Digital Marketer Skills:

Some people who want to change careers and become Digital Marketers choose to go to college and study business or advertising, but education is not the only thing to consider. You also need some particular skills to get a job as a Digital Marketer. Some of these skills, like software tools, social media techniques, and SEO, can be learned in training courses, while others are more a part of your personality, like creativity, problem-solving skills, and the ability to multitask.

What is a Digital Marketer?

Over half the world’s population uses the internet, and businesses have noticed. Most companies and organizations have a website and use digital marketing to reach potential customers or clients. Digital Marketers use social media platforms, website content, email campaigns, paid and unpaid advertising, and video marketing to promote goods and services to a target audience.

Digital Marketers use data analytics to identify an audience likely to be interested in the products or services they sell. Next, they create a detailed description of that audience, focusing on the pain points and problems the product will solve. Then, Digital Marketers set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the marketing campaign's performance. Common KPIs are sales goals or increasing traffic to a website.

After setting goals and determining strategy, Digital Marketers create high-quality content to engage the audience and place it near the top of search engine pages. After posting the content on social media, Digital Marketers use tools like Google Analytics, SEMRush, or Moz to analyze its performance. Digital Marketers also interact with followers on social media in the company’s brand voice. 

Some Digital Marketers work for agencies and take care of many accounts, while others work for one company. Some are employed in-house, while others work remotely. Digital Marketers in agencies and larger companies often work as part of a team. They may only be responsible for one part of the workload, such as content marketing, SEO, or data analytics. Many people start their careers as freelance Digital Marketers working at home by themselves or in small startups.

Read more about what a Digital Marketer does.

What Skills Do Digital Marketers Need?

Digital Marketers need a variety of technical abilities and personality traits to be successful in the field. Here are some hard and soft skills that most Digital Marketers possess to some degree.

Hard Skills

The technical abilities you need to work as a Digital Marketer are called hard skills and you can acquire those through training courses.

Embrace Your Inner Techie

Digital Marketers spend most of their time at a screen, so if you are a digital native and enjoy technology, digital marketing skills and tools will be easier for you to learn. Digital Marketers use the internet for tasks like posting and engaging with followers on social media, researching the competition, and collecting data on what visitors do on the website. They use tools to research the best keywords and phrases, gain data insights, manage advertising, and publish content. Search engines and tools are constantly updating, so Digital Marketers need to stay up-to-date.

SEM & SEO

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are techniques Digital Marketers use to increase a website’s visibility on the internet. While both involve search engines, SEM focuses more on paid advertising, while SEO includes organic, unpaid results. SEO and SEM involve researching keywords, building links, choosing high-quality content, and making sure the website performs properly. 

Working with Data 

Digital marketing runs on data. Whether it is the number of website visitors who end up purchasing a product or the demographic makeup of your target audience, Digital Marketers use data analytics tools to measure what users do on the internet and then analyze the data collected to create insights and plan strategies for future campaigns. Data allows Digital Marketers to target specific audiences who are more likely to purchase products, thereby saving money on paid advertising.

Content Marketing

High-quality content is how Digital Marketers engage with their target audience. They need to be able to create or find blog posts, articles, images, or videos that will not only appeal to the audience but provide value. Content needs to answer a question or solve a problem for the user. Digital Marketers also need to know how to set up and publishing schedule, where to post links, and the best time to publish to reach the audience.

Understanding Social Media

Most digital marketing takes place on social media platforms. Digital Marketers need to know how social media works, understand the differences between the platforms, and where best to place their content. They also need to know how to make decisions as to when to rely solely on unpaid advertising and when to buy targeted ads to get the best return on investment.

Soft Skills

Personality traits are often referred to as soft skills, and they are probably what drew you to explore the field of digital marketing in the first place. 

Creativity

While technical skills are important in digital marketing, the point of the thing is to capture people’s attention, and that takes creativity. Whether you are creating content, deciding on an image to include in an ad, or writing an email to send to customers, creativity is one of the most important skills for Digital Marketers.

Problem-Solving

The ability to tackle problems and solve them is also important for Digital Marketers. Tools can be complicated to use and posts sometimes get a different reaction than you expected, but Digital Marketers need to meet these challenges without getting frustrated and giving up. If you enjoy figuring out puzzling situations, you have good problem-solving skills. 

Multitasking

Digital Marketers need to monitor several situations at once and take care of problems as soon as they find them. This means paying attention to many tasks at the same time and switching between them easily. 

What Other Jobs Require These Skills?

Digital Marketers use software tools, work with data, understand how websites work, create content, and understand user behavior. These skills are also helpful in other jobs, such as the ones described below.

Digital Marketing Data Analyst

Digital Marketing Data Analysts focus on data collection and analysis to create visualizations and insights that assist with developing campaign strategies. They use tools like Google Analytics and SEMrush and often work for larger companies as part of a digital marketing team. 

Website Optimization/SEO Specialist

Website Optimization/SEO Specialists are in charge of search engine optimization (SEO). They find the best keywords to drive traffic to a website. They also do audits to make sure the website is up-to-date and performs well. 

Social Media Manager

Social Media Managers are in charge of a company’s social media accounts. They need to understand the differences between social media platforms like Facebook. Instagram, TikTok, and plan for posts and content that work well on those platforms. They also need to use data to choose the best platforms for their target audience and keep an eye on how that content performs. Social Media Managers also interact with followers and are essentially the voice of a company or brand on that platform.

Content Manager

A Content Manager oversees the content for a campaign. They either create or acquire content from writers, photographers, and video artists and then decide the best places to post the content. Content Managers also create a publishing schedule and use tools like Hootsuite to schedule publications.

UX/UI Designer

UX/UI Designers study user behavior, assess their needs, and design websites and mobile applications to help users do what they need to do. UX/UI Designers use many of the same skills as Digital Marketers, although their focus is more on design than marketing.

Web Developer

Web Developers use coding languages to create the websites that Digital Marketers use. Front End Developers work on the appearance of a website, while Back End Developers focus on how a website works, and Full Stack Developers can do both.

Read more about other career paths related to Digital Marketer careers.

Learn the Skills to Become a Digital Marketer at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop offers many digital marketing courses that teach skills to help you switch to a career in digital marketing. Small class sizes and expert instructors help you learn digital marketing in in-person or live online classes. Plus, you can take a course over again for free at any time during the following year. 

Noble Desktop offers many bootcamps in digital marketing like Facebook Marketing, email marketing, Social Media Content Marketing: Blogs & Twitter, and Video Marketing: TikTok & YouTube. You can also choose the Digital Marketing Certificate or a Social Media Marketing Certificate course. Other Noble Desktop resources that can help prepare for a career in digital marketing include the digital marketing blog with valuable articles about social media marketing, SEO, and other essential tools for digital marketers.

Key Takeaways

• Digital Marketers use the internet to promote goods and services.
• Some companies prefer to hire Digital Marketers with college degrees, while others are more interested in performance.
• To get a job as a Digital Marketer you need good communication skills, knowledge of SEO and web optimation, familiarity with data analytics tools, and an understanding of social media platforms.
• You also need soft skills like creativity, problem-solving, and multitasking.
• Some other jobs that use similar skills are 
• Digital Marketing Data Analyst
• Website Optimization/SEO Specialist
• Social Media Manager
• Content Manager
• UX/UI Designer
• Web Developer
• You can receive comprehensive training to become a Digital Marketer through an in-person or live online course with Noble Desktop.