5 Skills That Make You A Proficient Digital Marketer

1: Writing & Editing: This might be the most important skillset to have as a digital marketer: I don’t think there’s one job I’ve had in digital where I didn’t have to write and edit. Because of the importance of content marketing, you’ll can get very far in your digital marketing career if you know what makes a great blog post, how to source and write great content, and how to turn a bad piece of content into a good one. You should also know how to employ the help of copywriting tools like AP Styleguide.

2: SEO: Organic search results are about 8.5x more likely to be clicked than paid search results, so it is IMPERATIVE to understand and utilize search engine optimization (SEO) in a digital marketing career. Today, “white hat” SEO tactics include content marketing, guest blogging, and link building through social marketing and high-quality content. But, you should also know technical SEO tactics such as updating title tags, H1 and H2 tags, and incorporating keywords.

Speaking of keywords, it’s essential as a digital marketer to know how to research keywords to include within website copy, blogs and PPC to drive results for the brands you work for.

3: Design Skills: So much of digital marketing today is driven by visuals. Content on all of the social media platforms perform better when accompanied by great images. As a digital marketer, you need to know how to create and edit your own visuals.

If you can whip together a banner ad, email banner or social media image in Photoshop yourself, that’s one less person you have to go through, one less step to get your digital campaign launched – and one less person your client or employer has to hire. If Photoshop (or another Adobe program isn’t in your arsenal of skills, there are lots of tools like Canva available to help).

4: Social Paid Advertising: The days of social media being “free” are gone — I lived through them and since I’m only in my 30s, that should tell you they didn’t last long. The best way to reach people now on social media sites and ensure your content gets distributed is to use social paid advertising.

Understanding how to write copy — length and variations — and follow image best practices on each site will be extremely helpful in your career. As will understanding how to monitor and alter bids to optimize your ads or understand when to get help if you don’t have the time to spend on it every day.

5: Top-Notch Personal Brand: As a digital marketer, you will likely be the face of a brand whether that’s through social media, content marketing or a conference presence. It’s important to have a great digital presence online that shows you are active and professional. In addition, by utilizing top content sites, like Medium, to build your personal brand, you’ll ultimately understand them better yourself and how you can leverage them for the brands you work for.