The world of digital marketing is constantly evolving. What worked a year ago can fall flat this year, and what mattered five years ago may no longer matter today. For this reason, it is not the top expert in one specific area who makes it in this business, but rather the individual who knows a wide range of them. They're the ones who can shift gears between tasks and between reading in data and writing out clear explanations, who can pivot when something isn't working.
If you're learning how to market online or outsourcing the responsibility, it's useful to have some understanding of what makes a top-notch digital marketer excel so well above the rest. Not only is it important if you're doing the marketing yourself, but it's also important if you are utilizing an agency that provides digital marketing services Fort Lauderdale businesses need. Here are a number of skills that are repeatedly seen in individuals who are achieving real results and why they are important and how to identify them.
1. Data Analysis
Numbers tell you what is going on; not what you hope is going on. Click rates, number of conversions and traffic sources are not only monitored at the end of the month when a report is due, but regularly checked by a good marketer.
The person who is able to read a dashboard and pick up on a problem early, saves a lot of wasted ad spend. This is more important than knowing the interface for each platform as those can change, but the skill of knowing how to read numbers and make the right decision based on those numbers does not.
A marketer with solid data skills can also tell the difference between a number that looks bad and a number that is really bad. However, sometimes the traffic may decline due to some other reason; and a good analyst does not just jump into action when traffic dips, but takes a bigger picture.
2. SEO Fundamentals
Most websites still receive a significant amount of traffic from search engines. The marketer who has a knowledge of keywords, page structure and basic technical SEO can rectify issues before they affect the business's actual visibility in search results.
This isn't to become a full-time SEO expert. Knowing enough to realize that a page lacks a title tag, loads too slowly, or doesn't match the search terms the business is trying to match for what they are offering.
Knowing the value of title tags and meta descriptions for CTR
Understand fundamental site speed and mobile usability.
Knowing when to give up on a content idea and when it's worth pursuing
3. Clear Writing
All ads, emails, landing pages and social updates rely on fast comprehension writing. People skim. If a sentence is confusing, or too long, they don't think twice and move on.
A marketer doesn't have to be a novelist. They must be able to write clearly, concisely and in a style that suits the reader or audience they are addressing, whether they are a formal B2B buyer, or a casual social media follower.
Great writing also comes in the details, such as an attention grabber in the subject line that doesn't hawk a product and a call-to-action button that clearly explains what will happen after clicking.
4. Paid Advertising Basics
While running ads on Google or social platforms is not difficult to begin with, it may be simple to spend money if you don't know what you are doing. Areas of expertise here include budget control, audience targeting, and basic testing, among others – and when you forget to do one of these, it's likely you will have wasted your time.
One who can create a campaign, monitor its results and tweak targeting or budget without a second thought is worth more to a marketer than one who simply starts ads and waits for a miracle. It's not enough to run two versions of an ad against each other though; it's essential that they're run and that something is done with the results.
5. Social Media Strategy
Posting content isn't the same as having a strategy. Whether it's leads, brand exposure or direct sales, a good social media strategy can be tied to a set of goals and will also adapt to what the social media audience is really receptive to throughout the years.
Here it's important to know what platform is suitable for which audience. Not all businesses will be successful on all platforms, and it is difficult to be successful on five platforms when it's easy to be successful on two.
6. Basic Design Sense
It is not necessary for a marketer to be a graphic designer, but must be aware of what is clean and what is clutter. Regardless of the offer content on the other side, a landing page filled with too much text, poor spacing and/or hard-to-read font will lose visitors quickly.
Simple decisions, such as whether an image is too small or a color combination too difficult to read, can prevent many of the mistakes that are simply going to clip some of the conversions.
7. Agility and Professionalism
One aspect of marketing is convincing individuals of decisions that they do not necessarily make. A client is questioning why the campaign is working or not working and is using a language that requires no jargon.
The ability is also relevant in-house. When a marketer can articulate a plan to their designer, developer or account manager, they are more likely to see better results because everyone on the team is on the same page instead of playing a wild guess game with the goal.
The ability to communicate bad news clearly is also important. A strong campaigner will tell you why the campaign wasn't successful and what they will do differently going forward, rather than providing generic updates.
8. A blend of formal education and experience.
Many of the best marketers found out how to do marketing mostly through trial and error on the job. Some had formal training, or a marketing degree. Both roads do not lead to proficiency.
The combination of the two is what works well. The course has a structured content, providing a solid foundation in strategy, terminology and the rationale for typical tactics. Through hands-on experience, they learn how campaigns actually perform with an actual budget and an actual audience, and it's not exactly the textbook type of experience. Someone who has experienced both types of marketing will adapt more quickly than a person who has only experienced one type.
9. Marketing Automation Tools Knowledge
The majority of marketing tasks are carried out these days from a software platform, whether it's an email platform, a CRM or a platform that monitors where leads are coming from. A marketer that can build a simple automation, such as a follow-up email sequence, or lead-scoring rule, can save a company a great deal of handbook labor.
It's not about learning all the tools available in the market. It means feeling at ease enough around the common ones to wire them together and have faith that leads aren't slipping through the cracks.
10. Ability to adapt to and learn new platforms
Algorithms change. The platforms go up, the platforms go down. What worked well six months ago can come to a halt without warning, and if a marketer does not adapt, he or she is quickly left behind.
The best marketers view this as the norm, not the exception. They experiment with new platforms early, abandon tactics that fail and remain inquisitive about what is changing rather than believing what was successful in the past will continue to be successful in the future.
Developing these skills takes time, not just one course!
No one starts out strong in all of these areas. Most marketers excel at some of the skills associated with their first job, and develop the others over time as they encounter new challenges and projects.
When considering a marketer, whether you're hiring or looking for a client, seek a combination of these abilities, not a wealth of expertise in any single field. The ones that can communicate between data, writing, ads, and strategy do better when new platforms/algorithms emerge and also when the problems emerge too late to be costly.
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