Digital transformation is not another buzzword du jour. You can trace the genesis of digital marketing to the early 1980s when “modern” computers started coming to the market. As the technology of digital marketing and online marketing has evolved, so has the demand for highly specialized skill sets. Now, a digital marketer has to understand the nitty-gritty of the technology behind the campaigns, the digital media, social media channels that can add value and the interaction of each factor during a campaign. Being a digital marketer is like being the head chef of a Michelin Star restaurant. The person has to understand the proper ratio of all ingredients that determine the final success of the dish.
Why is managing a digital marketing campaign challenging?
That brings us to the next challenge. Digital marketing depends on a lot of factors that go beyond social media channels and signage. The demographics and location of the brands have significant roles in determining the potential cost of a campaign and the ROI it might generate in the future. In fact, these factors impact the other aspects tremendously including the distribution of resources across social media channels. Here, giving an example will help you understand how SEO and digital marketing depends on the location of the live market. Have you noticed how posting about travel locations or holiday activities on Instagram tracks more users, likes, and shares than posting them on Twitter? Sometimes, sharing quotes from an upcoming publication or the link to a How-to video from your site on Twitter gains more traction than it does on Instagram. These are instances that highlight the importance of leveraging the right channel at the right time for the target audiences. It is not just the audience, but also the content type that affects the outcome of very similar digital marketing campaigns.
Who should be in-charge of understanding the necessities of your digital campaign? Should you take the responsibility since you have a thorough understanding of your brand? Should you approach a digital marketing agency since they have the talent and the training to tackle the fast-changing landscape of marketing?
What does it take to become a digital marketing expert?
To answer these questions, we have compiled a list of the six distinct skills that a digital marketer needs.
- Data analysis
Analyzing market data from sales, customer interactions, feedbacks, consumer reports and inventory management of a brick-and-mortar business is very different from monitoring the activity of an online store. When you have a web presence, you need to think about thousands of aspects that signify the performance of your brand.
To successfully analyze data, first, you need to collect data from all possible sources. A digital marketing expert needs thorough command over social media listening tools, data management programmes, database management, KPI tracking, and marketing analysis tools. In short, they belong to the world of the digital marketing “Mad Men,” who have dedicated their days and nights to the wellbeing of their clients.
- Sponsored advertisement on social media
Digital marketing is a full-time job that demands dedication and skills. Experts need to learn how to use Facebook Insights. Google Paid Ads, Google AdWords, oCPM bidding and PPC campaigns to get the brand message across to target individuals. They know how to use the “Power Editor” and how to target custom audiences at an intricate level. It is a fundamental requirement for each expert to understand how to conduct A/B tests for understanding the effectiveness of a campaign.
- Content marketing
When we say content marketing, we are speaking about the plethora of content types that can work together to boost your brand’s position in the SRL. This list includes blog posts, long-form articles, white papers, educational and instructional videos, eBooks, infographics, and podcasts. The benefits of content marketing include better engagement, improved visibility and increased scopes of link building. Sharing value-adding content gives you a chance to work on your link directory. Working with non-competing businesses in a quid-pro-quo manner can help you garner high authority links that serve as ranking signals. Social media marketing and content marketing can overlap when you use popular social channels like Twitter, Facebook, Medium and LinkedIn to share your posts. They might not count as value-adding links, but they do increase visibility by reaching out to hundreds (and sometimes thousands) at one go.
- SEM and SEO
SEM or search engine marketing included aspects of Google AdWords and paid search engine marketing. The experts should be able to help you optimize your content for organic traffic, and at the same time, they should be able to optimize your site for paid search results. To increase organic traffic, digital marketing agencies use SEO or search engine optimization, which is an intricate relationship between the different ranking signals. Google considers over 200 ranking factors, and you can learn about them here at Eterpros Digital Marketing.
- Mobile marketing
In 2018, content marketing and social marketing mean nothing unless there is some mobile marketing working in conjecture. The mobile-gaddon has ensured that over 90% of the American adults have smartphones and almost all of them know how to go online. There is not enough reason left for you to ignore the possibility of finding new mobile customers by getting a mobile-ready site. Google has declared its preference for responsive websites, and there is no way you can ignore what the king of search says.
- Visual marketing
When was the last time you read a lengthy post on Facebook? Some people find Facebook rather trite due to a lack of character limits. At the same time, people love Instagram due to its crisp visual content and dire lack of endless verses accompanying them. Honestly, we do not have the time to sit and read. We like precise messages, and we love it if it comes in the form of a video or an infographic. Studies show that the impression of a Tweet with an accompanying image is about 197% more than that of one without pictures.
The top priority of a professional digital marketer is to boost engagement across all platforms. By now, you must have already understood that it is not a one-person job. It requires several skill sets that only a dedicated team of experienced digital marketing experts can provide. That is one of the leading reasons you will always find the talent of an expert marketer behind each successful brand campaign.
