The Most In-Demand, Transferable Skills in Digital Marketing

Succesful digital marketers are savvy enough to keep their skills fresh and relevant. In an industry that is frequently subject to change, it's important for you to keep your digital know-how up-to-date so you remain attractive to employers.

The beauty of digital is the transferable nature of your skillset - you can apply it to an industry of your choice as most businesses require an integrated approach to marketing. Read this article to identify which areas to nurture to become an invaluable professional in a thriving industry.

1. Content Curation and Creation

With so much information available, it’s hard for brands to create content that stands out amongst the crowd. Because of the sheer amount of digital information, the ability to create, curate, and manage content is a highly sought after digital marketing skill for businesses in all industries.

Content that is able to engage viewers and attract them to your website is key to a successful content marketing strategy. Digital marketers with the ability to curate and create content with high click-through rates are high-value individuals, as this is no small feat when there are thousands of new blogs, infographics, and articles being created and consumed daily.

Digital marketers can develop and hone in on their content creating and curating abilities by ensuring that they stay active on their personal website and social media feeds and researching the types of content that the most successful digital brands are developing. Through social listening, you can understand the types of content that are generating a lot of “likes” and “shares” on social media feeds in your brand’s industry, allowing you to stay ahead of the curve by creating and curating similar valuable content.

2. Social Media Strategy

To successfully master content creation and curation, you’ve got to be able to market it correctly on the most powerful modern marketing tools: social media channels. According to information from Statista, an estimated 2.62 billion people are using social media platforms in 2018, and that number is predicted to jump up to an incredible 3.02 billion users by 2021.

For businesses in the USA, McKinley’s 2017 Marketing Hiring Trends report found that the hiring trend for digital social skills was 32% above average. Obviously, the numbers show that the demand for digital marketing technical skills in the social media realm are amongst the most in-demand for organizations of all sizes.

From start-ups to established enterprises, everyone wants to have a lively and engaging social media presence. With the right digital marketing training, it could be you that helps deliver that dream.

However, a best-in-class social media strategy requires much more than simply sharing well-curated and developed content. You could have some of the most interesting information on your blog, but without the right social media strategy, it won’t get the traction you believe it deserves. According to Quicksprout, you’ll need a deep understanding of a variety of topics to make a large-scale, long-term impact as a social media strategist, including:

• Color psychology
• Analytics
• Visual marketing
• Copywriting

3. MarTech Capabilities

Marketing technology has become the main player in the world of marketing departments globally, with around 5000 available marketing tech tools in 2017, up from 150 in 2011 according to the Marketing Technology Landscape. Marketing technology, also known as MarTech, is any digital platform or tool that a digital marketer uses to make their processes and tasks easier to complete.

By streamlining processes and making marketing teams more effective, implementing MarTech tools in marketing strategies has become a priority for organizations. For digital marketers, this means that if you can find the best MarTech fit for a business, implement it into the current marketing strategy, and maintain its function over the long-term, you’ll quickly find that you’re a much-needed asset.

However, because of the sheer scope of MarTech capabilities within digital marketing teams, you’ll have to be able to master multiple tools and attain a wide breadth of knowledge to most effectively find and implement this technology. But because in-depth knowledge of these tools and platforms is still rare amongst marketing teams globally, specialists will find that organizations are willing to pay for this in-demand skillset.

4. SEO Specialization

Search engine optimization (SEO) has been around for a while. However, just like social media algorithms, SEO is constantly shifting and changing algorithms, leaving many marketers frustrated and confused. However, with so many prospects still engaging with web pages they find on a Google search, SEO skills are still in-demand and transferable throughout industries.

For digital marketers looking to upskill their capabilities, it’s important to know that SEO is still a thriving area to specialize in. According to Backlinko, the average first-page result on a Google search sits at a word count of 1,890. For many marketers, it may seem odd that long-form content ranks higher than others, as information is not as easily accessible in long paragraphs. It’s thought processes like this that make SEO knowledge so valuable.

Algorithms are always changing and adapting to online buying habits, so companies are looking for digital marketers highly skilled in SEO practices to keep their web pages in the top-ranked results on Google and other search engines.

Top-notch SEO skills are difficult to attain, and even tougher to adapt as the industry changes. However, if you can manage to stay up-to-date on each algorithm change and work alongside a content development team (or do it yourself), you’ll be an invaluable part of a digital marketing team for organizations globally.

5. Analytics and Data Skills

Terms like “data” and “analytics” come up often in digital marketing speak, and for good reason. With the ability to access customer data throughout their buying journey, digital marketers have been able to harness this information to optimize their online sales funnels and create streamlined processes.

Digital marketing as we know it would not be the same without analytics and consumer data. Whether a business wants to test the effectiveness of its new social media campaign or optimize its sales funnel, analytic experts are required to help them find oversights and create future-forward solutions to keep their revenue growing, and their business moving forward.

The ability to analyze data with various tools and turn it into actionable steps for marketing teams is an in-demand, transferable skill that modern organization cannot survive without.

6. UX Design

UX stands for user experience and is an asset for optimizing the customer experience. Most of us have heard of the term UX design, but many are still unaware just how much UX design impacts our buying habits and decision-making processes.

Although the other listed digital marketing technical skills are vital for a well-rounded digital marketing strategy, UX experts provide behavioral knowledge to identify problems with websites, apps, and tools that are causing users to drop out of a buying process.

With little or no UX design, a prospect won’t hang around on your online platform for long if it’s not easy to use or visually pleasing.

If you’re considering digital marketing training or are looking for an area of interest to specialize in, UX design can provide you with a high-value skill set that helps businesses harness the power of their entire marketing team. With a streamlined customer experience and well-designed, UX optimized website, an organization can funnel prospects through their sales funnel, making UX design a must.

Conclusion

Whether you’re in the early stages of your digital marketing career or want to find a specific area to specialize in, choosing to develop your knowledge of any of the above in-demand, transferable digital marketing skills will help you find professional success.

With the right comprehensive digital certification and a passion to grow businesses and help them tell their stories, you’ll find that a career in digital marketing is not only satisfying but highly profitable – when you have the right skills to offer. Become an unshakable digital marketer today and reach career heights beyond your wildest dreams.