This list of important digital marketing skills was specifically curated to address marketers at companies with high-quality, functional marketing funnels that generate leads independently of the sales pipeline.
That is, to say, that these are the top 10 skills for good digital marketers at companies that execute good digital marketing.
But itâs still âjust our opinion,â to quote The Dude. Please Tweet us if youâd like to see different skills. (Or Tweet us if you enjoy the article. We that.)
The 10 most important skills for digital marketers
Whether youâre interested in learning something new, posting a job description, or simply need some vindication about what a digital marketing rockstar you are, here are the top 10 most impactful skills a solid digital marketer can have:
1. Blogging
Did you know that the average small-to-midsize business (SMB) spends $2000-$10,000 on content marketing each month? Or that one in six enterprise-level organizations report spending at least $10 million per year on content creation?
Content marketing is a skill that digital marketers should not just be aware of, but should know how to do very well. After all, blogging is one of the most important lead generation tactics used by modern marketers.
Digital marketers skilled in blogging will need to have an understanding of the ins and outs of editing, grammar, SEO, keyword research, article structure, and more. But that doesnât mean itâs inaccessible. In fact, itâs something that can mostly be picked up from reading other blogs about writing SEO content.
Top tools for blogging include:
WordPress, Webflow, Wix, or whatever CMS (Content Management System) your own companyâs website offers. (No, they donât all start with a âW.â)
Google Docs for composing the post, working collaboratively, and sharing back and forth with an editor
The notes app, (yes the one on your phone), Notepad, or any other plaintext editor for brainstorming and forming talking points leading up the composing a draft
2. Writing marketing copy
Not to be confused with blogging, which is a skill in and of itself. In the marketing world, copy basically translates to words, and copywriting essentially translates to writing marketing words.
And these marketing words are written by digital marketers all the time for many different applications. Blog content is copy, sure, but a good copywriter has the ability to make qualitative changes to their writing depending on where it is deployed.
This means that writing bullet points and blurbs on a website is a different skill than composing compelling emails. And drafting a blog post is dramatically different than writing a video script. Itâs all copy, and itâs all marketing, but it requires different training and a different strategic approach.
3. Email marketing
Email is ubiquitous. Almost everyone sends and reads emails, whether in a professional capacity or on a personal basis. Because of this, email marketing is still the leading tactical way of getting in touch with specified audiences.
âEmail marketing,â of course, is an umbrella term that is used to describe a diverse array of email strategies that each require their own unique marketing skills.
Personal email templates for the sales team to use
Company newsletters for a large audience
Promotional offers to select audiences
Webinar, conference, and event invitations
Product updates and messaging for existing customers
Confirmation, post-purchase, welcome emails, and more
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Having a firm grasp on web design is a skill that makes digital marketers invaluable. This doesnât mean that all digital marketers should inherently be skilled at building sites from scratch and writing their own code, (although knowing how to tweak existing HTML and CSS code is profoundly useful).
Itâs important for marketers to understand the basics of web design, like how to incorporate the companyâs logo and branding, adhering to style guidelines, and, if youâre Nutshell, how to lean on the creative director for help. (We appreciate you, Rebekka! â)
With a bit of skill and marketing magic, a marketer should be able to pull off the feat of designing and creating simple web pages: mainly landing pages, lead magnets, and web forms. Any serious web design work should be left to the company’s dedicated web designer.
And, of course, your companyâs website should have a streamlined blogging and content creation system so that creating and publishing content doesnât require marketers to solicit help from any other departments.
Editing photos isnât just for Instagram #Influencers; Itâs for digital marketers, too.
Knowing how to edit photos or create certain kinds of imagery that are used on various pages of the website, within content, on social media, and in content downloadables, is an integral part of the role of a digital marketer.
Although it would be helpful, this does not mean that all digital marketers must be skilled in the entire Adobe suite, or even Photoshop itself. There are plenty of image editing apps for PC and mobile that can get the job done.
Authorâs note: I used this free, open-source photoshop-like desktop app for years before it made sense to get the Adobe suite.
For marketers, being able to do some gentle graphics work and image editing eases strain from the rest of the team, like the dedicated graphics designers whose time might be better spent doing heavier-lift projects.
Various iPhone and Android apps for the super easy stuff
6. Marketing analytics
Weâve all heard people (on Linkedin) talk about how âcontent is king.â Well, in the world of digital marketing, analytics is the queen.
With a bit of analysis, digital marketers can see exactly how well their marketing is doing, which strategies are working, which arenât, and are thus able to make better decisions about what to next time.
This doesnât mean that every digital marketer should inherently be a data analyst as well, or have a repertoire of obscure Excel formulas committed to memory, but they should at least be able to track the success of their marketing concisely.
Most content marketers are already skilled in Google Analytics and other web-tracking software, but email marketers might prefer the built-in reports that come with their email marketing suite. At the end of the day, marketers should be able to measure the success of whatever marketing they do.
ChartMogul to measure churn and retention (optional)
Tableau for data insights and visualization (optional)
7. SEO
Regardless of how great your content is, getting visibility on search engines requires some SEO (search engine optimization) expertise.
Again, not every digital marketer needs to be obsessed with SEO, but understanding the basic skills and concepts is essential. Without quality SEO, content doesnât get the visibility it deserves, which reduces its ROI.
Understanding SEO and being able to âbake it intoâ marketing content is a phenomenal way for digital marketers to multiply their efforts and help their content garner more organic engagement.
Some solid SEO tools include:
Moz or Ahrefs for site health, link building, and SEO
âCommunication is key,â the late ’90s motivational posters say. And this time theyâre right.
Communication skills are arguably the most underrated skills in any professional setting. From working with teams to communicating with prospects and customers alike, being able to give and receive information effectively is just critical. No doubt about it.
But what about digital marketers’ communication skills?
Marketers should be able to communicate spectacularly at a variety of levels, including in web content, through emails, blog posts, social media, and so on. They need to be able to communicate in adherence with the companyâs communication style, while also using their own personal voice wherever itâs required.
For instance, copy intended for a website page should adhere strictly to the companyâs own brand voice. Rather than long-form written content, marketers will need to communicate by using text, images, icons, buttons, styling, blurbs, and more.
Switching gears, digital marketers also need to be able to compose emails for large audiences, tactical recipients, and one-to-one messaging, and each requires a different feel and tone.
Social media posts require the brandâs voice and (ideally) are broadcast to a large audience. Blog posts are in the half-personal-half-brand-voice space. Each medium requires a different communication style, which is why a solid marketer should be a communication chameleon. đŠ
9. Project management
There is always so much stuff to do! Itâs practically impossible to keep track of every project and every deadline without some type of project management tools (and the skills to use them).
For content marketers, this means managing freelancers, assigning blog topics, keeping track of deadlines, getting the freelancers paid, and more.
For email marketers, each email has a scheduled send time and is carefully measured to ensure that theyâre reaching maximum effectiveness, which is painfully difficult to achieve without some sort of dashboard, at the very least.
Since marketers are often leveraged for design and communications, managing projects and tasks outside the marketing team is also required.
And then, of course, there are the millions of messages in our inboxes that require responses.
A skilled digital marketer should know how to use tools and softwares to keep track of all the diverse projects and initiatives that are being undertaken at any given time.
The technical skills for asset creation (graphics, copywriting, distribution, etc.), have already been covered, but the most important piece of the puzzle has yet to be addressed.
Skilled marketers know how to create assets that will really get something done. It starts by asking questions like:
Who are we targeting with this asset?
What action do we want our users to take?
How are we going to distribute it?
And so on…
Marketing assets are more than just a show-and-tell of cool content. Theyâre a tactical tool meant to serve a specific purpose and get users to complete a specific goal.
A digital marketer with asset creation skill and expertise can plan this out upfront, manage the creation and distribution, and measure the impact effectively.
In conclusion
This is it. The top 10 skills a digital marketer should strive to have. And again, the skills vary from organization to organization, and the list varies depending on a million different factors.
However, if you’re a marketer, these skills and tools should absolutely be on your radar, orâat the very leastâon your list of marketing tasks to outsource. đ
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