What Does it Take to be A Succesful Digital Marketer?
Digital marketing and generally working and doing business online for many people is a dream opportunity.
With the rise of several tech company perks and lucrative telecommunication gigs, successful online marketers can easily make six-figure salaries, enjoy flexible schedules that give them the chance to do business from home (or even become what’s known as a digital nomad and travel the world while you work) and have unlimited vacations.
Pretty cool, no?
Anyway, an online marketer is basically like a musical conductor. Plenty of noisy, shiny tools and instruments, many players, and a huge audience waiting for you to perform.
What does this mean?
It means you need to fully understand the nuances of modern-day online paradigms and how you can successfully engage and interact with them.
You need to know how to interact with all the digital and social channels at your disposal to push your business agenda forward.
In today’s world, the digital marketing space might just arguably be among the most lucrative business industries in the world right now.
Why?
Because we’re now fully into the era of the Internet of Things.
So, what are the essential skills all online marketers need to have in today’s online marketplace? Let’s take a look below, shall we?
Writing & Editing
As a digital marketer, this skill set might just arguably be one the most important of them all. A lot digital marketing tasks involve some form of writing here and there.
Because of how important content is in the digital space, you can be very successful as an online marketer if you know how to come up with an effective blog post, how to write quality content as well as how to transform bad pieces of content into good ones.
Also, you should know how to take advantage of copywriting tools the likes of AP Styleguide and such.
Search Engine Optimization
Organic search results are around nine times more likely to get clicks compared to their paid search results counterparts.
Meaning it’s vital that you both understand as well as utilize SEO in your digital marketing if you want to enjoy any kind of success that is.
“White-hat” search engine optimization tactics in today’s online marketplace include producing high-quality content, link building via social media marketing, guest blogging, and, of course, content marketing.
However, that’s not all. You also need to remember the technical tactics involved in SEO such as the incorporation of keywords, H1 and H2 tags for sub-headings, and updating main title tags.
Oh, and speaking of keyword incorporation, digital marketers essentially need to know how to do some keyword research so that they can be included in blogs, website copy, and PPC to drive the desired results.
How To Work Content Management Systems (WordPress, Drupal…)
WordPress is responsible for powering about thirty percent of the websites across the web, as well as controlling around 55–65% of the CMS market share worldwide.
This, in turn, makes it the most popular content management system on the planet right now.
Fortune.com, CNN, Ted, The New York Post, Thought Catalog, TechCrunch and Spotify all employ the use of WordPress. So, as you can see it isn’t just that tiny tool used to patch together a site that lacks specialized developers. It’s a big deal in its own right.
There’s a high chance that the business brands you end up working with power their online platforms using the help of WordPress. Understanding how to work your way around this content management system, and all the plugins and features accompanied by it, will be a great asset in your online marketing journey.
Social Media Marketing
Almost one-third of the earth’s human population is currently employing the use of one social media platform or another and around 96% of the global company share use social media marketing.
What this has eventually done is make social media marketing a very important weapon in the digital marketer's artillery.
Social media marketing has a lot more to it than just posting from time to time on Facebook. You’ll need to know how you can generate user engagement across all platforms as well as build ads, create visuals, and analyze engagement and reach.
Conclusion
Not only is the digital marketing space very vibrant and exciting but it also has great promise too. It’s slowly becoming an integral part of how brands should do business in the 21st-century marketplace.
If you’re looking to join this industry then there’s no better time than now. There are no ceilings, no commission gaps and, most important of all, no limits. How much of the bacon you bring home is totally up to you and what you’re willing to do to get it.
So, do you think you can make it in this industry?