Like driving a manual transmission or anything theremin-related, there are tons of skills that go out of style.
However, in the world of digital marketing, there are plenty of skills that withstand the test of time too. If you’re looking to master the ins and outs of digital marketing, it’s in your best interest to add these to your repertoire, your resume, and most importantly, your brain.
Fig. 1: A typical digital marketer’s brain.
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.
So here are the top 14 skills for good digital marketers at companies that execute good digital marketing.
The 14 most important skills for digital marketers
Whether you’re 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 14 most impactful skills a solid digital marketer can have:
Content marketing is a skill that digital marketers should be aware of and 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 doesn’t mean it’s inaccessible. In fact, it’s 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 company’s website offers. (No, they don’t all start with a “W.”)
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. It’s all copy, and it’s 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.
“Email marketing,” 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.
Having a firm grasp on web design is a skill that makes digital marketers invaluable. This doesn’t 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).
It’s important for marketers to understand the basics of web design, like how to incorporate the company’s logo and branding and adhere to style guidelines.
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 company’s website should have a streamlined blogging and content creation system so that creating and publishing content doesn’t require marketers to solicit help from any other departments.
Editing photos isn’t just for Instagram #influencers—it’s 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 doesn’t 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.
For marketers, being able to do some light graphic 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
We’ve all heard people (on Linkedin) talk about how “content is king.” 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, and which aren’t, and are thus able to make better decisions about what to do next time.
This doesn’t mean that every digital marketer should inherently be a data analyst 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.
And with data analytics comes conversion rate optimization (CRO) — the process of testing pages, copy, and calls-to-action (CTAs) to see what converts best. Digital marketers will need CRO skills if they want to turn raw marketing data into actionable insights.
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 search engine optimization (SEO) 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 doesn’t get the visibility it deserves, which reduces its ROI.
Understanding SEO and being able to “bake it into” 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
Search engine marketing (SEM) involves strategically placing ads on search engine results pages (SERPs). Paying for search ads can help your business shoot to the top of search results pages and lead to increased sales.
Although it may seem like a good idea to try targeting every possible search phrase with ads, the most successful marketers leverage SEM with a specific goal. They need to consider factors like keyword intent, cost, keyword volume, competition, and campaign structure.
A good SEM strategy coupled with SEO expertise goes a long way in optimizing your company’s visibility in the SERPs.
A few good tools for SEM are:
Semrush for researching keywords and traffic analysis
Keywordtool.io for identifying keyword trends across multiple platforms, including Google, Bing, Amazon, and social media sites
“Communication is key,” the late ’90s motivational posters say. And this time they’re 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 company’s communication style, while also using their own personal voice wherever it’s required.
For instance, copy intended for a website page should adhere strictly to the company’s 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. Digital marketers also need to know how to write and speak persuasively — after all, their job is to get potential buyers thinking about just how great their products are.
Social media posts require the brand’s 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.
10. Project management
There is always so much stuff to do! It’s 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 they’re 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 software to keep track of all the diverse projects and initiatives that are being undertaken at any given time.
Design thinking is a problem-solving approach rooted in a human-centered perspective. In other words, it’s a way of resolving issues with the human experience in mind, focusing on finding solutions to a problem instead of on the problem itself.
This soft skill is critical in digital marketing because marketers have to think from the perspective of potential customers, identifying why they may or may not want to use a particular product or service. From this perspective, digital marketers can tailor their messaging for the best results.
It’s a good idea to develop design thinking because digital marketers need to use trial and error and testing to find the marketing strategies that work best.
12. Brand development
As a digital marketer, you’re responsible for representing your company’s brand to the world through the content and messaging you create.
Brand development is a skill that enables you to transform the important characteristics of a brand into images and words that convey those characteristics. Having a solid understanding of the brands you work for — and knowing how to communicate their value — is crucial.
Your goal is to build trust in the brand using brand-associated language and visual elements. You may also find yourself part of the brand development process, helping the business create and establish its brand identity.
13. Automation
You may not think of it as a skill, but the ability to leverage automation tools in digital marketing is highly valuable. That’s because automation streamlines time-consuming tasks and ultimately enables marketers to accomplish more with their time.
Knowing how to create web forms, set up email drip campaigns, and automate posting to social media can help you nurture more leads into customers than you would be able to with manual effort.
14. Asset creation
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. They’re a tactical tool meant to serve a specific purpose and get users to complete a specific goal.
A digital marketer with asset creation skills and expertise can plan this out upfront, manage the creation and distribution, and measure the impact effectively.
What makes digital marketing skills so important?
At marketing-successful companies, digital marketing is responsible for the lion’s share of lead generation. In these organizations, inbound leads are plentiful, and salespeople can take a more passive approach by simply responding to sales-qualified leads (SQLs) who have already expressed interest, requested a demo, downloaded a trial, and so on.
At marketing-poor companies, digital marketing basically serves to assist the sales team with asset creation and sales collateral. Digital marketers at these companies may find that most of their time is spent writing PowerPoint decks and designing trade show banners.
The former style of marketing is superior. Skilled digital marketers can create dynamic marketing funnels that generate leads all by themselves.
A good company understands this, leverages it, and doesn’t constrict its marketers to take its direction from the sales team. Rather, the sales and marketing teams work together towards a unified goal.
So, how do you improve your digital marketing skills to make yourself more valuable to your company? Here are a few tips to help you drive your career through digital marketing:
Take online courses
There are plenty of opportunities to learn more about digital marketing out there, from podcasts to online courses. Find people who are respected and successful in the field and learn as much as you can from them. Educational courses can also give you certifications that level up your skills.
Practice and document your results
Testing out your digital marketing skills to generate real results can help you determine which strategies work best. Practice skills like writing copy and blogging on your own website, editing photos and videos for your social media accounts, and analyzing data for your website’s rankings on the SERPs.
Research the market
Finally, conduct lots of market research. You’ll sharpen your data analysis skills and learn what techniques are working for other marketers. Trends and technology are constantly changing, so it’s important to stay on top of what’s going on in the industry.
Enhance your marketing results with Nutshell
There you have it — the top 14 skills a digital marketer should strive to have. If you’re a marketer, these skills and tools should absolutely be on your radar — or, at the very least, on your list of marketing tasks to outsource.
Having the right tools makes all the difference when utilizing your digital marketing skills. At Nutshell, we’ve created our customer relationship management (CRM) platform to work with your company’s marketing team to give everyone a complete picture of your relationships with leads. With features like built-in email marketing, sales automation, and connected web forms, Nutshell keeps all the relevant information about your leads and customers in one easily accessible location.
