Important Digital Marketing Skills That Employers Value

By

Alison Doyle is the job search expert for The Balance Careers, and one of the industry’s most highly-regarded job search and career experts.

Alison Doyle

Updated June 01, 2019

Digital marketing is a broad field that encompasses a variety of career titles, from social media managers, to media planners, to ad buyers, and many more. What all these positions have in common is the use of digital media, either web or mobile, to reach out to customers or collect data about them—or both.

Because of data mining and increased research on consumer behavior, digital marketing will only become more important in the 21st Century. Traditional forms of marketing, such as direct mail and TV commercials are already dwindling in effectiveness unless they are complemented with strong digital marketing. As such, digital marketing has a bright career outlook.

The best digital marketers are in tune with customer behavior online in their respective industries. They watch their customers closely online and seek to meet them where they are with paid digital ads and website content.

Within digital marketing, marketers frequently manage both paid digital media (digital advertisements) and owned digital media (company websites and social media pages).

Although the technical skills and soft skills will vary depending on the position, there is a core skill set valued by all. Digital marketing, in general, requires expertise with web platforms, strategy, and design, though the field also demands the oral and written communication skills used in traditional marketing.

Analytics
Using electronic media makes it possible to collect huge amounts of information, but these data are useless if not properly analyzed. While you need not perform these analyses yourself, you do need to understand how they work and how to interpret the results. This information is key to creating and implementing effective campaigns – and you can use these numbers to demonstrate to clients exactly how much difference your services make in terms of your bottom line.

• Assessing the Effectiveness of Digital Marketing Campaigns
• Attention to Detail
• Compiling Target Lists for Email Marketing Campaigns
• Controlling Costs Per Lead Generated
• Evaluating New Technology Tools for Digital Marketing
• Following Emerging Trends in Digital Marketing
• Generating Reports for Management Regarding Digital Marketing Activity
• Analytics Software
• Negotiating Digital Media Packages
• Project Management
• Industry Research
• Selecting the Optimal Online Media for Campaigns
• Tailoring Marketing Pitches Towards Target Demographics
• Tracking Consumer Reactions and Conversations within Social Media

SEO refers to various ways that you can make web content more appealing to search engines, such as Google and Yahoo. Many people find the companies they do business with through Internet searches, and most choose the company whose website comes up at or near the top of the first page of search results. At the top of the list is where you want your client to be. Because search engine algorithms are continually changing, SEO must constantly change, too. Companies that can afford to do so will hire SEO experts in addition to more generalized marketing staff.

But even if you are not that expert, you should still know the basics of SEO, so you can understand what your teammates are doing.

• Developing Online Marketing Strategy
• Google Analytics
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)
• Keyword Research
• Recognizing Seasonal, Daily and Monthly Trends in Viewer Traffic
• Page Authority
• Domain Authority
• Backlink Strategy

Just as not all marketers need to be experts in SEO, not all need to be able to do the digital design work necessary to create a visual ad, website, coupon, or other element. But it pays to have a basic understanding of web and graphic design coding and software.

At a marketing agency, you will usually be able to lean on experienced developers to handle the complicated work. But you do need to have a basic understanding of how these images are created, and you should be able to discuss visual design ideas in order to participate in the work of the team. The same goes for coding. You must at least be familiar with HTML, so that you can discuss ideas with your teammates fluently.

• Adobe Creative Suite
• Creativity
• CSS
• HTML
• JavaScript
• Structuring Test or Beta Digital Marketing Initiatives
• Supervising Creative Staff
• Website Testing
• Website Responsiveness

In digital marketing, content may be text-based, image-based, video, or even audio, as in podcasts. Your job will be to make sure that content is engaging, professional quality, and on-message. Most marketers specialize, so you may or may not be a writer or a video director yourself, but you do need to understand what professionalism means in all media. Know your way around WordPress, and other content management systems. Understand video editing and know which medium will make your message stand out.

• Composing Company Releases to Stimulate Blogger Activity
• Composing Email Marketing Pieces
• Countering Damaging Brand References in Social Media
• Cultivating Relationships with Bloggers
• Editing Content
• Pitching Digital Marketing Proposals to Internal or External Stakeholders
• Planting Stories within Social Media
• Producing Promotional Videos
• Storytelling
• Content Management Systems (CMS)
• Writing Copy for Ads

• Google Ads
• Google Adsense
• Customer Segmentation
• Differentiation
• Ability to Meet Deadlines
• Adaptability
• Collaboration
• Conducting Meetings
• Decision Making
• Multitasking
• Organizational
• Presentation
• Problem Solving
• Taking Initiative
• Teamwork
• Thriving in a Results Driven Role
• Time Management
• Verbal Communication
• Working Independently
• Omnichannel Marketing
• WordPress
• HubSpot
• Moz Pro
• SEMrush
• MailChimp
• Synup
• Yext
• Directory Listings
• PPC Bidding

Add Relevant Skills to Your Resume: Many employers now use applicant tracking systems to rank the resumes they receive, and so it’s important to incorporate as many job-related and industry-related keywords on your resume as possible.

Highlight Skills in Your Cover Letter: Use your cover letter to further highlight some of your relevant skills, but be prepared to give examples of times you embodied these abilities.

Use Skill Words in Your Job Interview: In your interview, employers want to hear how you’ve used these skills in your past work performance.

Source