Top 7+ Skills Required to Become a Digital Marketer

A digital marketer is someone who is responsible for promoting business and its products through online channels, such as:

• Paid ads or online advertising (social media and search engine ads),
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization),
• Content marketing,
• Social media organic,
• Email marketing, etc.

Because of this wide job scope, a digital marketer should have extensive knowledge of every channel.

You will encounter professionals who manage all these marketing channels. Some may also have expertise in specific areas like SEO, social media, content marketing, performance marketing, and more.

The ultimate goal is to bring lead generations, conversions, traffic, and any types of metrics that lead to business sales.

There are lots of activities that a digital marketer does. If we are talking about being a single fighter digital marketer, this role will handle:

• digital ads,
• content creation,
• campaign planning,
• email creation segmentation, etc.

Commonly, many companies already specify digital marketing into several teams to make each channel have a high-performing result.

The social media team will develop an editorial plan, create the content by video or copywriting, analyze the performance, manage the community, collaborate with KOLs and influencers, etc.

Performance marketers and SEM focus on strategizing campaigns, managing budgeting, creating the best ads according to various platforms, and analyzing performance.

SEO and content marketing teams do keyword research, and content planning, manage the website content to be on the first page of search results, look for new content ideas, etc.

The email marketing team will create emails, do audience segmentation, manage the email budget, and analyze the performance.

All these activities are not an easy one. So, as a digital marketer, you need to master important soft and hard skills to help you get used to the job.

Below are some required skills that you have mastered as a digital marketer.

Research and data analysis

In all roles in digital marketing, this one is the basic skill that matters. Digital marketing starts with creating a strategy and finishes with data as results. To do that, you need good research and data analysis skills.

Research is the process of seeking out and collecting specific information. The findings from the research are valuable for developing strategies and producing content or campaigns.

You can conduct research by gathering information externally using Google and relevant keywords. Internal data sources, such as past projects or campaign results, can also serve as valuable research materials, providing benchmarks for target results and strategies.

Then, what about data analysis?

Data analysis is a skill used for understanding what a bunch of numbers want to talk about. According to the Digital Marketing Institute report, data analysis skills (47%) are among the top 3 digital skills that senior and mid-level digital marketers need to have.

For example, the benchmark of your daily website traffic is 4,000. One day, the traffic went down to 3,000. Other problems come up where the daily new customers went down, impacting the daily sales target.

To know what is going on, you have to use your data analysis skills. Check the data from last month or from the same month last year to see if there's a pattern.

Research and data analysis skills complete each other. When you use them together, you will get great outputs and findings, which will be useful for your channel planning and improvements.

You can learn these skills through course portals such as Coursera and Udemy. Just search your desired course, and they will show you many choices of courses.

Strategic content planning

When it comes to content, as a digital marketer, you must plan it strategically. It includes what kind of topic you want to share, how to tell the story to make the audience engage, when you will publish it, etc.

This skill is important to help you not be overwhelmed with the company’s content request and your own initiative content. With strategic content planning, you can execute your content plan seamlessly, easily track the progress and results, and do other important tasks.

Learn strategic content planning by joining courses in Hubspot or Coursera, or you can read some articles below:

• Content planning: How to create a content plan, step by step
• Content planning for social media in 8 steps [2024 guide]
• The ultimate guide to content planning [free template]

Copywriting

It may seem like copywriting is only necessary for roles that are primarily focused on writing, such as content writing and social media, but that's not the case. Copywriting is essential for creating ads, emails, alt text for SEO, and more.

Copywriting is a skill used to draw in an audience and persuade them to purchase your products. It is different from content writing, which involves creating longer-form content to both sell and educate the audience about the product.

Learn copywriting through these sources:

• How to learn copywriting (With step-by-step guide and tips)
• What is copywriting? How to start + best tips (2024)
• Copywriting 101: 15 traits of excellent copy readers will remember

Content creation

As technology evolves, so does the variety of content. The combination of writing and visuals both graphics and videos makes the content more appealing and drives engagement.

That is why, content creation skills also need to be mastered. Rock Content shares that content creation is the process of developing various forms of media, such as articles, videos, or images, to convey your ideas, information, and perspectives to a specific audience.

For example, to share with the users how to take care of sunflowers, you can use content creation skills to create the content, such as carousel pictures, practical videos, or any other type of technique.

You can learn this skill from the articles below:

• The ultimate guide for easy and effective content creation
• The ultimate guide to content creation
• Content creation: What it is and how to do it in 2024 [tips + tools]

Other sources are from courses such as Udemy, and looking at various content creators in teaching content creation, like Howfinity.

Basic design

Piktochart shares that 81% of businesses reported using graphic design in various formats. Another statistic said out of the 19% of companies that don’t use it, 67% would make graphic design assets if there was an easier and more cost-effective way to do it.

Thus, there is a chance that you will work as a digital marketer in a company who don’t have enough budget to hire a graphic designer. So, you need to have basic design skills.

In a larger company, there may be a dedicated division to assist with creating visuals and editing videos, but it's not always possible to rely on them entirely in practice.

There are times when you have to design and edit your own content due to some circumstances, such as tight deadlines or the team already packed with other important tasks.

Some best basic design tools that you can learn from are Canva, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, InDesign, Premier, etc.), CapCut, etc.

Learn it also through courses such as Canva or Udemy, from some references in TikTok or YouTube, or from your relatives who mastered these skills.

Management

Management is about how you plan, organize, lead, and control resources that you have to achieve some goals efficiently and effectively.

To deliver a good result in digital marketing, you have to manage your time, the people on the team, the project itself, your stress level, finances, etc.

It seems like management is similar to leadership. Dave Labowitz (a LinkedIn Learning instructor) said that management is about measurable business outcomes and numbers, while leadership is about people who create those results.

That being said, management is one of the crucial skills that you must have to make sure that all projects or tasks are delivered with maximum results.

Management is also a transferable skill that can be applied beyond digital marketing. It brings order and allows for systematic tracking and execution of tasks.

Learn management from these resources:

• 7 strategies for improving your management skills
• 10 essential managerial skills and how to develop them
• Management skills training: 6 ways to improve your skills

Curiosity and tech-savvy

The knowledge of digital marketing keeps growing and you have to be curious to learn about that. Curiosity itself refers to the desire to learn, explore, and understand new things.

When you have curiosity, you always want to ask questions and seek new information to keep yourself relevant.

Curiosity will help you to find innovation in digital marketing strategy and solve daily or sudden problems with a fresh touch of solution.

In your daily activities as a digital marketer, you will use tons of digital tools and platforms. With that being said, you must be a tech-savvy person.

A tech-savvy person is someone who has you have a strong understanding and proficiency in using various technology tools and platforms.

Using curiosity and tech-savvy in doing your task creates a great combo. For example, the company asks you to create a promotional campaign related to the company’s birthday event.

Be curious to find some references. Ask about the objective of the campaign in specific, such as target conversion or leads, how much resources the company will provide, how the last year's performance is, etc. Utilize also technology tools that will help you do your job easily and seamlessly, such as using Google Sheets to track your tasks, Adobe Photoshop to edit pictures, Meta Ads to create ad campaigns, etc.

Train yourself to keep curious about everything in your daily life. By doing so, your brain gets used to the curiosity trait. Use these references below as your guide:

• How to strengthen your curiosity muscle
• Five ways to cultivate curiosity and tap into your creativity
• Curiosity: Why it matters, why we lose it and how to get it back

Not only digital marketing tools that you use every day, but keep yourself open to learning other tools and platforms that relate to your work. Below are some additional references for you to read:

• 10 skills to become technology savvy (Plus helpful tips)
• Top 10 technologies to learn in 2024 | trending technologies in 2024 | simplilearn
• Digital marketing innovations: New tools and strategies for 2024 and beyond

Aside from the skills explained above, you also need to polish your technical skills. This is to help you do your daily job as a digital marketer.

Performance marketing or ads

The fact that 95% of internet users browse the web on a mobile device at least part of the time, it is important to consistently promote a service or product on online platforms. The goal is to ensure that the promotion reaches the right target market.

Additionally, Data Reportal shares that more people discover new brands, products, and services via social media ads than by word-of-mouth recommendations, brand and product websites, and consumer review sites.

Therefore, companies need to create digital ads on social media platforms, search engines, and other online platforms.

To do this task, you need to upgrade your skills in performance marketing. Performance marketing is an activity where you have to manage the digital ads by considering the ads' budget and the target market, doing A/B tests, and analyzing the ads' performance. The goal is to bring lead generation, conversion, acquire new customers, and retain regular customers.

This skill is applied when your role is a general digital marketer, performance marketer, or SEM specialist.

Learn this skill by joining some courses from Udemy and Apiary, joining online bootcamps, or reading some articles below.

• What is performance marketing
• Why we care about performance marketing
• A beginner’s guide to performance marketing: Everything you need to know
• What is performance marketing?

Social media

Social media is not just about uploading content and getting many likes, but it is also about:

• Manage the content publish schedule
• Create engaging content based on the target audience's preferences
• Manage the online community
• Analyze the performance

Furthermore, Social Sprout also shares the role of social media in:

• Delivering exceptional customer care (80%)
• Handles crisis management (84%)
• Support public relations (91%)
• Better understanding of customers (91%)
• Competitive positioning (92%)
• Build brand and reputation (94%)

To recap, social media skill is a skill where you not only develop and manage engaging content based on the target market and social media platform style but also be the face of the company itself.

For you who want to pursue a social media specialist and content strategist role, you need to master this skill.

Where to learn social media? Join some bootcamps, and courses from Coursera, Acadium, and Great Learning, subscribe to the social media newsletter, and read some articles as references such as below:

• Social media marketing: The ultimate guide
• Social media marketing in 2024: The ultimate guide
• How to learn social media marketing: 39 resources for beginners

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

There are an estimated 3.5 billion searches on Google each day. BrightEdge shares that 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine. This is also supported by SparkToro where 92.96% of global traffic comes from Google Search, Google Images, and Google Maps.

That is why, learning SEO is very beneficial for you. Based on Digital Marketing Institute, SEO is a key to all levels of digital marketing. You don’t have to master it until the hard technicality. Knowing how SEO works and a solid basic understanding of the best practices with content optimization is crucial for successful digital marketing campaigns.

Search engine optimization is a skill where you need to make sure the company’s website, including the content, appears on the first page of search results on certain keywords.

Below are some useful resources to learn SEO:

• The beginner’s guide to SEO
• SEO step-by-step tutorial: 8 easy basics for beginners to master
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) starter guide

Aside from articles, join these free courses and get certification at the end of the course:

• SEO principles: An essential guide for beginners
• SEO for beginners (Yoast SEO academy)
• Introduction to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Content marketing

Based on HubSpot, almost 40% of marketers say content marketing is essential to their marketing strategy, and 10% of marketers who blog say it generates the biggest return on investment.

By looking at these facts, content marketing become one of many digital marketing that you must learn and master. This is also supported by other data from HubSpot said that 50% of marketers plan on increasing their investment in content marketing in 2024.

This skill includes creating high-quality and SEO-friendly content in various forms and creating effective content strategies to attract traffic and conversion.

In some cases, content marketing will cross paths with social media, where the collaboration goal is to align the communication message.

Some references below can be your guide to learning content marketing:

• Content marketing: The ultimate beginner’s guide
• The ultimate guide to content marketing in 2024
• 10 content marketing articles readers (like you) loved this year

Also, you can get certification by joining courses in HubSpot, Semrush, and Coursera.

Email marketing

Email is one of the most personal communication platforms. HubSpot shares that there are 4 billion daily email users and smartphone users prefer to receive brand communications via email.

By mastering email marketing, you can communicate and influence your target audience to be educated or do something.

In email marketing itself, you need some basic skills to create a successful email marketing, which are copywriting, basic design, tech-savvy, and data analysis. You will create the content of the email, segment the audience with the right content, analyze the performance, and manage the email budgeting to get maximum ROI.

Not stopping only sending emails one time, in email marketing you can use automation to send relevant messages at regular intervals to re-engage with customers.

Learn email marketing through these references:

• Email marketing for beginners: Everything you need to know
• The ultimate email marketing guide for beginners
• What is email marketing? The definitive guide for beginners

You can also join courses about email marketing and get certifications:

• Email marketing certification course: Get certified in email
• Think outside the inbox: Email marketing
• Advanced email marketing

The skills above are the basics you need to understand to become a great digital marketer. Keep learning them consistently and soon you will be one of the greatest digital marketers.

Popular digital marketing jobs in Singapore:

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