go without saying, but knowledge of social media and content creation is essential for digital marketers. That being said, the knowledge needs to go slightly deeper than just making a post and putting it out there, content needs to be relevant and stand out among competitors. It is also worthwhile to learn what works better on each platform that you’re posting on. What works on Instagram might not work on TikTok, might not work on LinkedIn, etc. It is important to ask yourself the following when crafting social media posts:
Who am I posting this for?
What is my goal with this post?
What style of content works best on this platform?
What is the best time for this post to go live?
Asking yourself these questions when planning your content calendar ensures that you are using your time wisely when deciding what to post on which accounts.
Beyond just the posts, there are other things that marketers can do on social media to stay relevant. For example, as stated above, engaging with your customers/viewers on these apps helps to humanize your brand and communicate to people what your values and priorities are. This helps to build trust between you and your consumer base.
Takeaway: Evolving Your Skills is Important, Especially for Small Businesses
Since digital marketing is such a dynamic field, it is incredibly important to stay up to date on the newest strategies and teachings. At Lyv Marketing, we want to help you learn all about digital marketing and what it takes to make the most of your time. Our team of professionals is here to help and guide you along the way!
