Every digital marketing manager should have a strong interest in the digital landscape and as well as a great understanding of the ever changing digital landscape. In this article we will go on to discuss 10 essential skills every digital marketing manager would want to have in their toolbox.
1. Willingness to Learn
Digital Marketing is a forever changing landscape. It is essential that you keep up to date with the latest developments and innovations in digital to stay relevant. Rahul Yadav – Marketing Manager at quotehunt.co.uk lists this as the top skill that every digital marketer should have. It is a key to his decision process when hiring new digital marketing staff. Below he discusses other essentials a well-rounded Digital Marketing Manager should aim to possess in order to be successful.
2. Goole Analytic
Having a good understanding of Google Analytics is extremely important if you want to be a successful digital marketing manager. Google Analytics enables you to track everything that happens on your website. Everything from conversions, average time users spend on the website and the pages user and landing on can be tracked in Analytics. A good understanding of analytics will allow you to analyse visitor behaviour on your website and improve it.
3. Social Media Marketing
Starting with the emergence of Myspace in the early 2000s social media has become an essential channel for any business that operate online or offline. In the present time with Myspace a long forgetting channel in history Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest as well as Linkedin have become essential social platforms businesses must have a presence on to reach and interact with customers. A good Digital Marketing Manager must have a great understanding of social media and know what platforms will suit their business model the most.
4. Email Marketing
Do you know the value of an email address to your business? Well as a digital marketer it is essential you do. Email is a key channel for all online businesses to reach their customers for free. We have all heard the saying “always ensure you start collecting email from the beginning” and this is what makes so vital. Business pay for many services such advertisements, TV and magazine placements, as well as for features in other websites. What makes email different is that it is the most cost effective way to reach customers and generate sales for your business. Many businesses have email list in the millions. The capability to reach millions of customers with your promotion or sales offer with one targeted email makes this method of marketing extremely powerful and cost effective.
5. PPC
A good Digital Marketing Manage may also be required to have an understanding of PPC. PPC stands for Pay Per Click and used by businesses to drive targeted traffic via bidding on keywords in the search engines. The main PPC platforms are Google AdWords and Bing Ads. Although there is an initial steep learning curve once you master PPC you will be able to generate leads for highly targeted qualified leads or sales for your business. Most of the top companies in the world advertise on both Google and Bings PPC platforms. Google being the world’s biggest search engine is generally where the majority of PPC professionals will focus their attention.
6. SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. The aim of SEO is to get your target keywords up the rankings in the major search engines. Most Digital Marketing Managers should have a fundamental understanding of how to optimise website to gain more visibility in search engines. An understanding of both on page and off page SEO is required. Knowledge of how search engines work, how websites are indexed and what the best practices are in order to gain exposure in the search engines is essential.
7. Excel
Yes every digital marketer needs to have a good understanding of excel because whether you like it or not you will be required to produce both weekly and monthly reports on performance to the rest of the business. As a digital marketing manager you will be often required to download reports from analytics into excel. An understanding of Pivot Tables and whether you know how to do a VLookup is a popular interview question interviewers ask when you are interviewing for a digital role that requires analysis.
8. HTML/CSS
Okay most of the time they will be a web developer who will build and fix things on the website. However as a digital marketing manager you will be required to make changes every now and then that will require knowledge of HTML or CSS. These changes range from making minor content edits in a CSS or editing a HTML email template. Usually an intermediate understanding of these skills is enough to get by on.
9. Copywriting
A good well rounded digital marketing manager must be a good copywriter. Content is crucial whether it is on the website, email or online adverts. It is what your customers will engage with, it is what they will remember along with your branding, it is what will make them decide to buy or abandon your website. Copywriting can be learned. They are many copywriting courses out there for emerging digital marketers who want to improve in that area.
10. Content Discovery Networks
CDN (Content Discovery Networks) such as Taboola and Outbrain have grown in popularity over the past 5 years and are used by many businesses to drive traffic to their websites and well as earn revenue from visitors. Similar to PPC networks but much less complex to set up most CDN companies work on a Pay Per Click model where companies pay the network for each click received.
So there you have it. If you are a already and digital marketing manager or aspire to be one with all the above skills or even some you are guaranteed to go far In your career. But remember you should always seek to improve on you existing skill because the digital landscape is always changing.