10 soft skills required for success in digital marketing
Growth of digital media can be attributed to the professionals that work hard to make things work on the web. Today people spend more time and money browsing information and shopping on the web. Now more and more businesses want to work online to increase their revenue but they need seasoned Internet marketing professionals to optimize their sites.
Demand of skilled and committed digital media professionals is growing and this demand has created a new avenue for growth and success. Interestingly, there is no specific academic/technical qualification or work experience required to become a digital marketer. Anyone passionate about digital marketing can acquire skills required to work as a digital media expert.
Digital marketing skills can be classified into two broad categories – soft skills and technical skills. First is related to aptitude and attitude of the marketer and the second is related to specific aspects of web marketing like SEO. But today there is more force on soft skills than technical as marketing needs determination, passion and an urge to learn new things.
Considering the dynamic nature of digital media and its expansion, a marketer needs to have following soft skills in order to make a difference to his approach. While it is difficult to develop all the skills but having maximum skills is a plus for success in digital marketing.
Communication: Text, image and video are the three mediums of communication of digital media and have mastery over creating interesting text matter and sharing convincing images and educative videos of the business. You have to be an excellent communicator to use the mediums effectively.
Creativity: Just sending text messages or sharing pictures and videos isn’t enough to be seen in digital media as there is cut-throat competition among businesses and everyone is using similar methods of communication. There must be some creativity in communication otherwise it will prove to be a meek sound in the chorus.
Analytical skills: Digital media is your friend. If you have analytical bend of mind or if you can develop analytical skills through constant effort, you can use the real time data available on the media to optimize your marketing campaigns. The data will help in understanding latest trends, behavior of targeted customers and their likes and dislikes. This information can help you optimize your emails, SMSs, online ads and mobile ads according to expectations of the targeted customers.
Passion: It is the driving force behind your interest in digital marketing. Though it isn’t a trait required for a great career in digital media but you need to have passionate about marketing businesses and introducing products on the digital media.
Quick learner: Digital marketing has some rules and these rules keep changing from time to time. For web marketing, the rule makers and changers are search engines and for social media, it is users or visitors that determine the rules. You have to be a quick learner and also you should be able to use the knowledge acquired in practice.
Multitasker: There could be different views on multitasking but given the real time working of digital media and the number of factors that affect results in this media, having multitasking skills will benefit in leveraging digital media in your favor.
Thirst for knowledge: Digital media includes more than search engines and mobile platforms. It includes social networking sites, blogs, forums and much more. Also new channels of communication are added every day to digital media. Having comprehensive knowledge on every channel and what works on those channels is necessary to achieve success in your efforts.
Social skills: Social media works on the lines of interaction and engagement. Success is measured on your popularity on the networking sites where you can collect likes for every good move and also make friends and add followers by offering solutions. On social media, you have to always on time in making posts, comments and sharing pictures and videos.
Willingness to experiment: Make your own rules, if you can. Digital media knows no boundaries but it puts some restrictions to maintain the dignity of the media otherwise there is no limitation on using creativity and experiment with new ideas of communication. If you have something to offer, you can find new ways to approach the customers to make offer.
Comfort with technology: Technology is the backbone of digital marketing. It is difficult to think of running a campaign without using tools that can help in monitor and measure success of campaigns. For instance take Google Analytics. It is a tool that measures page rank of websites. You need it for SEO.
Conclusion
Digital media is expanding at a rapid pace as everyone want to be part of it. Whether it is a business or an individual, for popularity, it has to be digital media. Today prospects of digital media professionals are high. For them, sky is the limit.
